My favorite photo of Florence?

I took this photo one morning over the summer as I walked the streets of "my city." Firenze. Florence. The City of Dante. Also: The city of Jeanne. I'd finally made it across the river to revisit my old neighborhood and check on Piazza Santo Spirito, my old stomping grounds.

The morning that I took this photo, I stopped at Caffe Ricchi by Santo Spirito for a cappuccino and as I wrote in an earlier post about the trip, when I asked the barman there about a sign listing soy milk cappuccino, he said it tastes like cardboard. Old-school Italy remaining old-school Italy -- yay. The piazza was largely empty, I guess because it was all of 7:30 a.m. but how delightful.

On the way home to our apartment, I passed a throwback record store and peering into the window, I saw a Beatles album whose cover read in Italian, "Aiuto." Aiuto = Help. That's the famous “Help” album – translated for the Italian edition. LOVE IT!

Anyway, this might be my favorite photo of Florence from this trip. It remains such a beautiful city -- especially if you're able to step away from the areas that are heavily populated with tourists.

-30-

How Italy Ruined My Life (sort of -- for The Millions)

The way Italian plunges me into an intoxication of sound and thought is something I've wanted to write about for a long time.

The way the Italian language is like a person in my life, "a twin who accompanies me everywhere -- for better or for worse," the way knowing a foreign tongue "confers a special passport" or how my attempts to convince Florentines I had mastered their language -- la lingua di Dante -- devolved into nothing short of high school hazing ... yes I've wanted to explore this topic for so long.

And now I have! Thanks to my editor, Sophia, at The Millions.

You can read the essay here:

https://themillions.com/2023/11/the-quiet-exhilaration-of-reading-in-italian.html

-30-

For Dantedi & always

🌿📕 #LeparolediDante #CruscaScuola (terza lezione)

Giovanna Frosini, accademica della Crusca
Parlare di Dante agli studenti: l'esempio di Purgatorio XIV https://t.co/5YxIEmxinE

— Accademia della Crusca (@AccademiaCrusca) March 24, 2021

The Accademia della Crusca, the venerable institute based in Florence that studies, promulgates and safeguards the Italian language, is on its "A" game for Dantedi as it prepares for the holiday dedicated to Italy's greatest poet, Dante, on March 25. The institute makes phenomenal use of Twitter, tweeting out for example "parole di Dante" every day (parole = words).

What's even more engrossing is the series of lessons based on specific cantos. One of the institute's learned scholars, Giovanna Frosini, reads and provides comment on a particular canto (above). The text of the canto appears alongside the video, so it's really a teaching moment, but not only for Italians living in Italy but anyone who studies Italian. 

Hear her read the canto, and see the words simultaneously. A pretty perfect foreign language study scenario.

Not surprising given the special edition of Dantedi that's underway this year, what with the 700th anniversary of Dante's death. But still I like to give praise where praise is due, and the institute's general efforts, and notable embrace of modern technology to celebrate an ancient text are inspiring.

We'll never stop studying Dante, and luckily there are a lot of people on-hand, even from this great a distance from Florence, to help us out. Mille grazie agli studiosi dell'Accademia della Crusca!

-30-

The Nostalgia Package Tour (Jeanne In Firenze)

You can retrace the steps of Dante when you visit Florence, visiting his parish church, for example, where he spied Beatrice for the first time.

Me? I’m retracing MY steps as I walk through the streets of Florence. Steps I first took so many years ago. Nostalgia comes so naturally to me that I stumbled into a tiny piazza in Rome and stumbled back nearly 20 years to a weekend getaway to the Eternal City – my first with Il Nostro Inviato (also known as Someone). I looked up at the street sign – Piazza San Pantaleo – and my mind, photographic for things like street names and addresses and the dates that important moments happened – recalled instantly that we had stayed maybe two nights at a small pensione on the piazza.

My days in Florence are filled with what the Italians might call controlli. I’m monitoring the streets, the crowds of tourists, the number of restaurants (and gelaterie – there are so many now!), the exact locations of shops (the clothing shop Gerard has moved, ladies and gentlemen. So has Patrizia Pepe’s boutique), the routes of buses I used to take (you catch the No. 23 bus now in front of the station, not on the side) and so on.

