
A date with destiny
For Goethe, Italy was the idyllic land of golden oranges. For Bertrand Russell, its beauty could lift any depression. Franz [...]

Jeffrey Epstein and me
There is very little that I have in common with Jeffrey Epstein, who is well known for having been a [...]

Pulling the strings
Back in my greenhorn days in Italy, when I was practically fresh off the boat, a hospital colleague asked me [...]

The great bidet mystery
Author Henry Miller associated it with women and sex, but the purpose of a bidet remains a secret as guarded as nuclear fission, writes columnist Susan Levenstein.

A memoir born of newsprint
When people ask me how long it took me to write my memoir, "Dottoressa: An American Doctor in Rome," I [...]

My life with the Pill
Columnist Susan Levenstein lost her virginity just when oral bith control was beginning to make an impact in the U.S. Italy, however, remains decades behind.

The twilight of private clinics
Italy’s fashion industry and top restaurants belong in the so-called First World, its bureaucracy in what was once labeled the [...]

Medicine: bad moon rising
When I first moved to Italy, any high school graduate who thought they might like to be a doctor had [...]

The opposite of help
Doctors have professional organizations in both Italy and the United States, but their purposes are light-years apart. Where the American [...]

On the razor’s edge
Columnist and doctor Susan Levenstein once tried soothing the wife of a hospitalized man by getting inside information. The result proved disastrous.

The sale that wasn’t
ENPAM stands for "Ente Nazionale di Previdenza ed Assistenza dei Medici." This burdensomely named organization is Italy's physicians' pension fund. Its [...]