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The Florentine
Sfavato: Bored to death, unmotivated, unenthusiastic. Example: ‘Icchè t’hai oggi? Ti vedo sfavato.’ (‘What’s wrong with you today? You look totally bored to death.’) Cimbardosa: A gossip, big mouth, windbag. ...
Italian men are dogs and Italian women are cats. The statement feels so very bold that I almost fear to write it. Firstly, because one's childhood habit of comparing people to barnyard critters and jungle animals may best be left to the private sphere. And then there's the
Autumn is upon us. Hurried and harried, Florence's entire population is coming to terms with all that has been waiting in the wings since summertime. Deadlines are harvested far faster than pumpkins, and bosses and colleagues heartily welcome fall storms by generating them. Perhaps your stomach is steelier
Catherine sold her house in Leicester, intent on moving to Florence and financing her long-time professional dream: event planning in Tuscany. Villas, castles and monastic courtyards that house no clergy make great backdrops for high-end cultural events, she thought. And fino a qui, I fully agree. Yet, beyond
Aesop, a slave who earned his freedom through storytelling, became a worthy diplomat for kings, which ultimately got him thrown off a cliff in Delphi for having insulted the ...
Luca, a Florentine native, has not crossed the threshold of the Uffizi since his fourth-grade class stomped through its venerable halls, thinking of nothing but the pane e nutella their anxious mothers had prepared for their four o'clock snack on the Duomo steps. And yes, his last view
The freccia argento to Rome is a quick but expensive rail line that's worth its weight in silver, where the borrowed English bloke on the loudspeaker invites passengers to visit the dining car by announcing ‘Travelling stimulates your appetite.' Whether or not that claim is true,
Every year, right around Daylight Saving Time, my friend Paola leaves a lover-and it's usually the same one. I sit on the sidelines and watch it happen, undecided as to whether practice has made this annual ritual easier or more excruciating. As background noise to our &
Way back at the beginning of the second millennium, I was teaching English at a Florentine school whose floors were as scuffed as their blackboards, which-originally white-had turned gray with grammar lessons. The classes were small and the staff was smaller: Karen, a rainbow-bright
Inconveniences aside, there is something about a blizzard that gives you time. Unexpectedly, there's time to wait as energy-saving light bulbs grow bright enough to light something more than a Neanderthal cave. Time enough to notice how quiet the world looks while wearing white. And there's time
One should never ask anything after a party. It is enough to keep a front-row corner of the couch and get full view as your hosts dissect the unfortunate guests who've already gone. Last Saturday when the last of the festa crowd pulled the door closed, the curtain
On a trip home for the Christmas holiday, I met up with a Florentine friend in San Francisco, where the rogue moved two years ago for a short-term photography gig and a girlfriend whose infatuation for him lasted much less time than his newfound love for the Bay area.
Love is something cherished and rare, but for me, falling in love is as unavoidable as tripping on uneven cobblestone. And it’s not my fault. For those who have ...
There is something about Peter Pan that moves me. It may be the way he knows how to wink. Or how he can laughingly fly into a sword fight. Or perhaps I'm simply struck by the very genius of him, comforted and reassured by the immovable conviction that he
