travel
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Last stop, Venice
And so, finally, Venice! A full day here is like one of those Italian meals where you realize you’ve eaten too much. And then you have a dolce, and a shot of limoncello. One full day in Venice between two… Continue reading
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Santo Antonio
The gigantic church of Saint Anthony of Padua, the “Basilica del Santo” in the city of Padova, can intoxicate an Episcopalian from the Protestant U.S. South. Its multiple domes and bell tower loom humongous over its piazza. You barely notice… 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 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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Vitruvian treasure
When the city of Fano wanted to restore the Piazza Costa in the middle of the old city, it invited a team of engineers and archeologists to check underneath the cobblestones. This is a common requirement in any old city… Continue reading
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Windy morning of kites
Wind that is strong and steady belongs at sea, where the waves show it off. You walk out the Fano Marina, holding on to you your hat, past the colorful fishing huts on the pier, past the giant blocks of… Continue reading
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Sabato marcheto
I am not a fan of shopping in America. Unlike those who enjoy it, I am a snorkel diver, swimming through my search or shopping list as if I might run out of oxygen before I reach checkout. Street markets… Continue reading
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An evening stroll, senza fretta
We went out at dusk to look for the moon. “Sunset” in Italian is tramonto, “between” and “mountain,” and we imagine the sun somewhere between the Apennines and the sky behind us far to our west. We were walking east… Continue reading
An American journalist heads for Italy to see his country changing from afar. 