Literary Italy

Baldassare Castiglione's Book of the Courtier raises questions such as "What are the qualities the perfect gentleman?", "What are the qualities of language that are suitable for writing?", and "What is the proper balance between artifice and sincerity?". Wake up, Yana!

Can't get enough of your love, babe. Or of Dante. This episode we read Dante's New Life , a prelude to The Divine Comedy. Written in prosimetrum, a form that combines poetry and prose, we get to see a little more of Beatrice, and a lot more of young Dante in Florence.Catherine ProjectFrisardi's translation of Vita Nuova (online)Dante Gabriel Rossetti's translation on Librivox (online audiobook)Mark Musa's translation in paperbackCervigni and Vasta's translation in paperback

Italo Calvino was one of the best known Italian writers throughout the world in the late 20th century. In the 1950's he set about working with Italian folklorists to collect, shape, and assemble Italian fables or fairy tales. The result was Fiabe Italiane  (Italian Folktales), a compendium of stories from different parts of Italy. This week we dip our toe into the life and work of this fascinating man.

Liam Neeson or Leslie Nielsen? You decide.Things to know about Cortona:Ancient city - Etruscans - walls go back to 5th c. BCRomansAlso long history as a tourist destination, even before Under the Tuscan SunWhat to see in CortonaCathedral of Santa Maria Assunta, built in 1456MAEC - Museo dell'Accademia Etrusca e della Città di CortonaDiocesan Museum — The Annunciation by Beato Angelico (From 1408 to 1418, Fra Angelico was at the Dominican friary of Cortona, where he painted frescoes, now mostly destroyed, in the Dominican Church and may have been assistant to Gherardo Starnina or a follower of his) and The Deposition by Luca Signorelli (c. 1441/1445 – 16 October 1523)Archeological area - Etruscan tombs in Sodo and Camucia dating to 6th c BCE, uncovered in 20th c.Girifalco castle —Medici fortress, 1556 - today hosts exhibitions and occasionally concertsVia Romea Germanica passes through CortonaEremo Le Celle — first hermitage to be founded by San Francesco- 4 km from Cortona. The Monastery is perched on Monte Sant'Egidio and in the gorge dividing the two buildings runs a mountain stream - ‘Celle', which does not refer to the little buildings friars used to live in, but rather to some constructions built from the rock by shepherds and peasants. San Francesco arrived in Cortona around the year 1211 and met Guido Vagnotelli, a young man from a good-to-do  family who often welcomed Francesco in his home to pray. Guido decided to follow a religious vocation and offered the land where the Hermit would have been built laterBasilica of Santa Margherita in Cortona-14th-century church adorned in Baroque style - Margaret of Cortona (1247 – 22 February 1297) was an Italian penitent of the Third Order of Saint Francis. She was born in Laviano, near Perugia, and died in Cortona. She was canonized in 1728. Patron saint of the falsely accused, hoboes, homeless, insane, orphaned, mentally ill, midwives, penitents, single mothers, reformed prostitutes, stepchildren, and tramps. At the age of 17 she met a young (noble)man, and ran away with him, lived in the castle as his mistress, near Montepulciano and bore him a son. When her lover failed to return home from a journey/hunt one day, Margaret became concerned. The unaccompanied return of his favorite hound alarmed Margaret, and the hound led her into the forest to his murdered body. Returned all the gifts he had given her to his family and left. Her family refused her so she went to the Franciscan friars at Cortona, where her son eventually became a friar. She fbecame a penitent known for extreme fasting, joined the Third Order of Saint Francis and chose to live in poverty. Established a hospital in Cortona for the sick, homeless and impoverished. To secure nurses for the hospital, she instituted a congregation of Tertiary Sisters, known as "le poverelle" (Italian for "the little poor ones”). She also established an order devoted to Our Lady of Mercy and the members bound themselves to support the hospital and to help the needy. On several occasions, Margaret participated in public affairs. Twice, claiming divine command, she challenged the Bishop of Arezzo, Guglielmo Ubertini Pazzi, in whose diocese Cortona lay, because he lived and warred like a prince. She moved to the ruined church of Basil of Caesarea, now Santa Margherita, and spent her remaining years there; she died on 22 February 1297. Frequently depicted as a “new” Magdalene.

