Literary Italy

Today we laugh far too much about Death in Venice , a not-at-all-funny novella by our first non-Italian author, Thomas Mann. But seriously, is there something about illness and decadence that drives creativity?

Anne and Jim take another break from hitting the books, this week talking about traveling with kids in the Bel Paese.

We're a little out of our comfort zone, reading Natalia Ginzburg's essay "Winter in the Abruzzi," in which she recalls, bittersweetly, her family's exile in the Abruzzo during the Fascist regime. Abruzzo is a region we've never seen (but high on our list of places to visit); it has served as a literary setting in other works (think Hemingway among American authors). Y...

This week we head south to Lucania, the region of Italy now known as Basilicata, as we discuss Carlo Levi's memoir, Christ Stopped at Eboli ,  shedding light on the poverty and isolation of the area. We talk about one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, Matera, which has gone from being the "Disgrace of Italy" to Italy's "2019 Capital of Culture.&quot...

What is competition? This week’s short comic story by Alberto Moravia asks just that question as a pushcart vendor first falls for his competition, then is destroyed by her--or does he really destroy himself?  We also talk about the neighborhood in which the story is set, the picturesque quarter of Trastevere, and the walking bridges that connect it to the historic center on the eastern side of th...

Welcome to a little parlor game we call either "The Oldlywed Game," or "I Vecchi Sposi." Anne and Jim try to predict each other's responses to questions about Italy. We promised not to hit each other with large placards with our answers written on them, and by and large we succeeded. Apologies to Bob Eubanks. 

Lemons and sunshine! What's not to love? Today we're talking about poet and Nobel laureate Eugenio Montale and his "happy place," the gorgeous coastline of Liguria, tucked up in the northwest corner of Italy, bordering the French Riviera. In one of his early poems, I Limoni (The Lemon Trees), Montale describes the lemon trees in Monterosso al Mare , a small town on the Ligurian...

Back to the medieval! We talk about Saint Francis of Assisi and his Canticle of the Creatures , one of the first examples of written Italian. Anne once fantasized about a sitcom based on his life called Everybody Loves Francis! (Mostly just for the title.) And then take a trip to his hometown of Assisi in Umbria: how to get around, what to see, where to stay, and (as always!) what to eat! Pax et b...

See Naples and...LIVE! On this week's episode we talk about My Brilliant Friend , the first in a four-novel series by pseudonymous author Elena Ferrante. The books trace the friendship of two girls, Lila and Lenù, growing up in post-war Naples. We talk about genius and learning, monsters and mobsters, and the city of Naples itself, both as a character in the book as well as a destination. Wha...

We take a break from books this week to talk a little bit about how we think about travel to Italy and what works for us. Your mileage may vary.

This episode is not exactly a sonnet, but today Anne and Jim have fun / suffer the passion of reading Francesco Petrarca, more commonly known as Petrarch in the English-speaking world. Also, they pine to see Arezzo again (or Avignon for the first time!). So much longing, such intensity of feeling. Plus, memories of Arqua Petrarca and Padua. Who's buried in Petrarch's tomb (trick question...

A writer from the fourteenth century might not seem relevant, but Boccaccio has a lot to say about how to while away the hours in epidemic lockdown and how to make yourself look good in job interviews. While Dante has been well-known to non-Italian audiences for centuries, Giovanni Boccaccio has enjoyed a new popularity thanks to the setting of his Decameron during the 1348 plague. With the Black...

Anne reads (and re-reads) her favorite book as we head to the 700th anniversary of Dante Alighieri's death. We also drink Vin Santo and walk through Florence. Dante’s most famous work, the Divine Comedy , traces the salvific journey of the character Dante, led by the love of his life, the saintly Beatrice, through Hell, Purgatory, and finally Paradise. Referring to himself as “a Florentine by...

Anne and Jim welcome you to Literary Italy, a joyous romp through the books and the landscape of the bel paese. Join us as we share our love of the literature, the people, the land, and the experience that is Italy.