While there are plenty of sites throughout Italy to time travel to Ancient Rome, in Southern Italy you can also experience magnificent ruins once touched by the hands of ancient Greeks. One such spot is Paestum, an easy day trip from Naples, Sorrrento/Amalfi or Salerno. Paestum is home to three incredible Greek temples dating back…
Category: Travel Memoirs
The Meaning of a Morning
When in a strange city I have always been in the habit of roaming its streets in the early morning and watching it wake up. I like to be out before the dust-bins have been emptied and the blinds pulled up, to watch the street cleaners and caretakers arrive, and to see the first wave…
A Wander Through Venice
It is with a bit of a sheepish and heavy heart that I offer sincere apologies to all of those whom I have possibly influenced not to visit Venice. (Younger Son, I’m especially looking at you.) Last summer, after four visits to Italy which deliberately did not include Venice (my first trip there left me…
In Grampa’s Piazza
Growing up, Grampa Mike’s story was such a part of our family that it was, in a way, a non-story. We all knew that he immigrated from Italy as a teenager. We knew that he left the small home where he and his big Italian family lived, sailed across the ocean for weeks, landed at…
Of Masterpieces and Mysticism
In the Presence of The Last Supper Traffic was still light on this Friday summer morning in Milan, and after just a few quick turns our taxi came to a stop on lively Corso Magenta. “Questa è la chiesa di Santa Maria delle Grazie? Con Il Cenacolo?” (Is this the Santa Maria delle Grazie church? With…
Trovare
Trovare (verb): To find also: to locate, to uncover Unlike many Italian words which I have to look up over and over again in order to remember, trovare has always been easy. It reminds me of the word trove, as in treasure trove, which evokes the image of a treasure chest, and what does one do…
Accidental Italian
The word storia, in Italian, means story. And also, history. Growing up, Italian was always part of my history, but never part of my story. Until, one day, a fire for learning the language unexpectedly sparked. Growing up in an Italian-American family, Italy was no big deal. The following was all quite normal: Sundays at…
Finding Famiglia
When “prayers” meet “piazzas”…re-posted in honor of my Italian cousins, who are a BIG reason why I love learning Italian.
Buon Onomastico or, the Serendipity of Italian
“Buon onomastico!” read a Facebook post a few years back on the page of a cherished Italian cousin, followed by several people of the same first name who were tagged with well-wishes and congratulations (auguri). I had no idea what an onomastico was, but I was immediately intrigued. Why were so many people with the…
Finding Famiglia
As promised in Italian and Me: A History, following is the story of how an American girl, raised in an Italian-American family, found her roots, le sue radici, her treasures, i suoi tesori, in the heel of the Italian boot. Il Retroscena ~ The Backstory Fall 2009. Still very sad from losing my father in April….
Prayers & Piazzas 