Your mini Italian lesson for the day: Il frizione = the clutch I freni = the brakes L’acceleratore = the gas Le marce = the gears I remember these words from when my father taught me to drive stick, half a lifetime ago. They made a lot more sense then, when I wasn’t obsessively watching […]
Italy
Back in the Drivers’ Seat: Day One
There are a few driving schools listed in the city’s yellow pages and I’m heading to the one that’s advertised on Viale Nano, off the corner of Viale Ulisse, but I run into Auto Scuola Marinella first so that’s the one I pick. It’s nearly empty when I arrive; only a middle-aged man at a […]
Why It’s Cool Having a Blog Name Like I Eat My Pigeon
Because shots like this actually mean something. Roost, pigeon, roost. Roost while you can.
Shut Up and Drive
I’m sitting on the beach with my mother’s cousin, Flora, and we’re watching the waves rush towards the shore; rush away from the shore; rush towards the shore; rush away from the shore. My toes are in the sand and I smell salt rising from the sea; sunscreen rising from my skin. It’s almost sunset, […]
- Food Culture
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Hungry. Will Stand on Ridiculously Long Line for Seafood.
Walking around City Centre I suddenly realize that, after the 25-minute bike ride into town, I’m feeling too lazy to cook dinner. Well, am I living on the beach or what? Heck yes, I’m living on the beach. That means fresh seafood at bargain price all over the dang place. So I head to a […]
Knock Knock
“Ciao, E.” “Hi, Zia Malvina. How are you?” “I saw that you put a lot of plants on your balcony. Why did you do that?” “What do you mean?” “They’re all out there. And then the tree you have on the other balcony, you should really put a stick in the pot to make sure […]
Photo Friday: Side streets of an Antique Roman City
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 […]
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 – […]
- Food Culture
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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 […]