I’m also monitoring what people say. As in, I'm eavesdropping. I’m swooning over the constant flow of Italian language in my ear. Finally, I’m once again surrounded by Italian, a scenario I find so inspiring, so fundamentally pleasing I wonder if they should prescribe it as therapy? Perhaps it would only work for me. Jeanne’s Therapy. But I suppose other people could get a prescription for French Therapy? Or Spanish Therapy?

(This is hardly a new discovery since I’ve long known that quite simply, I get my jollies hearing and speaking Italian. Spanish, too.)

Of course it helps to know what the Italians are saying when you eavesdrop. But not only. It helps if you can follow the peaks and valleys of the sing-song Florentine accent, through which the natives express a constant, often hilarious litany of slights, recriminations and general observations that there’s nothing that can be done about whatever problem is under discussion but oh what a mess things have become!

The Florentine patois seems perfectly attuned to bursts of desperation, expressed through comments like, “Dio buono, ragazzi!” (Good God!) and complaints of any kind, though mainly of the most pedestrian nature (a signora told me yesterday that she had been waiting 30 minutes for the No. 4 bus. I don’t belittle her complaint – the No. 4 bus jilted me, as well, because I wasn’t standing in the exact right spot).

And of course there are controlli of the most personal kind. My old apartment now has mosquito screens on the windows that I can see from the street. (I should say: Apartment No. 3 in Florence…I haven’t visited #1 or #2 yet. I did see #4. It’s a medieval tower in the center of the centro storico. So not much has changed, although they have cleaned up l’Arco di San Pierino where the Antico Noe sandwich shop is located. Exactly where did all the heroin addicts go?).

Today, the day stretches before me, and it promises to bring hundreds of small discoveries. I may even do something new (Museo Stibbert, anyone? Apparently the grounds of the museum constitute a gorgeous park, a stone’s throw from the center of Florence).

All I know is I’ve paid for the Nostalgia Package Tour. The “This Is Your Life” Full Immersion Tour. And the “Brush Up On Your Florentine Dialect” Tour.

Also the “Can I Really Be This Lucky?” tour. The answer to that last one is a resounding yes.

A riveder le stelle -- Florence, here I come!

I’m about to write the most incredible sentence I can imagine.

(OK, it’s the second most incredible sentence. The first was, “I’m having a baby.”)

Here goes.

I leave for Florence in less than a month! FLORENCE, ITALY.

(No, not Florence, S.C.).

OK, so I will only be there for less than a week.

But I hardly think about that.

I.Am.Going.To.Florence.

The city I lived in. The city I loved. The city where I fell in love.

It must be the old woman inside of me – the person who emerged after maternity leave when everything is stripped from you and you learn to live again in a much more basic way – but I swear, two days there may be enough.

I will be so overwhelmed by every little change I see, that it will be any wonder if I’m able to get to sleep at all while there.

Wait, didn’t there used to be a fruttivendolo on that corner?

Wait, they finally removed the scaffolding from that church after a decade?

It will be a journey as much through time as space.

Just to see the faces of the people I once knew. Or walk the streets. Or look up at the white stone blocks on every vicolo, viuzzo and piazza, to re-read street names I haven’t seen in a decade. Very small pleasures that loom large inside of my head.

There’s also a few new things to discover. Like the tram! I plan to ride it into Florentine neighborhoods I’d previously ignored.

I'm going to Florence, Italy. It won't be the same.

But I'm not the same person I was 10 years ago, much less 20. So I think we're good. Real good.

Dan Brown's "Inferno"

I couldn't resist! Yes, I'm reading Dan Brown's "Inferno," and quite frankly already imagining the movie! (Tom Hanks as Langdon, okay, sure but who will be Sienna Brooks? I could see someone like Kate Beckinsale, though I don't really like her).

Even though I'm already reading a few other books (including Elena Ferrante's "I Giorni Dell'Abandono"), I just couldn't pass up plunging into a book that will cover some of my favorite topics: the streets of Florence (including the Dante signs), Dante's Inferno, and Italian life in general.

In fact, I sort of see it as a refresher on Dante. I'll never stop studying Dante, I'll never stop reading snippets of La Divina Commedia, I'll never tire of learning something new about this incredible book. Mainly, because it's so complex! I'm quite sure Dan Brown has something to teach me about Dante.

And I hate to say anything negative about the book or the author, as I've already ploughed through 150 pages since I collected the book at the library Saturday, and he has me on the edge of my seat. No, it's not high literature but it sure is entertaining.

