The days of penmanship
Over the millennia, humans have used written language to communicate, to pass information, to narrate a story, an experience, to [...]
Of books and other things
If you are a reader, and a voracious reader, you will probably never know how many books you have hoarded [...]
An artist in Italy’s heel
Apulia’s land’s end, Italy’s south-easternmost tip, is known as Capo di Santa Maria di Leuca. It is a roughly triangular [...]
Key under the pumpkin
Between 1995 and 2002, I worked as a volunteer for the Comunità Emmanuel (CE), a charity in Lecce, in the [...]
The kidnapped bucket
It was on a hot and sad Monday morning that I discovered the disappearance of my wet waste “poubelle agréée,” [...]
The perfume of roses
It was a rainy spring this year in Salento and in much of the rest of Italy. It was also [...]
My tender bar
I spent my childhood and adolescence in a small village. It was not one of those one-bar places you sometimes [...]
Life with cats (and dogs)
The animal world has charmed me since childhood. I remember leaving breadcrumbs on the windowsill for sparrows, goldfinch, and robins. [...]
The joys of southern bureaucracy
I was born in 1950, a full-blown boomer, on the edge of a village in southern Italy. Mothers did not [...]
Street voices of yesteryear
There was a time when the village was alive with voices, voices of artisans who sang while working, voices of [...]
Discovering English literature
Since my early teens, I had free access to my father’s bookshelves. I have been an avid reader since childhood. [...]