LIGHT MODE
DARK MODE
This morning, a newspaper whose name means ‘read' printed a headline that I've been trying to get my head around. One Italian in 10, it says, suffers from stress da rientro, a form of the blues that stems from one's disgruntled return to work and sudden withdrawal
Italians rarely have middle names, but if my friend Paola had one, it would be ‘Intimidating.' She realizes I feel this way and doesn't mind it in the least. I truly like her, and she knows that, too. So different from my own phlegmatic nature, capable people impress
Living abroad is an exercise in acceptance. When you stop craving chocolate-chip cookies and consider Cantucci a satisfactory dessert instead of a jaw-breaking stone-age fossil, you're in. When the memory of sales tax becomes as faded as a tricolored flag left hanging since the last
My mother-in-law likes to tell my children the Tuscan joke about the cat that waited for the mouse to emerge from its hole in the wall. For three days, the cat sat outside the mouse's home, waiting, waiting, waiting. When eventually the cat barked ‘bow wow,'
In the movies, workers sit in cubicles and wait for the day they'll be asked to pile their picture frames into a topless box and take their bedraggled desk-top plant elsewhere. This happens in real life too and it's called ‘being fired'. If you are an
The little black dress was invented to make fancy hotel dinners bearable, even when the table is too wide to attempt to talk across it. Parties like these are called ‘functions,' and diners usually butter up their nearest neighbors rather than buttering their own bread. If you're a
Italians usually pooh-pooh precision, brushing off Anglo exactitude as neurosis pure and simple. Minutes matter little; promises are more symbolic than specific; plans evaporate as quickly as boiling water in a pot. And, hey, I get it. The hour hand on my watch hasn't worked for a century
Move frequently and you'll realize that a handful of strategic people have the power to transform a new city into a new home. A trusted fioraio is one of them. Neighborhood vendors who sell things that grow are great friends to have; humans, like plants, have growing seasons, too.
April is naughty and sweet. On its very first day, jokesters look for ‘fools' who fall for harmless stunts. Afternoons get sleepier and the sun suddenly obeys the mandates of Daylight Saving Time, which Italians refer to as l'ora legale. The thought of the ‘legal' hour
Raise your hand if you are bone-tired of winter. If you cannot fathom another rainy Saturday inside your microscopic living room as your toddler does speed laps, pausing every now and again to paw at the front door and throw you a stern ?get me out of here' look. &
‘If my grandmother had wheels, she would be a wheelbarrow.’ That’s what Italians say when they want to interrupt your rambling hypothetical scenario. After all, if a rolling granny doesn’t ...
