meanderings, wonderment, and observations
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Sempre Diritto Redux (2001)
Italy is beautiful, fabulous, and embraces a much different way of life. It is also a country most maddening, with its own share of quirks. Read on. Sempre Diritto, “straight ahead.” You may recall that in Calabria whenever I asked for directions, I was told sempre diritto. In Week eight, I got my revenge when…
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Rome, 2001: Bridging the Halfway Mark
In this city of many bridges, I realized that I had crossed a very important bridge. Week seven marked the latter half of my stay here in Rome, and that sharpened my experiences. My seventh week in Rome began with an excursion to the Roman flea market called Porta Portese. I went with my padrona a…
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Trip to the Villa 2001
One of my best friends here took me for an excursion outside of Rome. A Dane and former Lutheran minister, he is in Italy studying to be a Catholic priest. My friend Gregers is living in the English College in Rome, where he is staying while he studies for the priesthood. The college was built…
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Week Six 2001: Ballare sul Tavola
BALLARE SUL TAVOLO (Dancing on the Table) Starting Week Six, the U.S. started bombing. I realized that Bin Laden is really fighting his war with words of terror, not airplanes. I decided that I would not let him win by making me afraid. So, I went dancing. One of my best friends in Rome is a…
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Sempre Diritto: Week 5
Loosely translated: straight ahead. In my fifth week in Italy, 2001, I traveled to the village of Serra Pedace in Calabria, in search of my roots. My grandparents emigrated almost 100 years ago. Although they did not meet and marry until they arrived in America, they came from the same small town in Italy–Serra Pedace. For…
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Trip to Tivoli 2001
School is more than just studying, we also attend lectures and go on field trips. This one to a remarkable garden outside of Rome–in Tivoli. I would tell you more about it, but the tour was in Italian. For example, I understood so little that when I asked if the man who lived in the…
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Four Weeks in Rome, 2001
I finished my first month of school, had visitors from America, and traveled to the village from which my grandparents emigrated. All righty–the picture pretty much said it all…my fourth week in Rome was a bit of a blur. As I was wrapping up my last week of school–for the month, anyway–I was showing my…
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Third Week of Three Months in Roma 2001
In the week of 16 Settembre 2001, there was an air of unsteady calm in Rome. Some paura — fear. Yet, a real sense of the strongly-held Italian belief in destino. My third week in Rome had a certain unrealness to it. For me and my American friends, there was an attempt at normalcy, but definitely…
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Week of Grieving: Week Two in Rome 2001
ATTACCO ALL’AMERICA It was a week in Rome that I shall never forget. A time of unspeakable horror, and unexpected kindness. The strangest thing about staying on top of what happened in New York is that I have little access to American television. I am living with an Italian woman who speaks no English. And,…
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Rome for Three Months, 2001: Week One
That first week was a dizzying week of new discoveries, new friends, and a rare case of the event being greater than the anticipation! What a city! My tiny little room overlooks the Tiber and, once the leaves fall from the trees in front of my window, I will be able to see St. Peters…
Got any book recommendations?