Seeing L’Aquila — Will the eagle soar again?
Only after a disaster can we be resurrected. — Chuck Palahniuk There are some places that you have to see, no matter how painful or emotional they might be. As a native New Yorker who was living near Boston when the terrorists attacked on 9/11, I knew I had to get down there as soon as it was practical. I…
A Night at the Opera
In fair Verona, where we lay our scene . . . Prologue, Romeo and Juliet Verona's Duomo It was our last day in Verona. Sadness all around. What to do? We were meeting our friends from Milano for lunch and Tim and I agreed to go over to the train station, Porta Nuova, to meet them around noon. But first…
Sweet Sulmona
Sulmo mihi patria est. — Ovid We began our 2011 Italian adventure by creeping out of Rome’s Fiumicino airport and into a major traffic jam — the usual — but only after having our perfunctory rental car adventure. I guess Italian tourists travel with bags the size of fanny packs, because our mid-sized car that we made clear was to…
Back — and Forth
April is the cruelest month . . . — T.S. Eliot I’m sorry about April. About not writing in April, that is. It must have been a busy month. But I’ve let all of us down. When you start this blogging thing, you make explicit promises to yourself and implicit promises to your (wished for) readers. I promised to write…
Food, Glorious Food at the Belmont Food Shop
One of the very nicest things about life is the way we must regularly stop whatever it is we are doing and devote our attention to eating. — Luciano Pavarotti and William Wright, Pavarotti, My Own Story They call it a soft opening. I call it the inside track. At least that’s what I’ve got until you read this. Then…
Oops . . . She Did it Again!
Dream of Italy’s Umbria Harvest Week is a wonderful introduction to the food, the wine and the craft of Umbrian living. I could have used another week because I wanted to keep going. Grazie a Kathy e tutti! — Linda Dini Jenkins The gorgeous olives Yep. That’s what I said about it on the evaluation form. And she’s doing it…
Next Year in Paradise
For all sad words of tongue or pen/The saddest are these, “It might have been!” — John Greenleaf Whittier Alas . . . not enough writers or Italophiles signed up for the Verona Word/Play extravaganza planned for this coming May and, as yesterday was the registration deadline, I am forced to cancel it. But you can help me plan for…
An Irreverent Curiosity: In Search of the Church’s Strangest Relic in Italy’s Oddest Town
“Like a cross between The DaVinci Code and Life of Brian . . .” — The New York Times Strange as it seems to my friends in the local Italian club, I am a Protestant. My parents met when my father crashed a Presbyterian church dance. He, a pure-blooded Italian of 14, met my mother, a half-English, half-German girl of…
A Tribute to Elio Quarisa, Venetian Glass Master
His love for glasswork and his desire to guarantee the Murano glass tradition led him, in his retirement, to teach future generations of those who share this passion, including in the United States at nonprofit glass centers such as Public Glass in San Francisco and Chicago Hot Glass. — The GLASS Quarterly Hot Sheet, December 21, 2010 You never know…
A Little Bite Out of the Big Apple
I’m going to show you the real New York — witty, smart, and international — like any metropolis. Tell me this: where in Europe can you find old Hungary, old Russia, old France, old Italy? In Europe you’re trying to copy America, you’re almost American. But here you’ll find Europeans who immigrated a hundred years ago — and we haven’t…
Travel Tips Newsletter
Every once in a while, Linda posts useful gems about mustn’t-miss travel info. Group travel? Packing? Where to go? What happens when an emergency strikes?
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