And he's popularizing an epic, three-part POEM written in arcane early Italian from the 14th century. As a lover of Italian literature, I'd say that's a pretty good deed!

Al dente? No, no al Dante

LOVE this New Yorker cartoon!

Dante @ Emory University

I saw this sign in a laboratory at Emory University in Atlanta (not a great photo but a great line from the Divina Commedia: "Lasciate ogne speranza voi ch'intrate.")

A little Dante in my kitchen

I have the entire text of Dante's Divine Comedy.

On the wall in my kitchen.

Every word! Inferno, Purgatorio, Paradiso.

From: "Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita," all the way to "l'amor che move il sole e l'altre stelle." (That's the Dante version of from alpha to omega).

Thanks, of course, to Il Nostro Inviato (che oggi scappa di nuovo per Italia).

He bought the poster somewhere in Italy as a Christmas gift a few years back and I finally had it framed this month.

I added something else: a magnifying glass so I can read verses while he prepares dinner. Because otherwise the type is way too small and no one will ever be able to read a word of it!

So if you have a hankering for a little bit of Florence's greatest poet, come on over!

Actually I should mention, most parts of The Divine Comedy are freakin' impossible so maybe this is a good way to tackle the text. You know, a canto or two, between dinner courses.

(You can find a great way to look at the entire text online here in Italian and here in English. It's the entire text, organized canto by canto so you can read as little or as much as you want).

NYT: Benigni Takes on Dante's Comedy

Funnyman Takes on Dante’s ‘Comedy’
By BEN SISARIO
Published: May 23, 2009
Roberto Benigni is about to begin a short North American tour of “TuttoDante,” a monologue about the “Divine Comedy” that mixes literary insights with off-the-cuff political jokes.



http://http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/23/theater/23dant.html

See Benigni in New York! (And Boston and Chicago)

You may remember that I gushed over a program called TuttoDante in which comedian Roberto Benigni recited Dante's Divine Comedy from memory and then provided extremely funny commentary on the verses.

Well that show is coming to New York!!!! (And Boston and Chicago)

Non ci posso credere!

I had seen TuttoDante on RAI International and thought it was just one-of-a-kind. An extremely literate, brilliant comedian explaining the subtleties of Dante. And along the way throwing in some inimitable gestures and comments in Tuscan dialect like only Benigni can.

(In the program I saw, he was performing in Piazza Santa Croce in Florence in front of the Dante statue, about two blocks from where I used to live....*sigh*).

It certainly will show a side of Benigni that may not be familiar to American viewers. We know him from films such as "Johnny Stecchino" and "The Pink Panther," and from his stunt standing on chairs when he was won the Best Actor Oscar for "Life is Beautiful."

I've heard some Italians grumble about the tour, I suppose because some people may say he is dumbing the work down. All I know is he is funny and he's bringing Dante back out into the public domain, where it belongs.

Non ti preoccupare: The American shows will include English subtitles.

Tickets go on sale today.

If you want information or tickets, you can find everything here: http://www.massimogallotta.com/index.php

Godi!

Dante Moment of The Day...Ce la facciamo!

When last we visited our friend Dante, he was describing the poor souls who die "under the wrath of God," as Ciaran Carson wrote in his 2002 translation.

Today we crack open Canto IV, where Virgil is guiding Dante further into inferno, to what he calls the "cieco mondo." Non ci posso credere!

Ruppemi l'alto sonno ne la testa
un greve truono, sì ch'io mi riscossi
come persona ch'è per forza desta;

e l'occhio riposato intorno mossi,
dritto levato, e fiso riguardai
per conoscer lo loco dov' io fossi.

Vero è che 'n su la proda mi trovai
de la valle d'abisso dolorosa
che 'ntrono accoglie d'infiniti guai.

Oscura e profonda era e nebulosa
tanto che, per ficcar lo viso a fondo,
io non vi discernea alcuna cosa.

«Or discendiam qua giù nel cieco mondo»,
cominciò il poeta tutto smorto.
«Io sarò primo, e tu sarai secondo».

Dante's Inferno, Canto IV, 1-15

If you need to see where we left off, go to the post I wrote on Jan. 12.

Grazie per averci seguito!

Dante Moment of the Day...Makes a Comeback

Buongiorno appassionati di Dante! Eccoci!

We will finally finish the chapter in which we met Charon, the white-haired ferryman, who attempted to block Dante's way through the Underworld.

