europe
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On a train and the Lucca wall
On a passenger train, the living things passing by can strike you with a poignancy like nothing else. A child on a bike, that geranium on a window sill, green hills in April cloud shadows. Their brief appearances, and disappearance,… Continue reading
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Sic transit!
Germans display their orderliness even in a labor strike. The pilots of Lufthansa joined their fellow workers by holding a two-day strike, April 13 and 14. Danke schön, I picture management negotiators saying, and promptly informing us by email that… Continue reading
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Learning Italian
The language we learn from infancy to childhood, from classrooms to books, becomes the water we swim in. That’s a good metaphor. We swim in our language, not caring how it keeps us afloat. Like fish, we don’t need to… Continue reading
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The Story of Time
Of several museums we have seen in our three weeks in Italy, none moved me so much as the one with the least variety or clutter. The Museo Provincial Sigismondo Castromediano, or simply, the Provincial Museum of Lecce, is a… Continue reading
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The Disappeared Diaspora
The first stop on our tour of Lecce yesterday was the underground Jewish Museum. It is underground because a private palace and the huge Baroque complex of the Basilica of Santa Croce were built over what was believed to be… Continue reading
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Italian Church Art
Through an ancient stone portal in the Adriatic city of Polignano a Mare, in the boot heel of Italy, you walk into a small piazza and then enter the 730-year-old Church of Saint Mary of the Assumption – Santa Maria Assunta.… Continue reading
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World-Wide Worry (and Work-Around)
In our balanced Constitutional system, the fifty states of the United States are said to be “experimental laboratories” of democracy. But a single state has limited authority to experiment with regulating internet networks. California is trying it with its Consumer Privacy… Continue reading
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With Us
Huge old echo-y churches are all around. In the historic districts in the heart of Italian cities, where cars are virtually banned, you walk into dim sanctuaries that hold you in a silent awe. There’s some kind of awesome mystery… Continue reading
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Looking for Marconi
Before “wireless” meant a Wi-Fi router in your home or office (the “Wi” is for wireless), it meant “radio” in radio’s early days, in the 1920s. “Turn on the wireless, Sweetie.” And before that, it was the word that a… Continue reading
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Portichi di Bologna
Bologna feels old, older than Florence. A mere 37-minute train ride from the touristy Florence, Bologna had its heyday a couple of centuries before the Renaissance. But arriving in Bologna from the U.S. late yesterday, we are swept up by… Continue reading
An American journalist heads for Italy to see his country changing from afar. 