Italian - tense to use in essays

I know that the passato remoto is often used for written things like narrative and history books and i know the passato prossimo is for events which happened recently in the past.
Which tense should I use for writing an essay about recent events in Italy?

Reply 1

PJ991

How far in the past are these recent events?

I think I'd probably use the passato prossimo though.

within the last year

CassCassCassie

passato remoto is quite archaic - not the sort of thing you'd tend to use in written work unless you're writing something like "christopher columbus discovered America in 1492" that is a set historical fact and only happened once.

I'd go for the passato prossimo.

Narrative is always in passato remoto though?

Reply 4

alix.alicis

I'm italian and I would most definitely use the passato prossimo for punctual/short done actions and the imperfetto for lasting actions.
e.g. while i was taking a shower the telephone rang.
mentre mi facevo la doccia ha suonato il telefono.
so you see the lasting action is expressed with the imperfetto and the punctual action is expressed with the passato prossimo. you would only say "sounò il telefono" if it was a very long time ago and it sounds weird anyways.