There’s the beach, there’s the boardwalk; there’s the centro, there’s the plaza. And then there’s the antique city. It’s the high city, up in the mountains, above the discotheques and pizzerias. Houses and towers and churches and temples thousands of years old. That’s Italy for you – casual antiquity. And the churches are lovely. And […]
Author: ieatmypigeon
Signora/Signorina
In Italian, you address a man as signor. You address a woman – mature, married – as signora. A younger woman – ostensibly unmarried, unattached to children – as signorina. 1 signorina, 2 or more signorine. Where do I fit in at 30? I’m unmarried. There are no children around my ankles. And yet – […]
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Bombe
Since I’ve been in Italy, I’ve had to do a little bit of reconciling – that is, reconciling my childhood memories of the country with my adult impressions. Because I’m me, most of the old memories have to do with food. Me, five years old, sitting on a chair, swinging my legs back and forth […]
The Oil
Living here in Terracina – where my parents came every summer in their adolescence – I run into a lot of people who knew them way back when. I have to take their word for it, but they insist it’s true: We knew your parents back in the 70s before they went to America. Well, I […]
A Thousand Words
Question: How are you? Answer: Well. Happy. Calm. Exuberant. Inspired. Curious. Dreamy. Tanned. Excellent…. This post has been brought to you by Deliciousbaby Photo Friday.
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Beach Eats
One of the reasons I decided to break my move to Italy into two parts – rather than staying in Dublin until I’ve published my thesis – is that I wanted to take advantage of beach season. Goodness knows I could use a little sunshine after a year in Ireland. I like to head to […]
Perfect Strangers
“Listen,” says my mother. “I think you need to go over and visit Zia Malvina.” Zia Malvina is my mother’s aunt. In the summers, she lives across the hall from my Nonna Lucia’s old apartment – the place I am now calling “home.” Zia Malvina is 80, and her husband passed away ten years ago. […]
I Burattini della Piazza
A puppet show in the piazza on Saturday night; two euro a seat. Counts and magistrates, bumbling men-a-courting, damsels in distress. Everybody gets slapped. Everybody gets kissed. Everybody gets head butted. Everybody gets called cretino. Popcorn from an old-fashioned machine – 2.25 for a large. Fun for big kids, too. This post has been brought […]
Danger, Danger; Low Voltage
The city in which I now live is small enough that I can cross it by bicycle, and small enough that I already know where to find things I need. I’ve got my butcher, I’ve got my fish vendor. I’ve got my cosmetics emporium. I know where to get household stuff and I know where […]
The Thing About Living in the Town Where My Parents Fell in Love…
…is that sometimes I’m walking along the streets, looking at the places where they might have eaten gelato or gone to the movies. Or I’m on the beach, where they might have gone swimming together and watched the waves. I’ll see a couple of teenagers flirting or making out. I’ll think: Ah, young love. Then […]