Christmas Quiz for Italophiles

Christmas Quiz - 80 questions  with one mark in total each. All answers are in English (unless otherwise stated). Answers are now published below each section.

Analyse your results:
0-20 You are a bit insular, but honest. Get out there and enjoy more of Europe in 2015.
20-40 You know quite a bit about Italy, old films, art and geography and you mastered some Latin at school (but you cannot translate it straight off Roman tombstones).
40-60 The only type knowing this much about Italy (and the UK) is possibly British?
60-80 You know it all (or did you cheat a bit, using Wikipedia?)

Questions
1.The French capital of Savoy from 1585 and in which French Department is it today?
2. The language of Heligoland two small islands in the German Bight is North Frisian which has a lot in common with English (Anglo-Frisian) and the islands once belonged to Britain. It was a British colony taken from Denmark in 1807, given to Germany in 1890 in exchange for Zanzibar. What does the Old Frisian word GRIEN mean?
3. In which modern Italian state was the former country of Noli, from which an explorer discovered Cape Verde, albeit for the Portuguese?
4. Otto von Bamburg was the major missionary to Pomerania on the Baltic coast, now Poland. Name a Pomeranian seaport beginning with the letter “S”.
5. Is Santander in Spain the capital of the ancient nation of:
Cantabria, Asturias or Leon?
6. What river did Caesar have to cross from Italia into Gaul and which Italian province is it in today?
7. What is the sea between Italy and Greece called?
8. Name two islands in this sea?
9. What are they collectively called?
10. Which is the most populated area of Italy?
11. The second largest island in Mediterranean is:
Sicily, Corfu, Corsica, Elba or Sardinia?
12. What is the capital of Tajikistan, what is its language (1 mark total)?
13. Name the capital cities of:
Azerbaijan (oil?); Slovenia; Oman.

Answers 1.Chambery, Savoie. 2.Green 3. Liguria 4. Stettin 5. Cantabria 6. Rubicone, or The Rubicon in Emilia Romagna 7. Ionian Sea 8. Corfu, Zakynthos, Kephalonia, Ithaca or Lefkada 9. Ionian Islands. 10 Half of the Italian population (nearly 30m) live in the Po Valley. 11. Sardinia 12. Dushanbe and Tajik 13. Baku, Ljubljana, Muscat

Latin - Translate into English:
14. Damnant quod non intelligent
15. de facto
16. de jure
17. Deo vindice
18. Discensus in cuniculi cavuum

Answers - 14 They condemn what they do not understand 15. by deed, or factually 16. by law 17. with God as avenger 18. down the rabbit hole

British schools or colleges - their motto
19. Dat Deus Incrementum (Westminster School)
20. Ex cultu, robur (Cranleigh School)
21. Gloria filiorum patres (Eltham College School)
22. Non frustra vixi (St Hildas Oxford)
23. Cuncti adsint meritaeque expectent praemia palmae (University College, London University)
24. Sequor ut attingam (Godalming Grammar School)

Answers - 19 God gives the increase 20 From culture (or worship), strength 21. The glory of the children is their fathers (Proverbs17:6)   22. I have not lived in vain 23. Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward (1826) 24. Follow in order to attain.

