"Mercato delle Gaite", pt.2 Today I want to continue the description of the festival that takes place every year in my hometown, Bevagna. I alredy said that every of the four districs into which the city is divided, called "Gaite", has to reproduce a couple of ancient crafts, exactly as they were performed in the Middle Ages. My "Gaita", named "Santa Maria", performs the craft of silk weaving. We breed silkworms, we feed them with mulberry leaves, then we harvest their shells after they have molted to become butterflies. We take those shells which are made of thousands of curled silk wires, and we take them to the "Torcitoio", which is an ancient machine able to unroll those silk wires. We have the only working "Torcitoio" in the world (see the photo)! Finally, the wires are used by expert women to make fine medieval clothes.

"Mercato delle Gaite", pt.1 Today I want to briefly describe a tipical representation that takes place every year in my little home city, Bevagna. At the end of June, we delete every element of modernity (cars, artifical lights, modern clothes) and for a week, we return in the Middle Age! This typical festivity is called "Mercato delle Gaite", it is not translable in English, but you must know that the "Gaite" are the four districts in which the city is divided. Those "Gaite" compete in four challanges: - gastronomical challange: every Gaita has to prepare a tipical medieval food; - market challange: every Gaita has to reproduce exactly a scene of medieval life, with all the inhabitants of the district doing medieval occupations; - bow challange: every Gaita hosts three archers and try to win a shooting challange, using only medieval longbows; - crafts challange: every Gaita has to repruduce exactly a couple of typical medieval crafts (for example, wool spinning, smithing...). At the end of the week, a jury of experts decide which Gaita has done better, and assigns the price. In the photo: my grandfather, who is the scribe of my district!

Quale test di lingua mi consigliate? Devo sostenere entro ottobre un test di lingua Inglese, in particolare il TOEFl o lo IELTS. Il mio livello di inglese è buono nel reading e nel listening, ho qualche problema in più nel writing e nello speaking perchè sostanzialmente ho dimenticato la grammatica (anche se, comunque, non sono messo troppo male). Voi quale test avete fatto? Quale mi consigliate? Grazie :)!

Which languege test should I take? I'm an italian student and I need to achieve a decent score in the TOEFL or IELTS test (at least 80 in the TOEFL or 6 in the IELTS). Which test do you suggest ? I can read and understand English quite well, I can speak with decent fluency, but I have some more problems in writing because I forgot the grammar!

Good books / other material to study English. Hi! I need to prepare the IELTS or TOEFL test in September. Can you suggest me some good books to prepare, or other free resources available online? Thank you very much :)

My first note :) Hi everybody ! I need to improve my english skills to reach a decent score (at least 80) in TOEFL test! I need that score to be admitted to master degree in my university, the Polytechnic on Milan, which will be entirely in english by this year! I studied english at school but nothing more, and I forgot the grammar and the fluency :( ! Last but not least, I want to know new people and make new friends in this beautifull community, so feel free to contact me ;)!