Another episode in Lombardy, this time featuring poet, politico, and salon host Veronica Gàmbara.

Cesare Beccaria, author of On Crimes and Punishments (Dei delitti e delle pene) political philosopher, forgotten philosophe, 18th century influencer extraordinaire, arguably had more citations by the first American presidents than John Locke had. We talk about his life and his native city of Milan. (Also -- James Madison's height: 5ft 4in. ) Enjoy!

We read The Leopard, a novel of the Risorgimento, a tragic-comic story of romance, war, and a stuffed dog.

Vincent Schiavelli, character actor, chef, and author is the our subject! We look at his book Many Beautiful Things, his wonderfully idiosyncratic memoir/cookbook/fable anthology. Anne and Jim are still scheming to get to Sicily. Maybe we're closer to pulling the trigger. Who knows? In the meantime, we hope you enjoy this feast.

You got horror in my magical realism. You got magical realism in my horror. -- It's delicious! This week, we talk Dino Buzzati (whom Jim distressingly insists on referring to as "Dee Butts") and his short story "The Bewitched Jacket." Then, we longingly look to the northeast and contemplate the beautiful Dolomite sub-range of the Alps. Plus random musings. Enjoy!

This week, we read Elena Ferrante's novella The Lost Daughter, set on the Ionian coast. We also watch Maggie Gyllenhaal's film adaptation. Join us!

The Dynamic Duo are back, this time with a feature on novelist Federigo Tozzi. We read his short story "A Bender"

This week: Canto III of Dante's Divine Comedy!

This week we talk about A House in Sicily, a 1999 memoir by Daphne Phelps. Phelps was the owner of Casa Cuseni, a hotel for artists and writers that opened in 1947. It takes guests to this day while also serving as a museum in Taormina.

We all know Michelangelo as a giant of sculpture and painting, but, a true "Renaissance Man," he also wrote hundreds of poems. Anne and Jim dip into the life of this fascinating figure.Canadian Broadcasting Corporation show on Michelangelo's poetry

Our guest this week is Wendy Holloway, host of  Flavor of Italy, a weekly podcast focused  Italian food, culture, and travel. Wendy shares with us springtime foods and traditions of Rome and beyond. What could be better than a picnic of fava beans and pecorino cheese? Be sure to check out Wendy's website for stories, travel tips, and some pretty amazing recipes!

Anne and Jim are back in Tuscany for E. M. Forster's A Room with a View, which helped them love Italy and Florence before they had ever set eyes on it.

Our guest today is Jay Malarcher. Jay is Associate Professor and Program Director of Theater History and Criticism at West Virginia University. Also, he first introduced Anne and me to each other, many years ago at St. John's College. He's a dramaturge, director, actor, and a great friend of the show. Anne and I reflected on a performance we saw a few years ago of Carlo Goldini's Servant of Two Masters, and we knew Jay would be the perfect person to talk about this play, as well as commedia dell'arte more broadly. He's graciously agreed to an interview. Hope you enjoy it!

We're back with an episode on Dacia Maraini, one of the most fascinating and prolific Italian writers today. We talk about her memoir, Bagheria, named for the town of the same name just outside Palermo on the northern coast of Sicily.

Our guest today, Mike Aquilina, has been a friend of ours for years. A prolific writer and authority on Patristics (the writings of the Church Fathers). He's also a lyricist with rock and roll icon Dion. Mike is the host of the Way of the Fathers podcast, and when we heard his episode on Marcus Minucius Felix and his dialogue Octavius, set in Ostia Antica just outside Rome, we thought, that ought to be an episode of Literary Italy. And now it is.

The short story "Cavalleria Rusticana" (translation online). Later, a tour of Catania, Giovanni Verga's birthplace.

In this episode, we talk about the importance of the Sicilian School, and read from the sonnets of Giacomo (Jacopo) da Lentini (alas, only in Tuscan and English -- the original Sicilian is lost to us). We also touch on the life of Frederick II of Sicily. Enjoy! 

We get META all over the place. Luigi Pirandello's play Six Characters in Search of an Author is one of the most famous and most influential dramatic works of the 20th century. We talk about Pirandello, his hometown of Agrigento in Sicily, and, of course, those Six Characters...

