Italian newspapers are beautiful

What I learn from Italy and Italians isn't confined to the language of that country or the customs of that country.

I learn about everything that fascinates them.

And Italians love art -- all art. What's more, they are fascinated with other cultures.

Here's a gorgeous newspaper spread from Sunday's La Repubblica showing off Japanese-inspired comic art drawn by an Italian artist.

He's made a career out of drawing Manga-style comics that the Japanese swoon over.

Me, too! Che bello.

#ThisisAtlanta -- Kudzu covering street signs

Street signs at an abandoned intersection in southeast Atlanta, covered with kudzu.

This is Atlanta.

What Jeanne will find in Paradiso

It's almost obscene how much joy I derive from reading Italian.

Maybe that's how they can convince high school students and others to study foreign languages.

The foreign words knocking about your head and leaping off your tongue feel so good, it's obscene, dude!

Mommy says (no, not me)

During my recent visit to New Jersey, Mommy says to me: 

“She sent him a mass card and everything.” 

Where 'everything' consists of nothing but appears to be the best possible gift. Whoever my mother is talking about has sent a mass card (to my father, following his hip surgery) and nothing more.

But the one small gesture, the one good deed of sending the card looms large in her head, hence a sentence that to a foreigner might not make any sense. All the woman sent was a mass card. But that now constitutes everything.

What a wonderful way to see the world! Delighting in small things. 

I think that might be my true religion. Hers, too.

What I Can't Resist (Italian book version)

Books about Florence or Florentine sayings, written typically for Italians. Yep, that's something I simply cannot resist buying.

This one combines history, pithy sayings, explanations about Florentine traditions and an extensive glossary.

It also has a word I love on the cover: curiosita'. 'Curiosities,' though we don't really use that word in English. In Italian, there's even the verb 'incuriosire,' which you use when you want to say something has intrigued you (or made you curious, obviously). Yay! I love curiosities, especially of a Florentine nature.

So this is something I'm reading right now, when I have a moment (ahem!). In fact, I've stashed it in the car. So if you see me around Atlanta hunched over a book while stopped at a traffic light, I might just be reading this book.