my italian adventure, part two

Scomparso

Sat, 6 Feb 2010 06:17:06 -0800

Italian, like every other language, has its euphemisms for death. While in English we say “passed away,” the Italians say “scomparso,” which literally means “disappeared.” Fernando disappeared last night, about ten o’clock. When Mara called me this morning she did not euphemize but simply said, “Fernando is dead.” After a month in hospital and two at home, bedridden, oxygenated and tube-fed, he f

The Bleak Midwinter

Sun, 31 Jan 2010 03:34:20 -0800

Christmas lights have finally come down, a month after they stopped illuminating them. Sun is creeping fitfully across the bedroom wall, and though we’re having a major cold snap there are signs of spring on this last day of January. It’s on the ground, in the form of an emerging bright green carpet and the occasional crocus or forsythia, if not in the air quite yet. For me this is the year of se

Questions

Wed, 6 Jan 2010 00:58:04 -0800

January 6, Epiphany. Also, here in Italy, Befana -- the day the Good Witch appears with gifts for good children and lumps of coal for bad ones. The female counterpart of Santa Claus (complete with wart on her nose), the last of the Christmas parade of events, the signal that the twinkling lights are about to come down. Freezing, disabling weather in most of northern Europe but fine here, even war

Hope for the Future

Fri, 1 Jan 2010 09:53:56 -0800

Two Young Ones, all dressed up for the “Living Manger Scene” or Presepe in Keith and Janine’s town of Rotecastello. No words needed.

Friends

Fri, 1 Jan 2010 03:52:31 -0800

January 1, the first day of a new decade. Many of us are happy to bid the last one farewell, but I would hesitate to throw the whole thing out, or even disparage it too much. Some really horrific things happened, things that we may never recover from, but my eyes have been opened in a way that precludes going back, ever, to my old head-in-the-sand approach. Even if I could, I wouldn’t; too much i