L’Americana
For love of waxing
Columnist Kristine Crane again turns back the clock to her Italian days, but this time the emphasis is on vanity and cultural expectations.
Home sweet homes
A few mornings ago, just before I awoke from a dream, I told myself this: No one wants to move back, not even me. But there will always be some [...]
Study abroad… at home in Iowa
I’m spending the fall in Iowa as part of my doctoral degree program. It’s like study abroad — but in my hometown. The university has rich traditions in writing and [...]
From fearful to fearless
I became a health reporter in Rome years ago. Not officially. That would come a couple of years after I moved back to America, science reporting degree and journalism job [...]
Violin lessons
Every time I return to my father’s house in Iowa, I try to whittle down my childhood belongings. I’m down to a few boxes of papers and books, along with [...]
A royal education
Every once in a while, my graduate journalism school posts an article about the Italian aristocrat Beatrice Borromeo Casiraghi, a fellow alumna. I’m always drawn in. She attended the school [...]
Bound and determined
When I got pregnant nearly four years ago, I was at a crossroads in my life. I’d just been accepted into a two-year writing residency in Vermont and it seemed [...]
Anything but coasting
I’ve never been a thrill-seeker. I’ve even been called a stick-in-the-mud. As a fourth grader at my school’s annual carnival, they had to stop the Tilt-A-Whirl for me because it [...]
Becoming my grandmother
It’s often said that women become their mothers. Ever since my mother died twelve years ago, I’ve noticed how I’ve become increasingly like her, from the big things to the [...]
Summer of love
Since the start of the pandemic, an Italian phrase has been on my mind: abbiamo soltanto gli uni e gli altri. We only have each other. This might seem paradoxical, [...]
Christmas in exile
One year, I got a Snicker’s bar for Christmas. I’m sure my mother gave me other gifts, as did my Italian boyfriend at the time. But it's the candy bar [...]
COVID of the mind
The 1989 movie “Field of Dreams” plays out in my home state of Iowa and at the time gave the sparsely populated state some brief notoriety. One line stands out: [...]
Author, Associate Editor
Kristine Crane
Kristine Crane, who writes the “L’Americana” column, lives and writes in North Central Florida. She was formerly a Fulbright scholar and journalist in Rome, where she helped found “The American.” She is originally from Iowa City.