It began with sunshine and smiles as my family found each other in the small confines of the airport in Florence and ended with shouts and threats seven days later in the same airport in the dark of 5am—when our flight to Frankfurt was cancelled. The shouting and shoving did not come from me because I was so groggy and disoriented I could hardly process the fact that after a ... Read More...
Arrivederci for Now
Happy Friday, readers! No review today because by noon I will be aboard a plane heading to Italy. Yes, the long awaited family vacation has arrived! For the next seven days I’ll be traipsing around Florence, Cortona, and Siena. Probably even seeing gorgeous landscapes like the one above. What a lucky lady I am. Due to the crowds this time of year I won’t be taking in any of ... Read More...
The Light in the Ruins
The Light in the Ruins, Chris Bohjalian’s latest novel, is set at the Villa Chimera in Tuscany in 1943, a pastoral estate where the war is largely unseen. The Rosatis are a titled Italian family and while they have one son preparing for the Allied invasion in Sicily and another who works at a museum trying to control the flow of Italian art out of the country, their lives ... Read More...
Beautiful Ruins
In a remote village on the coast of Italy the young owner of The Hotel Adequate View receives only the second American guest in the hotel’s history. She’s surrounded by mystery but appears to have come from Rome where the filming of Cleopatra is still ongoing. Little does Pasquale Tursi know it, but his life is about to be changed forever. Beautiful Ruins is an expansive story ... Read More...
