Life in Italy

When you work with your hands, he says, the less you see, the more you feel. This could be true. Whenever he sees me, he somehow manages to truly see me, zeroing in on my flea-like worries and ladybug joys with the perception of a man whose main concerns are tiny stretches of smoothness and stubborn bits of rough.

While living in Italy, I developed a love for Linda Falcone’s clever commentary on daily life there. Her first book, Italians Dance and I’m a Wallflower, made me laugh so hard I cried. Today, I indulged in a belated catch-up on her column for The Florentine magazine.  The excerpt above is from one of my favorites, titled “A craftsman and a count.”

Falcone writes as an Italian-American who has been living in Italy for more than twenty years, and her love of language makes her an absolute delight to read. Her approach to writing is characterized by an attention to the small details of Italian life that provide a lens into broader truths about the culture as a whole (and especially Tuscany).  Often she’ll focus on one particular idiom or expression and what it reveals about the Italian mentality. Her observations are not only spot on but also charming and veritably insightful. Alright, enough gushing from me. If you have any kind of fondness for words or Italian culture, look her up subito!