In today's passage, Dante gives us a bleak description of souls who die "under the wrath of God," as Ciaran Carson wrote in his 2002 translation.

There are some fantastic turns of phrase here, starting from the very beginning: "They cursed god and the human race; and they cursed the time and the place and the seed of their birth."

Enjoy!

Bestemmiavano Dio e lor parenti,
l'umana spezie e 'l loco e 'l tempo e 'l seme
di lor semenza e di lor nascimenti.

Poi si ritrasser tutte quante insieme,
forte piangendo, a la riva malvagia
ch'attende ciascun uom che Dio non teme.

Caron dimonio, con occhi di bragia
loro accennando, tutte le raccoglie;
batte col remo qualunque s'adagia.

Come d'autunno si levan le foglie
l'una appresso de l'altra, fin che 'l ramo
vede a la terra tutte le sue spoglie,

similemente il mal seme d'Adamo
gittansi di quel lito ad una ad una,
per cenni come augel per suo richiamo.

Così sen vanno su per l'onda bruna,
e avanti che sien di là discese,
anche di qua nuova schiera s'auna.

«Figliuol mio», disse 'l maestro cortese,
«quelli che muoion ne l'ira di Dio
tutti convegnon qui d'ogne paese;

e pronti sono a trapassar lo rio,
ché la divina giustizia li sprona,
sì che la tema si volve in disio.

Quinci non passa mai anima buona;
e però, se Caron di te si lagna,
ben puoi sapere omai che 'l suo dir suona».

Finito questo, la buia campagna
tremò sì forte, che de lo spavento
la mente di sudore ancor mi bagna.

La terra lagrimosa diede vento,
che balenò una luce vermiglia
la qual mi vinse ciascun sentimento;

e caddi come l'uom cui sonno piglia.

Dante's Inferno, Canto III, 100-133

Our last Dante Moment of the Day came on Sept. 26 (yes, of last year, non ci posso credere!), if you want to see where we left off.

Next stop: CANTO IV!!!

Today's Dante Moment of the Day

We continue our journey with Charon, the white-haired ferryman, who has attempted to block Dante's way through the Underworld. Virgil, Dante's trusted guide, says not so fast Charon.

E 'l duca lui: «Caron, non ti crucciare:
vuolsi così colà dove si puote
ciò che si vuole, e più non dimandare».

Quinci fuor quete le lanose gote
al nocchier de la livida palude,
che 'ntorno a li occhi avea di fiamme rote.

Ma quell' anime, ch'eran lasse e nude,
cangiar colore e dibattero i denti,
ratto che 'nteser le parole crude.

Bestemmiavano Dio e lor parenti,
l'umana spezie e 'l loco e 'l tempo e 'l seme
di lor semenza e di lor nascimenti.

Poi si ritrasser tutte quante insieme,
forte piangendo, a la riva malvagia
ch'attende ciascun uom che Dio non teme.

Caron dimonio, con occhi di bragia
loro accennando, tutte le raccoglie;
batte col remo qualunque s'adagia.

Dante's Inferno, Canto III, 91-108

Our last Dante Moment of the Day came on Sept. 2, if you want to see where we left off.

Dante Moment of the Day returns!

È giunto il momento di riprendere i nostri studi Danteschi.

The last time we studied Dante together was March 4 (Yes, my cousin Tim's birthday).

No time to waste! So we will take up where we left off, in Canto III of Dante's Inferno. When we left Dante last, he was touring the Underworld, including a meeting with what translator Ciaran Carson calls "so-so souls," the people who were neither saintly nor full of sin.

In today's installment, Dante encounters Charon, the famous white-haired ferryman, with the less than gentle boatside manner.


Elle rigavan lor di sangue il volto,
che, mischiato di lagrime, a' lor piedi
da fastidiosi vermi era ricolto.

E poi ch'a riguardar oltre mi diedi,
vidi genti a la riva d'un gran fiume;
per ch'io dissi: «Maestro, or mi concedi

ch'i' sappia quali sono, e qual costume
le fa di trapassar parer sì pronte,
com' i' discerno per lo fioco lume».

Ed elli a me: «Le cose ti fier conte
quando noi fermerem li nostri passi
su la trista riviera d'Acheronte».

Allor con li occhi vergognosi e bassi,
temendo no 'l mio dir li fosse grave,
infino al fiume del parlar mi trassi.

