La via diritta era smarrita “The direct way is lost,” is in the first stanza of Dante’s Divina Commedia, which I was required to memorize in Italian 101 fifty-six years ago. That line came to mind the other day, as we attempted to follow the Via Francigena, an ancient pilgrimage route from Canterbury, England, to … Continue reading 233. Walks
Siamo arrivati! And everything was clicking like clockwork. We breezed through the Milan airport ( the new fingerprinting process that is causing hours-long delays in Rome seems not to arrived here yet) and hopped right onto a train to Milano Centrale station. Our favorite Milanese bakery, Princi, has opened an outpost at the train station, … Continue reading 232. The Agony and the Ecstasy
One of the beauties of working at a place for thirty years is that you feel perfectly at home, and perfectly entitled to raise your hand and say, "Why not me?" Sometimes you win; sometimes you lose, but so what? It's always worth a try. So when a colleague told me she had started a … Continue reading 231. Italian Culture Club
Readers of a certain age will remember the biography shelf in the libraries of their youth. In the Pottersville branch of the Somerset Public Library in my hometown, I remember that the books were hardcover and orange. I'm sure I read them all, especially those that were about ladies -- the term we would have … Continue reading 230. Jane Addams
I am no big intellectual. I have always been a "good enough" student with not much effort, as long as I wasn't in a class--like science, math or foreign language - that had right or wrong answers. Unlike most of my classmates at the institutions I attended, I wasn't driven to get As. Even though … Continue reading 229. Adult Ed.
The other day at book group, a friend read out a passage from Ian McEwan's Lessons, a book she had enjoyed: "He said that if he ever had to look at one more Madonna and child, he would 'throw up.'...Within the totality of human experience of the world there was an infinity of subject matter … Continue reading 228. Raffaello
For my birthday this year, Ben had a brainstorm. He had read in the Philadelphia Inquirer about a retired private investigator and law enforcement agent originally from South Philly, James Trovarello, who has developed a small enterprise researching Italian American clients' family trees. Why not engage his services for my birthday present, rather than buy … Continue reading 227. Family Tree
I've always been a sucker for the Olympics. It's probably the only occasion where hearing The Star Spangled Banner gives me goosebumps. I have to confess that I watched the documentary Miracle: The Boys of 80, about the 1980 gold medal US hockey team, and blubbered through the whole thing, as I did watching it … Continue reading 226. Olympic Fever
Full disclosure: I had a chip on my shoulder about Mexico. I last traveled there in 1983, when my friend Debbie and I went for a week in Mexico City and Acapulco. We both got deathly ill; I collapsed on the street and smashed my front teeth landing on the hard pavement, but I was … Continue reading 225. Italy vs. Mexico
It would take unusual chutzpah to compare Italy, a country where I've spent a total of nearly a year over the past six decades, and that looms large in my family's psyche, with little Portugal, where I've spent a grand total of three full days in only one city. But the shoe fits, and here … Continue reading 224. Italy vs. Portugal
Gigi's Italia 