I recently saw Federico Fellini’s “Prova d’Orchestra” for the first time since 1986. The director, who died in 1993, had a knack for cutting to the heart of Italy’s past and present. But seeing this “minor” film against the backdrop of current events suggests he was also clairvoyant. “Prova d’Orchestra” (“Orchestra Rehearsal) is a “mockumentary” about a television crew filming a classical rehearsal, talking to … Continue reading Prova del Futuro

It’s been a busy week in Milan, including old boyfriends, domestic intrigue, and sick children. But the biggest hit to my well-ordered life was a bomb dropped by a friend, with whom I brought up children and shared a ski-house in Cortina for close to two decades. Over lunch she revealed that she was having an affair with a high school crush and her husband … Continue reading Content Mom

Faithful readers, and I know some of you are out there, are familiar with my penchant for American self-help books. Over the years, and with varying degrees of success, they have provided over-the-counter cures for my hopelessness with Excel and Photoshop, encounters with difficult people, sassy children and dogs, my lack of self-confidence, and a go-nowhere novel. Over-the-counter cures can have surprising if unintended uses, … Continue reading The National Mind

Whenever I tell people I live in Milan, they immediately gush about how well they ate while visiting Italy. They had the most amazing pasta! They had the meal of a lifetime in a trattoria or in a restaurant with a Michelin star! The tomatoes were incredible! It’s foodie heaven! How wonderful to eat like that every day! Italy is blessed with food advantages, including … Continue reading On Food

Marco Tullio Giordana’s film helps explain why Italians remain mesmerized by far-fetched conspiracy theories. On Dec. 12, 1969, the Milan headquarters of the Banca Nazionale d’Agricoltura was bombed, leaving 17 dead and 88 injured. The incident embedded itself so deeply into the Italian national consciousness that it became know simply as “Piazza Fontana.” Director Giordana, a veteran of probing the murky depths of contemporary Italian … Continue reading Romanzo di una Strage

Dear Classmate: Recently you asked me to be your friend on Facebook and of course I accepted. We were friends and classmates in college. Our shared intellectual vivacity and similar backgrounds with rigorous, rugged individualist parents brought us together. But now I’m writing you to say that although I still will be your “real” friend, I no longer want to be one on Facebook. The … Continue reading A Farewell to Hate

Naples has always held some sort of morbid attraction for me. I have wanted to go there since I arrived in Italy two decades ago. Last week, I finally did. Driving me was the same compulsive mix that had once led my ancestors across the Atlantic to the United States, and further west, and that later propelled me to Italy. It was the desire for … Continue reading Devils in Paradise

For 18 years, when Carnival approached, I’d load the car with children (husband/father would come later), skis, bed linens, sleds and a decent teapot that the vacation rental in Cortina d’Ampezzo in Italy’s Dolomites didn’t provide. We had road music — CCR’s “Bad Moon Rising,” Janis Joplin’s “Me and Bobby McGee,” or real bad ZZ Top — and a full tank of gas. Jack Kerouac’s … Continue reading Changing Seasons

First came Amy Chua’s “Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mom” and now there’s “Bringing Up Bébé: One American Mother Discovers the Wisdom of French Parenting.” I haven’t read either one (or “Super-Moms from Fiji!” for that matter), but they got me thinking back on my own experience of parenting between cultures. I grew up in the United States of the 1960s and I live and … Continue reading Slacker Mom

While the new face of Italy — Prime Minister Mario Monti — has been calling on U.S. President Barack Obama on his victory lap tour, the old face of Italy — Silvio Berlusconi — has also been busy. He’s been hard at work on a new screenplay for his post-Monti role, with help from co-writers in the foreign press. Berlusconi recently granted the first interviews … Continue reading Shadow Boxer