In this episode we discuss poet Giuseppe Ungaretti's early collection, Allegria, recently translated into English by Geoffrey Brock. A poet of few words, but so much feeling. We also talk about Lucca in Tuscany, where Ungaretti's family was from, and Sagrado in Friuli-Venezia Giulia, in northeast Italy, where Ungaretti fought in World War I, and wrote many of these amazing poems.

Buona Befana! We celebrate New Year's and Epiphany with the a poem by Giovanni Pascoli.

Christmas markets in Italy! We talk about the Piazza Navona market in Rome, and the poet Giuseppe Gioacchino ("GG" to his friends) Belli, author of over 2,000 sonnets about priests, prostitutes, paupers, princes...and Piazza Navona!

This week we interview Elizabeth Namack and discuss her unique approach to Italian travel planning. Liz shares her perspective on trends in Italian travel as she tells the story of her personal journal from the United States to her life in Florence.  Visit My Italian Treasures to learn more about her services and her attitudes toward travel!

Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat, and we are getting dizzy from the evocation of the street scenes of Naples, with butcher shops dangling carcasses, the perfumed scents of flowers, herbs, vegetables, cod and eels! We read Mathilde Serao's "To the Tenth Muse." And Jim has a vivid hallucination of a mechanical monkey banging a cymbal. Please get us some help.

Anne and Jim travel south geographically and backwards in time to the eruption of Vesuvius and the destruction of Pompeii and Herculaneum, witnessed by Pliny the Younger.Cynthia Damon's translation of Pliny's letters on PompeiiMap of Vesuvius, Misenum, Herculaneum, and PompeiiPliny's letters from Volcanoes of Europe by Scarth and Tanguy

In this episode we return to Dante and to Florence with Canto 2 of the Inferno! Dante is sort of like the middle of the Bingo card of Italian literature--plus this year marks the 700th anniversary of his death (Jim asks Anne during the podcast what the precise date is, and she fluffs and fumbles, but the answer is September 1321). In addition, we talk about some of our favorite slightly-off-the-beaten-path places to visit in Florence. Enjoy!

Join us for Anna Maria Ortese's "A Pair of Eyeglasses" in Neapolitan Chronicles (Italian: Il mare non bagna Napoli ). Published in English for the first time in decades in 2018, Ortese gives us a gritty glimpse of postwar Naples in a slice-of-life tale about . . . optometry. Ortese retired to Rapallo in Liguria and died there in 1998.Un paio di occhiali  short film adaptation on YouTube.Neapolitan Chronicles on Amazon.com

Anne and Jim note their disappointing lack of Scooby Doo-like adventures in Umbria. Then they talk about 6 (5 1/2?) scary places in Italy!PovegliaLucca and the legend of Lucida MansiBenevento, the City of the WitchesCapannori and the Oak of the WitchesTriora, the Salem of ItalyWerewolves of Puglia

Erin O'Rourke's translation as read by her. In this episode we talk about Halloween traditions in Italy (especially Sicily and Sardinia) and the ghost/vampire story by Sicilian writer Luigi Capuana.

Jim's back from his walk on the Via Francigena from Siena to ROME! And a mere hours after his plane touches down on American soil, Anne interviews our jetlagged traveler to find out more about the experience, the towns he visited, the people he met, and (of course) the food he ate. And maybe it's true that, "No matter where you go, there you are." How would you like spend a two-week sabbatical walking two hundred miles in Italy? 

A little bit of everything as we chat some more about Elena Ferrante, the Amalfi Coast, the island of Ischia, even Pisa! And Jim (nervously) talks about his plans to spend two weeks walking from Siena to Rome! That's three regions in one episode--a record! (Campania, Tuscany, and Lazio)

With his cookbook "Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well," Pellegrino Artusi revolutionized the idea of Italian home cooking, and 130 years later the book is *still* a bestseller in Italy. But in addition to offering delicious recipes, the book is just a fun read, as Artusi offers anecdotes about cooking, eating, and life in general! Buon appetito!!!

In this episode we're talking about Cesare Pavese and the Piedmont region. Poetry and prose, city and country, wine and chocolate, love and loss: it's all here!

