writing
-
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
-
Three-pitch strikeout
I know how freelance writers “pitch” story ideas. Or, as a noun, how you make a “pitch” to a magazine. I know, because I was the editor of the Sunday magazine of the Providence (R.I.) Journal-Bulletin. And I was features… Continue reading
-
Pilgrims’ Progress
To prepare for walking the old Tuscan footpath of European pilgrims and Crusaders, I borrowed a 1919 book by an idealistic American walker who represented the American Red Cross in Palestine 30 years before it became the modern state of… Continue reading
-
Come back
The footpaths from Montereggioni to Siena are so enchanted, you wonder if the way was staged by some Romantic poet. April birdsongs fill the hedges and woods. Wildflowers of yellow (rapeseed and broom), red (poppies), star white, lavender and heavenly… Continue reading
-
What can you say?
Should parents apologize in public for a child’s behavior? Should we two Americans apologize for our President? If so, how, across a language barrier? We thought we would have a quiet, private dinner at the table in the empty back… Continue reading
-
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
-
A Christmas Carol
Christmas in a land with a foreign language, far from home, can be a special experience. An inspiration came to me like a morning star in the darkness. We could play Christmas carols, a universal language in Italy, on our… Continue reading
-
Sorrow at Urbino’s Sugar Café
Let’s meet at the Sugar Café. Buongiorno, Giovanni. . . . Buongiorno, my friend. If Giovanni Garbugli was at his café when you arrived, he might be the waiter who brought out your order of coffee, pastries, and salami, with… Continue reading
An American journalist heads for Italy to see his country changing from afar. 