I thought I had died and gone to heaven when I stepped into this abundant bookstore in Milan. So beautiful, so orderly, so many libri italiani (Italian books). My heart started beating fast and I didn’t know which section to tackle first.

However, I took this picture because there was a great irony occurring at that exact moment. In the states, I am constantly scouring the Italian section of bookstores and libraries for literature written in Italian. Which is very difficult to find, as American bookstores offer only Italian travel and language learning books.

Here I was in Milan, with an overwhelming offering of novels written in Italian, and what were Daughter and I hunting for? Yes, you guessed it: books in English. (It seems Daughter, who loves reading as much as her mom, only packed enough to get her through the first part of our trip).

It turns out that books for children written in English are as hard to find in Italy as novels for grown-ups written in Italian are to find in America.

Just for fun…

1. Can you translate the titles of these two Hemingway novels?
2. Searching the top photo, do you see any of your personal favorites? ( Mine is Tutta la luce che non vediamo…)

Play along in the comments below!