I guess we can't get enough of islands! This time it's the island of Procida, just off the coast of Naples. Tucked between the more famous islands of Capri and Ischia, Procida quietly offers small fishing villages, stunning beaches and amazing seafood. Procida also plays a starring role in Elsa Morante's novel, Arturo's Island, and is set to hit the big time as Italy's Capital of Culture for 2022. 

Today we're off to the beautiful isle of Sicily, for sea, sun . . . and murder. Andrea Camilleri's Inspector Montalbano series of novels, and the entertaining RAI/BBC series that was made from them.

This week we're hoping to become a real boy! That's right, it's The Adventure of Pinocchio. The fourth most translated book in the world, it's a work for children and adults the world over. Anne and Jim go back to Tuscany with this episode, the birth place of Pinocchio's author Carlo Collodi.

Machiavelli: It's complicated. Today's readings: The PrinceThe Mandrake

You say, "Sardinia," but I say, "Sardegna" . . . Today, we read Grazia Deledda's Il Paese del Vento (Land of the Wind). Sadly, we haven't located an English translation, but Anne is working on that now! We also eye the island of Sardinia covetously and ask, "When can we get there?"

Cari Ascoltatori!We're taking a week of for a much needed vacation; we'll be back with a story from the Bel Paese next week.Thank all of you for listening, and for sharing ideas for upcoming shows!   Here's how to reach us:Email: mail@literaryitaly.com Facebook: LiteraryItaly Twitter:  @LiteraryItaly, Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/literaryitalypodcast/Let us know how things are going: should we do more old classics, more contemporary works, more poetry, more fiction, more culture and music, more travel information? Should we talk more about cooking? Let us know what you'd like to hear more of (or less of!), so please, make your voice heard, we'd love to hear from you.Alla prossima!

With a song in our hearts, the wind sweeping through the window, and our hands and faces inexplicably painted blue, this week Anne and Jim swing along with Domenico Modugno's international hit record, "Nel blu dipinto di blu" (also known as "Volare!"). Often covered (see this Spotify playlist or this Apple Music playlist), it was winner of the inaugural Grammy for both Record of the Year and Song of the Year. Listen as we tell this song's strange story, relate our memories of Modugno's hometown of Polignano a Mare in Puglia, and somehow work both painter Marc Chagall and the Italian Parliament into the conversation. Enjoy!

This week, we take a hike...on the Via Francigena, an ancient pilgrimage route that runs from Canterbury, England to Rome, passing through some marvelous scenery along the way. Anne walked part of it in 2019, and Jim is planning a walk this autumn, so we chat about what a pilgrimage walk is, how to prepare, and what to see (and eat!) along the way!

This week we tackle the great Italian poet and philosopher Giacomo Leopardi and the region of Le Marche, his birthplace and source of both inspiration as well as despair. In one of his most famous poems, "L'Infinito" ("The Infinite"), Leopardi describes the view of the immense sky from his childhood home, partially blocked by a hedge and a hill. Perhaps precisely because of this limitation, the view is all the more dear to him because of what it leaves to the imagination. Leopardi did eventually overcome both his restrictive upbringing as well as his poor health, and traveled quite a bit around Italy before his death at the age of 38, but the region of Le Marche remains associated with him and his works. Today you can visit Leopardi's home (and extensive library) in the small town of Recanati, but Le Marche also offers extensive parks, gorgeous beaches, and important cultural centers and cities, such as Urbino, the hometown of artist Raphael. Oh, and you can also see and climb that very same hill Leopardi writes about in "L'Infinito."

Mystic, Leader, Writer, Saint, just a general Badass, Catherine of Siena set her fourteenth-century world on fire. In this episode we head back to Tuscany to talk about Catherine, her life, her letters, and her hometown city of Siena. Plus, Chianti! In this episode we speak about this letter of Catherine of Siena to Pope Gregory XI: http://web.mit.edu/aorlando/www/SaintJohnCHI/Church%20History%20Readings/Catherine%20of%20Siena%20Letter%2074.pdf

Today we laugh far too much about Death in Venice, a not-at-all-funny novella by our first non-Italian author, Thomas Mann. But seriously, is there something about illness and decadence that drives creativity?