Thanks to Italy Mag for this great photo! This week marks a year since I started blogging about the Italian south. I’ve had a surge of activity in the last three or four months, and I thank you for sharing the blog with others!
To celebrate, I’m giving away a $25 Amazon gift card! To enter, post a comment about what you like about the blog, or what you’d like to see on it. What have you learned from it? Has it helped you in some way? Motivated you to actually visit the Italian south? I’d love to know!
Earn an extra entry by posting about the giveaway on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ or wherever you network. *Be sure to post a comment with a link to your ‘share’ so I can put in your extra entry.* Entries will close at the end of the day May 4.
And thanks for making my first year of blogging so much fun.
Mario Valentini shares engaging and nostalgic stories of his childhood in the mountain villages of Abruzzo during the lean years after World War II. At the age of four, Mario is given into the care of his uncle, a priest, while Mario’s father works in another country. His uncle can afford luxuries like shoes and education for Mario, and has the rare luxury of a car in the remote mountain villages he serves.
Mario recounts the misadventures that repeatedly land him in hot water with his “aunt”, a distant relation who serves as the priests housekeeper, and his early adventures in love and romance in his early teens. His child’s-eye-view of life in 1950s rural Italy is interesting and endearing, spiced with adventure–hunting wolves with a sling shot, discovering treasure in an abandoned castle’s well.
Valentini and his partner, Cheryl Hardacre, collaborated to write the book, presented as a first person account. The Italian words sprinkled through the text are translated in a glossary that appears at the end, along with a childhood photo of Mario with his beloved uncle.
The book was a pleasure to read, though I would like to have known more about Mario’s life after his childhood–even a brief summary. For many readers, this would be a good introduction to the rural Italy of their parents’ or grandparents’ time.
Chewing Gum in Holy Water was published by Arcade Publishing in 2006.
We walked east on Via Roma toward the hairpin turn that leads to the Roman bridge, and at the turn, headed up the rough track that leads to the Church of the Madonna delle Timpe. Beyond the church, the track narrows to a footpath, and hopscotches a stream humming down the valley. Walk along with me…
All this beauty on a warm fall afternoon! Don’t be afraid to get off the beaten path and enjoy a walk in the woods in Italy.
You never know where the Italian South will crop up! I made my first visit to Seattle’s Museum of Flight last weekend, with some friends from out of town. It’s a beautiful facility directly adjacent to Boeing Field, Seattle’s first international airport. In the photo, the museum buildings are nearest to the airfield, and some of Boeing’s buildings are in the foreground.
Turns out, in the late 1920s when the Boeing company was in its early stages, William Boeing was looking around the country for another location because Seattle did not have a suitable airport to meet the company’s needs. When news of the search got around, immigrant farmer Giuseppe “Joe” Desimone made Boeing an offer he couldn’t refuse–a big tract of land south of downtown Seattle, for one dollar, to keep the company in Seattle. Today the airport is bordered by dozens of Boeing facilities, and both the company and the airport continue to play significant roles in the life of Seattle.
Very cool!I thought, and made note of his name to learn more about him for a blog post. We finished our tour, and continued sightseeing, including lunch and a wander through Pike Place Market. And guess what!? Joe Desimone was one of the earliest participants in the Market, gradually buying shares until he owned the place. His family remained in ownership after Joe’s death in 1946, until the Market became publicly owned in the 1970s.
Joe Desimone taking vegetables to market.
Joe immigrated from the Naples area at the age of 18 in 1898, and by 1910 was a thriving farmer in King County. His stall features prominently in this historic video footage of Pike Place Market–you can see his name on the sign at about the one-minute point, and again at three minutes into it, but I don’t know which of the men in the movie is him.
My mom ordered the stracciatella soup at her birthday lunch last week. I wasn’t very familiar with it, so looked it up and found a couple of videos showing how simple it is to make–amazing! Have a look, and let me know if you try it and what you think. Is it a keeper?
The Italian South 