While watching the Winter Olympics when I should have been writing, I heard the same cliché over and over. Whether it was advertisers hawking cars or commentators telling competitors’ stories, there was a constant refrain about the Olympic dream we have all harbored. The activities of writing and competing in the Olympics do not invite obvious comparison (medals for the fastest personal essay? for the … Continue reading Gold Metal Art

When I first moved to Italy 30 years ago, its politics bewildered me. I couldn’t keep the innumerable parties and factions straight. News reports hindered more than they helped. Coverage was all about who was up or down or what politicians were saying about each other rather than issues. I eventually decided that Italian politics were like the internal combustion engine, something I would never … Continue reading Cui Bono

In the United States, the winter and Christmas seasons officially begin the day after Thanksgiving, about a week earlier than I’d been used to when I lived in Milan. There, winter officially began on Dec. 7, the feast of Milan’s patron saint, St. Ambrose. If Pearl Harbor’s Dec. 7th commemoration hadn’t brought me around to the date’s Italian significance, I wouldn’t have noticed the difference. … Continue reading A New Winter Order

When I first moved to Rome in 1988, politician Giovanni De Michelis was among the most powerful men in Italy. He was Socialist Prime Minister Bettino Craxi’s right hand man. Before Italy’s early-1990s political scandals brought him down, De Michelis occupied several notable posts, including heading the ministry of state-owned companies, of public works, and finally serving as a highly-regarded foreign affairs minister. But both … Continue reading The Sensual Banquet

One of the various byproducts of the 2016 presidential campaign is a kind of news report that follows this pattern: A member of the coastal media elite or a personality — usually male — visits what he calls “flyover country,” that vast and hard-to-read American acreage between New York and LA. The intrepid writer still wonders why he didn’t see Donald Trump’s victory coming and … Continue reading The Colonial Report

This morning I refurbished a pillow I bought at a church rummage sale. This left lint and thread on the floor, so I had to vacuum. After vacuuming downstairs, it only made sense to do the upstairs. Since I was making the house nice, it also seemed prudent to make and freeze a lasagna for an upcoming visit from my children. That made me see … Continue reading The Big Fiction

Some days are perfect lake days. The breeze is up. The occasional whitecap dances across the ripples. Clean sheets flap in the wind and I smell the perfume of my white pine. A duck family floats by. Farther down the lake, Moose Mountain forms a backdrop for the white triangles of the sailing school. For an hour, I lie on the dock, warmed to just … Continue reading Reading Is Encouraged

It’s been about a month since I closed up shop in Italy and returned to live in countryside New Hampshire after three decades in Italy. Since I got here, both Italian and American friends have sent me a barrage of messages: “Come va, là in Trumplandia?” “How does it feel to be home?” “Sei pronta a tornare?” “Do you miss Italy?” I am ashamed to … Continue reading Soothsayer

The name “Milan” derives from the Latin Mediolanum, which you could loosely translate as “the place in the middle.” Today’s busy city was originally a Lombard settlement and later a Roman encampment that marked the midpoint where the major East-West and North-South European trade routes crossed. There is no glorious founding myth at Milan’s heart; just a pragmatic mix of convenience and commerce. By character, … Continue reading Glimmers of Love

This is my 25th year in Milan. Not only does this represent almost half my life, it is also the longest I have ever stuck with anything. The city was a different place a quarter of a century ago, though some seeds of now-mature change were just poking through. In 1992, Milan’s days as Italy’s Akron, Pittsburgh and Detroit rolled into one were over. Pirelli … Continue reading Roots