Just the other day I received a kind of letter I get every few months from college alumnae and friends of friends. It goes like this: Dear Ms. Johnson, I fell in love with Italy during my junior year abroad/vacation/reading a book/watching movies. I love Italian culture and lifestyle and I want to come and live and work there. Do you have any contacts in … Continue reading Italy at Home

I recently wrote a column about the contents of my baggage. This time it’s about the luggage. It began with Ninga, as my great-grandmother was known. A widow with five grown children, Ninga closed her house and moved into a residential hotel on Chicago’s North Shore. She gave away everything that would not fit in two trunks and then she took to traveling. One trunk … Continue reading Ninga

In the 1970s my family’s Christmas season officially started a few days before Thanksgiving. That’s when my father returned from what had become an annual trip to Moscow. It was billed as a medical exchange: Every year he went to Moscow and a Russian came to the United States. But my father’s trip always included a few days in Washington and he claimed the Soviet … Continue reading Malossol

One of the biggest criticisms of Mario Monti is that he wasn’t elected. Well of course he wasn’t. That’s the point. He’s supposed to make Italy become productive again. He’s supposed to tackle just the sort of nasty problems elected people try to avoid — the same ones everyone thought Silvio Berlusconi was going to repair back in 1994, including pension and labor market reform, … Continue reading Ma Cosa Vuoi?

In 1984, during an already successful career, Doris Lessing wrote and submitted for publication two novels under the pseudonym Jane Somers. She wanted to demonstrate that nothing succeeds like success and that an unknown writer was doomed. In fact, her own publisher, Jonathan Cape rejected her manuscripts, which eventually appeared in the United States. Had Lessing submitted this book under the Somers moniker, it would … Continue reading The Sweetest Dream

Probably one of the greatest fallacies of contemporary American journalism and cinema is the belief that making a point means ramming it home. One of the many gifts of first-time director J.C. Chandor’s fine thriller that it avoids doing just that. Filmed over 17 days in one location on a minimal budget, the film records how an investment bank unravels in a 24-hour period that … Continue reading Margin Call

Until a friend’s recent comment, I had almost forgotten that the standard airline baggage allowance was once two (large) suitcases. My friend and I laughed as we reminisced about the crazy things that people asked us to bring, or that we couldn’t seem to live without — on either shore. Later as I reflected, it struck me that the things I carried had deeper messages. … Continue reading Valves and Pullovers

I was recently asked to dispense advice to some cross-cultural couples who seemed to think that my 20 years of living here (plus a divorce) had given me insight into Americans involved with Italians in relationships and marriages. I’m not sure their faith is warranted, but I agreed. While these thoughts concern American women involved with Italian men, they probably apply to other combinations, and … Continue reading The 16 Points

I recently had several personal encounters with the Great Depression. None as a result of gloomy economic forecasts, but instead from being reminded of its remarkable legacy. Encounter One: While waiting in a long line in the Lebanon, New Hampshire post office, with its Formica counters and modern office décor, I noticed a mural on back wall that seemed to hark back to a time … Continue reading WPA Remembered

Today was too rainy for yard work, so I rummaged through several steamer trunks worth of family letters, albums and academic miscellany. They trace the path of a busy thoughtful family along the crucial arc of American history from the Civil War through World War II. The themes are varied: family news, academic achievement, mental illness and daily life. But travel dominates. There are hundreds … Continue reading Dear Kids