Posts Tagged ‘Italy’
Reason #5373 to love Rome: Basketball
Most people know that Italians really only have one true sport. Call it soccer, calcio, football. It’s all the Italians love. Yes, when the Olympics roll around, Italians tend to do well in fencing, swimming and water polo. In the winter, the German minority in Italy’s Alto Adige region pile up the medals in skiing,…
Read MoreReason #5372 to love Rome: Soccer/Football card trading
Okay, this falls firmly under the ‘things we do as parents for our kids’ category. My half-Italian sons are – like 99.9% of their peers- crazy about calcio (soccer for Americans, football for Brits). Here, all the kids collect football cards, buying packets, putting them in their albums, trading them with their friends. But the…
Read MoreBraving the rain and mud in Paliano, Italy
If it’s early Sunday morning and you run into me in some little town in Lazio wearing running sneakers caked in several layers of thick mud, chances are I’m accompanying my eight-year-old to one of his state running competitions. My Sunday morning under the pounding rain in pretty Paliano, was no exception. My son had…
Read MoreBrainstorming at the Spa 2014
I’ve heard so many great things about the Brainstorming at the Spa event held each year in Matera, Italy. This year it takes place 4-7 April 2014. This is an event organized by the Women’s Fiction Festival I write so much about, held each year in September in Matera, southern Italy. For the past three…
Read MoreFrom malaria-infested swampland to Fascist utopia: Latina, Italy
In the midst of a recent, stressful home move, I had to take a break from boxes to drive my eight-year-old down to a state competition (provinciale) for sprinting south of Rome, in the small city of Latina, in southern Lazio. My little one placed first in the 400-meter competition, making me awfully proud, and…
Read MoreMore writing inspiration on the slopes
As this post goes out, I’ll be wrapping up a great week with my family out on the ski slopes of Italy’s Abruzzo region. I always look forward to a week-long skiing break (heck, if I could, I’d make it a month-long skiing break), and my kids are avid skiers. I’ve written before on skiing…
Read MoreReason #5371 to love Rome: Emperor Augustus
‘Marmoream relinquo, quam latericiam accepi’ – I found Rome a city of bricks and left it a city of marble. Okay, you may not love Emperor Augustus already (thought by many to be Ancient Rome’s greatest emperor), but you’re bound to enjoy the exhibition organized at Rome’s Scuderie del Quirinale to mark the 2000th anniversary of…
Read MoreBeautiful writing and imagery in the film ‘Io sono Li’
A good book can often keep me up long past my bedtime, but I must admit that it’s extremely rare that television has the same effect on me. Still, recently I began watching a film late one night on Italian television, and simply couldn’t tear myself away. It was a simple film, with minimal action…
Read MoreReason #5370 to love Rome: The Appia antica
Even after years of living in Rome, I’m often struck by how truly beautiful it is. My son plays tennis at a club just off the Ancient Roman road, the Appia antica – the Appian way. When I see him play, I can also take a walk along these beautiful, ancient cobblestones lined with cypresses…
Read MoreReason #5369 to love Rome: The modern Jubilee Church
When one thinks of Rome, it is not generally modern architecture that comes to mind. And yet, many of today’s ‘starchitects’ have undertaken major projects here in the Eternal City. Renzo Piano built Rome’s Auditorium, Zaha Hadid the MAXXI Museum (Both in Rome’s Flaminio neighborhood). Massimiliano Fuksas’ ‘Cloud’ Roman Congress Center is currently being built…
Read More