La lingua, la gente, il paese, il vino, il formaggio, il cibo...

• I love the language. I've taken 3 years of Latin, 8 years of French, and I've studied Italian, mostly on my own, off and on for the last 35 years. Especially for those of us who know French or Latin, the Italian language is a delight. So much of it is familiar, yet much is different. A lot of the vocabulary is obvious (ovvio). The rules of spelling, grammar, pronunciation are so regular, it's easy to get started. The present tense of verbs is useful for the near past and the near future, so you can get by for a long time without learning any other verb forms. At the advanced level, verbs are incredibly challenging, which is also a lot of fun for those of us who want to take the trouble. And the Italians compliment you and encourage you for even the lamest attempt to speak their language, unlike certain of their European neighbors to the west who shall go nameless.
• I love the people. I know it is close to a patronizing stereotype, but the Italians I have encountered, with few exceptions, are friendly, welcoming, kind. They understand that tourism is one of the most important sectors of their economy, and if they have any complicated feelings about Americans, they don't show them. I haven't once had to fall back on No, sono canadese.
• OMG. The countryside is just as beautiful as you think it is. Just look at our photos!
• I've told my friend Eric, who is a genuine oenophile and expert: I get it that many other nations produce wine that is often better (and sometimes cheaper) than Italian wine. But no other country's wine reminds me of being in Italy. I rest my case.
• When I was a kid, my parents and I went through several years of relative poverty, when my father was unsuccessfully trying to start a business. As soon as he returned to a regular income, the first luxury in which my mother indulged was imported cheese. I've been a cheese-aholic ever since. Even objective observers will concede that Italian cheese is the best in the world (come on, Eric). My cheese book says, and I agree, that the world's greatest cheese is Parmigiano Reggiano. And this from a country that also produces Mozzarella di Bufala and Pecorino Toscano.
• The food. No need to say much, except that I am a vegetarian, and no other country, except maybe India, produces such a variety of delicious vegetarian food. In the U.S. even Italian cooks often add animal broth to vegetable soup. Here, it is rare that a soup (or any other dish) that appears to be vegetarian has gratuitous meat added. They take the time for insaporire, to let the vegetables release their own flavors.

These are a few of the reasons I'm an Italophile.

La prossima volta che andrò in Italia...

The title of this post is in the future tense because I had every good intention of publishing it before returning to Italy, but I didn't quite get it done. So, eccomi in Italia. What am I doing here? The Italian language school La Lingua, La Vita in Todi, Umbria, made me an offerta invernale I couldn't refuse. Their winter special, good until the end of February 2010, offers four weeks of Italian instruction (mornings 5 days a week) plus lodging for only €1200. Not per week, for the whole four weeks. As I've told friends, if it weren't for the pesky mortgage payment, it would be less expensive to be here than to stay home. At the Euro to Dollar exchange rate when I paid my tuition, that was about $1800. The Euro has been dropping since, so now it would be even less. That's the bad news, but the good news is: I will eat (and do touristy things) on the reduced Euro.

The same day I saw that offer, I got an email from US Airways that I would lose my 90,000 frequent flyer miles if I didn't do something by the end of February. As my friend Deb would say, the planets aligned. I was able to cash in 70,000 miles on a round-trip Envoy (First) Class ticket to Rome.

There are several other factors that contibuted to my taking this adventure, and I'll post about them at some point. In the meantime, the occasion of this blog is my return to Italy for the 6th (or seventh, if you count the infant steps on San Marco) time. The purpose of the blog is for me to have a place to record thoughts, recollections, photos, etc., from all those trips, and a diary of this trip, and to explore why I am so madly in love with Italy (other than the obvious). If you care to join me, I'd love to have you along for the trip. If not, no hard feelings. This is primarily an exercise in self-indulgence.

La prima volta che sono andata in Italia...

Rob and I have been to Italy five times, but the first time I went to Italy was as an infant with my parents.

I was born in Istanbul (conceived on the Île Saint Louis in Paris, but that's another blog...), so I lived in Europe before I ever lived in the US. Because my parents were both Americans, I was born an American citizen and I have the beautiful birth certificate with a red ribbon and US State Department seal to prove it (eat your heart out, Mr. President).

When my parents and I left Turkey to come home, they wanted to make the most of the trip, so we spent a month traveling across Greece and Italy, a month in Paris, and a month in London, before taking the Queen Elizabeth I across the Atlantic and settling in the DC area.

The Italian portion of our trip started with a slow boat from Greece, landing in Bari at the Achilles tendon of Italy, and taking trains through Italy and ultimately through the Sempione (Simplon) pass to Paris.

Family mythology has me taking my first steps on the Piazza San Marco in Venezia (Venice) and kicking the pigeons. Of course I don't remember -- I was +/- 13 months old -- but that was the first time I went to Italy.