Ed ecco verso noi venir per nave
un vecchio, bianco per antico pelo,
gridando: «Guai a voi, anime prave!

Non isperate mai veder lo cielo:
i' vegno per menarvi a l'altra riva
ne le tenebre etterne, in caldo e 'n gelo.

E tu che se' costì, anima viva,
pàrtiti da cotesti che son morti».
Ma poi che vide ch'io non mi partiva,

disse: «Per altra via, per altri porti
verrai a piaggia, non qui, per passare:
più lieve legno convien che ti porti».

Dante's Inferno, Canto III, 66 to 90.

Just a little Dante in the morning

E io: "Maestro, che è tanto greve
a lor che lamentar li fa sì forte?."
Rispuose: "Dicerolti molto breve.

Questi non hanno speranza di morte,
e la lor cieca vita è tanto bassa,
che 'nvidïosi son d'ogne altra sorte.

Fama di loro il mondo esser non lassa;
misericordia e giustizia li sdegna:
non ragioniam di lor, ma guarda e passa."

E io, che riguardai, vidi una 'nsegna
che girando correva tanto ratta,
che d'ogne posa mi parea indegna;

e dietro le venìa sì lunga tratta
di gente, ch'i' non averei creduto
che morte tanta n'avesse disfatta.

Poscia ch'io v'ebbi alcun riconosciuto,
vidi e conobbi l'ombra di colui
che fece per viltade il gran rifiuto.

Incontanente intesi e certo fui
che questa era la setta d'i cattivi,
a Dio spiacenti e a' nemici sui.

Questi sciaurati, che mai non fur vivi,
erano ignudi e stimolati molto
da mosconi e da vespe ch'eran ivi.

Elle rigavan lor di sangue il volto,
che, mischiato di lagrime, a' lor piedi
da fastidiosi vermi era ricolto.

Dante's Inferno, Canto III, 42 to 66

Here, Dante continues his tour through the Underworld, passing what translator Ciaran Carson calls "so-so souls," the people who were neither saintly nor full of sin.

Scholars say Dante is referring to Pope Clementine (later made saint) when he says, in line 60 "vidi e conobbi l'ombra di colui che fece per viltade il gran rifiuto." ("I saw and recognized the soul of he who because of his cowardly ways issued the great refusal"). According to Carson's notes, Clementine abdicated, paving the way for Pope Boniface VIII, Dante's arch enemy.

We last visited with Dante on Feb. 4.

Godi!

Your Dante Moment of the Day

I won't lie: today's excerpt from Dante is a tricky one.

But it contains some of the most wonderful Dantesque expressions ("le genti dolorose c'hanno perduto il ben de l'intelletto,"; translations vary widely over this expression, but I think of it as "sad souls who have lost the ability to reason.")

Just as a recap, the last time we had a Dante Moment of The Day, our Florentine poet par excellence had just started his descent into the Underworld.

Here he is asking his guide, Virgil, about the groups of people he encounters on his way down (which include angels who were 'neutral' when the battle between God and Satan went down).

" 'Noi siam venuti al loco ov' i' t'ho detto
che tu vedrai le genti dolorose
c'hanno perduto il ben de l'intelletto.'

E poi che la sua mano a la mia puose
con lieto volto, ond' io mi confortai,
mi mise dentro a le segrete cose.

Quivi sospiri, pianti e alti guai
risonavan per l'aere sanza stelle,
per ch'io al cominciar ne lagrimai.

Diverse lingue, orribili favelle,
parole di dolore, accenti d'ira,
voci alte e fioche, e suon di man con elle

facevano un tumulto, il qual s'aggira
sempre in quell' aura sanza tempo tinta,
come la rena quando turbo spira.

E io ch'avea d'error la testa cinta,
dissi: 'Maestro, che è quel ch'i' odo?
e che gent' è che par nel duol sì vinta?.'

Ed elli a me: 'Questo misero modo
tegnon l'anime triste di coloro
che visser sanza 'nfamia e sanza lodo.

Mischiate sono a quel cattivo coro
de li angeli che non furon ribelli
né fur fedeli a Dio, ma per sé fuoro.

Caccianli i ciel per non esser men belli,
né lo profondo inferno li riceve,
ch'alcuna gloria i rei avrebber d'elli.'

Dante's Inferno, Canto III, 16-42

Lost? Look at the post for December 9 to see where we left off.

I saw him again!

