Latest Posts
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In a green shade
I am sitting on a bench facing the giant trunks of two tall trees twice my age – a Norway spruce and a Ginkgo. The Norway spruce, native as far south as the Italian Alps, was called picea excelsa (very… Continue reading
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Hymns to Life
There are some stunningly beautiful people in Italy, women and men you pass in the streets. But the beauty of two women we encountered recently included something else in addition, a real joy that you could feel around them. It… Continue reading
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Magnificent humanity
Twice, we have walked a circuit of ancient Catholic churches in Fano when they were not having Mass. We admired the art, the architecture and the emptiness, from one to the next: The 1140 A.D. Cathedral, the 14th century Church… Continue reading
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A cup of coffee
Italians don’t just drink coffee. They administer it. A barista like Daniele, the man who runs Caffè Dell’Arco in Fano, administers what we call espresso – the drink they call un caffè. Some regular customers stand at the counter and… Continue reading
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The Liberal Tradition
I found a book titled “The Light of Italy” in a bookrack facing the very piazza where that “Light,” Duke Federico da Montefeltro, had grandly expanded his Palazzo. This was at the height of Montefeltro’s rule before he died in… Continue reading
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The human factor
Here is continual spring, and summer in unseasonable months,the herds breed twice, the trees are good, twice, for fruit.And raging tigers are absent, and lions’ savage young,no aconite deceives unlucky foragers,no scaly serpent slides his huge segments over the ground,or… Continue reading
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Statue of Limitations
Do you know about the Lisippo statue? I didn’t. Luca tried to explain this object of local pride. No, not just local. Italian! No, bigger than that. European pride. The Lisippo statue was sold from here for almost nothing, Luca… Continue reading
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What made Italians?
Near the end of the 1969 movie “The Secret of Santa Vittoria,” the psychological battle between the Nazi captain and the slyly submissive mayor of the Italian town (played lovably by Anthony Quinn) reaches a tense climax. The two men… Continue reading
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Hybrid, Plug-In Politics
Trump’s ideological flexibility and personality-based politics have allowed him to assemble a group that doesn’t agree on anything except loving Trump and hating Democrats, and . . – David A. Graham in The Atlantic I noticed this phenomenon in… Continue reading
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Social medium
On the beach on Saturday between 6 and 7 p.m., teenagers are practicing back flips, cartwheels and handstands. One boy is teaching another how to do these. Not far from this, a circle of boys keeps a soccer ball in… Continue reading
An American journalist heads for Italy to see his country changing from afar. 