Last week I took a road trip with a friend. The original idea was a boat trip along the Mincio River, from Mantua to the Po via the lock conceived by Leonardo da Vinci. I added a day in Treviso to visit old friends and buy a table, then adding a second day in Padua — again to visit a friend — and purchase a … Continue reading Mondo Paese

I’ve never been one to single out historical dates but the signing of the Treaty of London happens to fall on my birthday, April 26. On that day in 1915, with World War I already in full swing, Italy became a French and British ally. Popular imagination is so ingrained with the horrors of French trench warfare that Italy’s war role rarely comes up. What … Continue reading Domino Effect

At a recent dinner in New Hampshire, the conversation turned to presidential hopeful Donald Trump: “He won’t become corrupt because he is already rich.” “As a businessman, he understands how the real world works and how to run things.” “He’ll get the government out of business and streamline red tape.” “He speaks his mind.” “He’s a political outsider, who doesn’t owe anyone anything — a … Continue reading Loud Men

Opening my New England house for the summer — a ritual that included extracting a dead squirrel from my dishwasher’s innards and a war against carpenter ants — my daydreams turned to the ironies and twists that speeded the summertime genesis of World War I, an event that closed out the August 1914, and with it an era. Ironically, the pre-war world was more “globalized” … Continue reading Daydream of the Before

Last Saturday, some friends included me on their weekly shopping trip to Milan’s mercati generali , the city’s teeming wholesale produce market. I’d shopped for parties at the wholesale flower market, but the idea of buying produce by the crate intimidated me. Transforming a crate of asparagus or a flat of baby lettuce into a week’s meal plan was daunting even when I still had children at … Continue reading Market Watch

When the Iron Curtain fell in the late 1980s, Italy was seized with excitement about the rediscovery of “Mitteleuropa.” Mitteleuropa is the part of central Europe that once formed the backbone of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. It enjoyed short-lived post-World War I autonomy before falling under Soviet control. After 1989, Czechs, Hungarians, Poles, Romanians, Slovenians and northern Italians awoke to lost ties and a shared cultural … Continue reading Into Mediterranea

I started out with other ideas for this column. One was how aimless my days have become since the death of my dog, whose routine structured my life. Another was that the arrival of spring means no more hats and gloves, two under-appreciated fashion accessories I love. Instead, my brain was hijacked by a letter I intend to write to the IRS after its call … Continue reading The FATCA Follies

I’ve become obsessed with World War I. I can’t seem to escape it. I have written about it before. I’m now reading Ernest Hemingway’s “A Farewell to Arms” and watching Indy Neidell’s wonderful “Great War” You Tube Channel. There is also the 1964 BBC documentary narrated by Michael Redgrave, when veterans were still alive to remember. But when names and places associated with Italy began … Continue reading The Home Front

In recalling his long friendship with Gore Vidal, novelist and author Michael Mewshaw provides all the guilty pleasures of a Vanity Fair article plus one other: greater length. Mewshaw’s book is a 195-page portrait of the American author, unrequited politician and ageless enfant terrible whose heroic output of mostly historical novels (including “Burr” and “Lincoln”), essays, screenplays and plays was overshadowed by appetites for drink, sex and … Continue reading Sympathy for the Devil: Four Decades of Friendship with Gore Vidal

Mrs. Towle made the best chocolate chip cookies (with black walnuts). She said the secret of good cooking was to use butter even when the recipe called for shortening and to substitute cream for milk. Mrs. Ball had a hat made entirely of peacock feathers. Every year she created her own Christmas card with a delightful drawing and a pun. Alice always wore pearls; Elizabeth … Continue reading Chocolate Chip