Films
25. What romantic male lead starred in the 1939 film “Goodbye Mr Chips” whose real Christian name was Friedrich and whose father was Ernst because he and his father were German, French, English and Polish? He is regarded as the epitome of the English gentleman as matinee idol.
26. What apparently American girl-next-door singer and actress started as a big band singer. She was really called “Doris Kappelhof”?
27. Who starred as the shy female lead in Alfred Hitchcock’s version of "Rebecca", starring alongside Laurence Olivier and what was her real name?
28. The romantic male lead in “La Dolce Vita” was interned by the Germans in WW2 but escaped and hid in Venice. Who was he and who directed "La Dolce Vita"?
29. This versatile Hollywood lead has been called “the top male star of all time”. His real surname was Austerlitz. He was the son of Friedrich Emanuel Austerlitz born in Linz, Austria to Jewish parents who became Catholics. Through his mother, he was descended from a Lutheran Germans from East Prussia and Alsace.
30. Italian film “Two Women” directed by Vittorio de Sica is about an Italian mother and daughter trying to escape to their home village in the mountains, from the fighting in WW2 around Rome. It stars Jean Paul Belmondo. The female lead in real life was hit in the chin by shrapnel in WW2 which may have actually enhanced her good looks. Who is she and what town is she closely connected to?
31. The 'greatest' film comic of the 20th century was surely Arthur S Jefferson (his real name). Which county in England was he born in? I will accept two names for it.
32. When dubbed into Italian does this actor speak with an Italian or English accent?
33. What is the last James Bond film made in 2012?
34. Which actress, a blood relative of a polar explorer, starred alongside Ralph Fiennes, another blood relative of a polar explorers, in the role of the adulterous wife in “The English Patient”?
35. This Hollywood actor was related either by blood or marriage to Evelyn Waugh, Sir Laurence Olivier and Sir Tyrone Guthrie. He had the same name as his Irish great grandfather also an actor born in 1795.
36. This famous film dated 1963 starred Burt Lancaster as Don Fabrizio Corbera of Salina alongside Claudia Cardinale who, though brought up in Tunisia, is of Sicilian blood. What is it called in English. What Prince wrote the novel that it is based on and died before it was published?
37. The star of RAI's 'Montalbano' series is Luca Zingarelli as Montalbano. What is Montalbano’s Christian name and what rank does he hold as “commisario” in the police force, in Vigata, Sicily?
38. “Mr Turner” is a film by Mike Leigh playing Mrs Booth the former Margate landlady who was living with Turner when he died and is said to have been the love of his life. Who played her in the film?

Answers - 25. Robert Donat 26. Doris Day 27. Joan Fontaine and Joan de Haviland 28. Marcello Mastroiani and Fellini 29. Fred Astaire 30. Sophia Loren; Pozzuoli 31. Stan Laurel - Lancashire or Cumbria 32. English 33. Skyfall 34. Kristin Scott Thomas 35. Tyrone Power 36. The Leopard and Prince Guiseppe di Lampedusa. 37. Salvo and Chief Inspector 38. Marion Bailey

Languages
39. Yiddish is an Indo-European Language. What is its parent language?
40. The Celtic Insular, as opposed to the Continental Celtic Languages are divided into Brythonic and Goidelic. (One mark for at least five right).
Say whether these are Goidelic or Brythonic: Welsh, Manx Gaelic, Irish Gaelic, Cornish, Scottish Gaelic, Pictish, Breton and Cumbric.
41. Name one continental Occitan language apart from Occitan
42. Are the Romance languages descended from Faliscan, Classical Latin, Ecclesiastical Latin or from Vulgar Latin?
43. Are Italian, Sicilian, Neopolitan and Corsican Italo-Dalmatian Romance languages or Gallic Romance Languages, like Piedmontese?

Answers 39. High German 40. Welsh (Brythonic) Manx Gaelic (Goidelic) Irish Gaelic (Goidelic) Cornish (Brythonic) Scottish Gaelic (Goidelic)Pictish (Brythonic) Breton (Brythonic) Cumbric (Brythonic) 41. Nicoise, Provencal or Arpetan 42. Vulgar Latin 43. They are Italo-Dalmatian language

Who said that?
44. “When you are courting a nice girl an hour seems like a second. When you sit on a red-hot cinder a second seems like an hour. That's relativity”.
45. “I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year...”.
46. “Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.”
47. “Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves”
48. “Anyone who says he can see through women is missing a lot”
49. “My one regret in life is that I am not someone else”
50. “I've always wanted to go to Switzerland to see what the army does with those wee red knives”
51. “A child of five would understand this. Send someone to fetch a child of five”

Answers 44. Einstein 45. Charles Dickens 46. Shakespeare 47. Jung 48. Groucho Marx 49. Woody Allen 50. Billy Connolly 51. Groucho Marx

Word derivations
52. Pasta, a noodle of unleavened dough, is derived from Greek words meaning “barley porridge” and “sprinkled with salt”? Can you name one of them?
53. The Panettone, a tall luxury sweetbread, is derived from the word ‘panetto’, a loaf cake, ultimately Roman in its origin. What is the ancestral city in Italy of panettone?
54. The word plebiscite comes from via French from the Latin for ‘pleb’ (common people) and ‘scitum’ (which means “decree”). The word behind scitum is “sciscere”. What does it mean?
55. The word legislation comes from late Latin “legis” meaning “law” + (latio) what?
56. Christmas comes from old English words “Cristes Moesse” from the “Festival of Christ” or the Mass of Christ. The word "Mass" is derived from the Late Latin word missa, a word used in the concluding formula of the liturgy in Latin: " Ite missa, est". What does missa mean and what word for a Christian who goes to work overseas do we get from it?

