Lavoro per Vivere

As an avid NPR listener, I’ve been taken with a small degree of jealously of late as much of the programming this past week has focused on the veritable “V” word ~ “Vacation”. One program in particular highlighted a 2001 publication by author, Cindy Aron. In the book
Working at Play, Aron, an associate professor of history, traces the growth of vacationing as a family and a social ritual. She examines the tension between the American work ethic and the concept of leisure. Interestingly, I’ve been reading another book that highlights the topic of the American work ethic and leisure. In
Death by Leisure: A Cautionary Tale, the author, Chris Ayres, a British journalist, chronicles his return from embedded duty in Iraq with a marine unit, to a new assignment as the showbiz correspondent for a London newspaper. Talk about culture shock! This tell-all opens with Ayres getting the sultry once-over from a beauty in a white bikini at poolside, and everything goes wacky and downhill from there with a bogus assignment to cover singer Michael Jackson, his Neverland estate and his sleepovers. Marveling at the perpetually sunny weather of the sci-fi metropolis, and the Tinseltown crowd of Beverly Hills, Ayres quickly becomes caught up in the whole scene, including getting his own piece of the American dream, a house. “I'm a big fan of bubbles ... they're my idea of a good time”, Ayres writes, but when the housing bubble bursts, the American dream soon becomes a nightmare. Ayres’ book is a wry, self-deprecating and offbeat look at the excesses of America over the last few years, disguised as an expat’s memoir of life in California. As for vacation travel, this expat offered some inspiration to NPR when listeners were asked to share stories of successful vacation travel at $100. a day or less. Our family vacations involved some serious math calculations as we traveled throughout Europe each summer for more than a decade, pre-Euro days. Camping was the order of the day, in a tent. Meals were prepared over an open fire. There’s nothing like ‘spaghetti alla carbonara’ prepared and eaten ‘al fresco’. If your vacation plans require a
passport, our library offers this service. Planning a trip to Italy? Get inspired by watching the film,
A Room With a View or better still, read
the classic novel by E.M. Forster. And remember ~ "lavoro per vivere, non vivo per lavoro" ~ "work to live, don't live to work". Buona Vacanza!

Romeo and Juliet

O Romeo, Romeo! Wherefore art thou Romeo? Deny thy father and refuse thy name; Or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love, And I'll no longer be a Capulet.




A hopeless romantic, my all time favorite love story is Romeo and Juliet. Everyone knows that the story takes place in Italy ~ in the historic city of Verona. Verona is in the Veneto, the northeastern region of Italy where we made our family home for many years.

While living in Italy, I spent a good deal of time in our city library in Vicenza doing research and it was there that I first learned that the true author of Romeo and Juliet was a Vicentino, a man by the name of Luigi Da Porto. In 1530, Da Porto wrote the transcript called Giulietta e Romeo. In the original version, he set the characters in Verona, created Romeo and Giulietta and even created Mercutio, Tybalt, Friar Laurence and Paris. It is a little known fact that Luigi was the original writer and that William Shakespeare only adapted it for stage in England through not much merit of his own. The village of Vicenza (or indeed the people in it) hardly forgave Shakespeare after he took all the credit for the literature of their native son. Da Porto wrote the novel in his villa in Montorso Vicentino near Vicenza. The title of the book was Historia Novellamente Ritrovata di Due Nobili Amanti (Newly Found Story of Two Noble Lovers).

There are several film versions of this greatest of love stories, and although there are aspects of the modernized version starring Leonardo di Caprio that are fascinating to me, I shall forever be enthralled with the classic Sixties version of Italian film producer, Franco Zefferelli.

We can be grateful to Mr. William Shakespeare for his momentous contributions to the English language. Shakespeare is a part of our everyday lives. He coined more than 1,700 words still in use in modern English and his plays influence the way we think about the world we live in. In recognition of Shakespeare’s 445th Birthday, this Thursday, April 23, 2009, has been designated Talk Like Shakespeare Day. Get in on the act and unleash your inner Bard!

Breast Phobia

Perhaps you've heard the recent news reports regarding the magazine for young mothers called Babytalk, a free educational magazine for new moms. A recent cover photo of the publication featured the head of a baby next to a naked breast. Although I have never seen the magazine, I would assume based upon the title, that the cover was meant to promote breastfeeding. It appears that the mother of a 13-yr old was upset by the cover, particularly troubled it seems that her son saw a breast! More than one quarter of the publications 4000 readers, when polled, also indicated that they did not approve of the cover, calling it inappropriate. Imagine the shock and 'utter' horror these individuals might suffer should they spend any amount of time in the country of Italy. Topless sunbathing is a normal practice - so much so that when a family goes to the beach together you'll often find daughters and moms sunning their bosom 'alla famiglia'! Our family recalls fondly a series of billboards that were displayed for a period of time throughout the north of Italy in an effort to promote breastfeeding among young Italian mothers. Whereas Italians don't in general have a problem with seeing breasts in a positive way as sexual, the younger women, for the most part, choose not to breastfeed. In an effort to promote the health benefits of breastfeeding, giant billboards were created which included not a baby next to a breast, but instead a giant breast! The first one we encountered personally nearly caused my husband to swerve off the road as it was on a rather sharp angular street corner. My two sons, having grown up in the country and spending lots of time on the beach, were not surprised at all - nor were most of the citizens of the country. Although I don't believe it increased the odds at all of young Italian mothers breastfeeding, it certainly was an enjoyable experience and no one wrote any letters to anyone expressing any type of trauma. Perhaps another article I came across today on a baby blog illustrates best the point of Americans and the general trauma that seems to exist in this country, with people of all ages on anti-depressants or anti-anxiety drug - the problem is that they were not breastfed! Read and enjoy the irony along with me:
http://health.msn.com/pregnancykids/articlepage.aspx?cp-documentid=100142172&GT1=8404

Drug-Free and Breastfed,

Mary Margaret

Ciao Tutti!

Sono americana,ma per più di un decennio ho vissuto e lavorato in Italia, in Veneto. I miei antenati e alcuni dei miei parenti arrivano da Brescia e dalla Val Camonica. Adesso vivo in Ohio e lavoro in una biblioteca.

Sin dal nostro ritorno in U.S., più di sei anni fa, mi sono impegnata molto nel mantenere il mio italiano - non un'impresa facile,considerando che l'Ohio fu in primis colonizzato da persone di lingua tedesca. Lavorando in biblioteca, cerco sempre di cogliere ogni opportunità per diffondere il mio amore per la cultura e la lingua italiana tra gli americani,che parlano solamente l'inglese,e incoraggiandoli ad imparare una seconda lingua - l'italiano ovviamente!
ho deciso di scrivere questo blog per condividere i miei progressi.

I am an American from the United States, but for more than ten years I lived and worked in the country of Italy in the Veneto region. I have relatives who are Italian and they live in the city of Brescia and in the Val Camonica. Now I live here in the state of Ohio and I am working in a public library.

Since our return to the U.S. more than six years ago now, I have worked very hard at maintaining my Italian language skills - not an easy task when one considers that the area of Ohio we chose to settle in was primarily settled by German-speaking people. I am also taking every opportunity in connection with my work in a public library to spread my love for the Italian language and culture by encouraging monolingual US citizens to take up the challenge of the global economy and learn another language - specifically Italian, of course. I am writing this blog to chronicle the progress of this endeavor.

Benvenuti!

PAX E BON VIN

Maria Margherita