I saw Roberto Benigni on television again last night. Just as our faithful reader, Lucy, said, they are broadcasting episodes of his tour TuttoDante now every Thursday night.

As I said last week, this is one of the few times I am enjoying my subscription to the television channel RAI International to the fullest. Seeing him perform in Piazza Santa Croce in Florence, with the square's statue of Dante over his shoulder, is an absolute joy.

Last night's episode showed him reading Canto I of Dante's Inferno. That's one of those cantos that makes the hair on the back of your neck stand up. Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita, mi ritrovai per una selva oscura....

In the show, first he reads through the canto with explanations. This part is quite funny and takes up the majority of the program. It reminds me of countless discussions I've had with friends in Florence. Why? Because Benigni is the consummate Tuscan man. He has all the characteristic mannerisms and sayings, and of course he's got the Tuscan accent and sense of humor! What a package!

Then at the end he reads the ENTIRE canto from MEMORY. From memory, folks!

And the emotion he feels when he reads Dante is evident in his delivery, his tone, his face.

Era stupendo ragazzi!

Quando guardo queste trasmissioni, penso: quant'è bello conoscere la lingua italiana. How great is it knowing Italian.

I think the same thing when I listen to the aria "Casta Diva" from Bellini's opera, Norma or for that matter, "L'America" di Gianna Nannini.

What an incredible language it is.

"Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch'intrate"

DANTE MOMENT OF THE DAY IS BACK!

The last time we enjoyed verses from Dante was July 26. Soon afterwards, I went to Puglia and when I came back, all I wanted to talk about was Puglia!

But now that's over. We left off at the end of Canto II in the Inferno. Let's begin Canto III, which contains the immortal words: "Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch'intrate."

That means: "Abandon all hope ye who enter here." In this Canto, Dante, with his guide Virgil, begins his official descent into the Underworld. 

UPDATE (2026): This long-ago post is having a second life, and I can only imagine it's because of the political moment we're experiencing, globally. Dante -- both ancient and prescient. It feels as though we should abandon all of our hopes, no? Here, Virgil tells Dante, you will see sad souls who have lost the possibility of ever meeting God. The possibility of redemption. As Columbia's Digital Dante project notes, the pair are now occupying a "liminal space" that embodies the point of choice "between the binary destinies of the Christian universe: damnation or salvation." 

Dear reader, tell me: are we as a civilization grappling with this same choice?

Godi! ("Enjoy")

"Per me si va ne la città dolente,
per me si va ne l'etterno dolore,
per me si va tra la perduta gente.

Giustizia mosse il mio alto fattore;
fecemi la divina podestate,
la somma sapïenza e 'l primo amore.

Dinanzi a me non fuor cose create
se non etterne, e io etterno duro.
Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch'intrate."

Queste parole di colore oscuro
vid' ïo scritte al sommo d'una porta;
per ch'io: "Maestro, il senso lor m'è duro."

Ed elli a me, come persona accorta:
"Qui si convien lasciare ogne sospetto;
ogne viltà convien che qui sia morta.

Noi siam venuti al loco ov' i' t'ho detto
che tu vedrai le genti dolorose
c'hanno perduto il ben de l'intelletto."

Dante's Inferno, Canto III, 1-18

NOTE: You can read the entire Divine Comedy in Italian here and in English here, thanks to Project Gutenberg (or on my living room wall, thanks to Mike, if you happen to be in the neighborhood and have a magnifying glass). 

Ho visto Benigni!

Era una trasmissione dal tour TuttoDante. Ha letto l'ultimo canto del Paradiso in Piazza Santa Croce a Firenze, due passi dall'appartamento dove vivevo con Il Nostro Inviato.

Benigni era favoloso! Ad un certo punto mi sono venute lacrime agli occhi. Quanto mi sarebbe piaciuto esserci!

Mi stava sempre simpatico Benigni ma ora stento di trovare le parole giuste per descriverlo! Era come hai detto, Lucy. La Divina Commedia lui la conosce a memoria!

Poi sapeva spiegare le parole e il significato delle rime! Mi ha insegnato tanto tanto!

Mi sarei dovuta fidarmi della Rai International! Ogni tanto dà qualcosa di straordinario (ad esempio, quando è morto il Papa, l'abbonamento alla Rai mi stava molto comoda.) Ieri sera, c'era qualcosa veramente speciale.

Ilaria: voglio sempre vedere lo spettacolo che hai registrato tu!