Answers: 52. “Pasta” or “Pastos” (Grk) 53. Milan 54. to vote 55. “a bringing” or “a proposing” 56. In antiquity, missa simply meant 'dismissal' from the root verb "sent". It took on the usage of mission, so Christmas does not simply mean a Christ Dismissal - but Christian Mission. Hence the word missionary.

Sport
57. Name four cities in which the Olympics have been held twice
58. What was the name of the player sent off in the France-Italy World Cup Football Final in 2006 for headbutting ?
59. Name the Italo-American heavyweight boxer who was remained unbeaten throughout his career and died in 1969
60. What is the current holder of the 100 metres Olympic title?
61. Ajax, Bayern Munich and Chelsea and which Italian club are the only clubs that have won all three of the UEFA competitions (the answer is not A C Milan).

Answers 57. Athens, London, Paris and Los Angeles 57. Zidane 58. Rocky Marciano 59. Usain Bolt 60. Juventus

England - geography
62. What is the name of the county town of the county of Rutland?
Is it: Oakham, Uppingham or Stanford?
63. Which is the further east of these three towns?
Newhaven, Peacehaven or Seaford?
64. Is the River Wey navigable from Guildford, Shalford or Godalming?

Answers 62. Oakham 63. Seaford 64. Godalming

Italy - geography
65. What river is called 'Tani' in Piedmontese?
66. Is its source in Liguria or in Piedmont?
67. South of which town does the Tani meet the River Po?
Near Ceva, Asti, Alessandria or Bassignana?
68. On which range of mountains does the River Po rise? “The Alps” is not sufficient as an answer….
69. How long is the River Po? 823 kms; 682 kms or 745 kms?
70. Which of these does the Po not flow through? Turin, Parma, Piacenza and the Venetian Delta

Answers 65. River Tanaro 66. Liguria 66. Bassignana 67. Cottian Alps 68. 682kms 69. Parma

Venice
71. When was Marco Polo born in Venice, possibly ? 1254? 1260? 1275?
72. One of a trio of which included Titian and Tintoretto, famous for “The Marriage at Cana” he was born in Verona in 1528 to Gabriele Spezapraeda, and his wife Catherina. His earliest known painting is signed "P. Caliari F. What did he sign his paintings when working in Venice? (Two words)
73. A ‘fritole’ is a dessert of The Veneto? What is it?

Answers 71. 1254 72. Paolo Veronese 73. Doughnut

Food and drink
74. The Rossignola is a red wine growing west of Verona, which overlaps with areas of another famous red wine beginning with V. What is it?
75. The Nebbiolo grape full of tannin smells of tar and roses produces Italy’s greatest red wine from the region of Le Langhe and Piedmont?
76. Marsala that is exported is usually fortified, like port sherry, madeira and drunk.
What fortifies such drinks? Where is Marsala in Sicily?
77. Montalbano likes Moscato Passito a strong sweet amber wine which can only be produced on volcanic Pantelleria from the local Zibibbo grape. Pantelleria is between Sicily and Tunisia. What is the meaning of the word in Arabic and what genre of wine is it?
78. Glenfiddich is a Speyside single malt whisky owned and produced by William grant & Sons. Glenfiddich means ‘Valley of the Deer' in Gaelic hence the presence of a stag symbol on the bottles. Is a single malt Scotch whisky:
a)a Scotch whisky produced from only water and malted barley at a single distillery by batch distillation in pot stills?
b)a Scotch whisky distilled at a single distillery but, in addition to water and malted barley may involve unmalted cereals?
79. What is a 6 litre bottle for champagne called - it is also the name of the grandfather of Noah?
80. What is the Piedmontese dish whose name translated as “Hot Dip”? Give the answer in Italian.

Answers 74. Valpolicella 75. Barolo 76. Brandy; the western most tip of Sicily just south of Trapani 77. Raisin; Muscat 78. a) 79. Methuseleh 80. Bagna Cauda

If you want to add more questions, you might get some inspiration from this website - but I made these questions up mostly using Wikipedia.