{"id":3938,"date":"2022-05-31T18:21:39","date_gmt":"2022-05-31T18:21:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.luxurylink.com\/blog\/?p=3938"},"modified":"2022-06-02T14:31:30","modified_gmt":"2022-06-02T14:31:30","slug":"my-italian-summer-by-paul-theroux","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.luxurylink.com\/blog\/my-italian-summer-by-paul-theroux\/","title":{"rendered":"My Italian Summer"},"content":{"rendered":"

This article was originally published on Silversea\u2019s first issue of \u201cTalks: People, Places, Stories\u201d magazine, a collection of stories, interviews and photo essays \u2013 dialogues, in essence \u2013 that offer unique and at times unexpected points of view of tried and true destinations. The first issue of\u00a0<\/em>Talks\u00a0was devoted to Italy and starts off with acclaimed author and travel writer\u00a0Paul Theroux\u2019s<\/a>\u00a0account of his first great trip to the Bel Paese, almost 60 years ago.<\/em><\/p>\n

Wandering in Italy, on the\u00a0Adriatic coast<\/a>, in the summer of 1963, I headed inland, to the hill town of Urbino, where by chance I was hired as a teacher of English. It was the best job I\u2019ve ever had, in one of the most beautiful towns I\u2019ve ever seen. All my students were young Italian women. I lived adjacent to the Ducal Palace. My salary was small but I had a free room, and all my meals were provided. The best part of the day was lunchtime with the other teachers and some students, often a dozen of us\u2014always lengthy and loquacious, my witty and informative colleagues. \u201cRipeti dopo di me,\u201d someone would say to me (\u201crepeat after me\u201d), and challenge me with a tongue-twister. \u201cSe l\u2019arcivescovo di Costantinopoli si disarcivescoviscostantinopolizzasse\u2026\u201d (If the archbishop of Constantinople renounced his position of archbishop\u2026)<\/p>\n

And then we\u2019d drink more wine. I was a young and impressionable traveler, new to lotus eating, but a fast learner.<\/p>\n

Italy was my first great trip, my first immersion into the world of the senses, my introduction to delicious food, and dramatic landscapes, to masterpieces of art and architecture, to magnificence, to instinctive generosity.<\/p>\n

Italy is in my blood\u2014my maternal grandfather emigrated alone as a young man from Ferrara, my grandmother as teenager with her parents from Piacenza. They met in New York City and married at Our Lady of Pompeii Church on Carmine Street in Greenwich Village. Like many other emigrants they held fast to their culture, my grandmother making tortellini and fresh pasta noodles, my grandfather making wine. Their huge dining 6 table served as a gathering place on Sundays, where we ate together, afterwards heading outside to the bocce court on the lawn. I was inspired to study Italian, and did so for three years in high school.<\/p>\n

Italy was the ancient past in its churches and ruins, but it was ultra-modern in popular culture. This was the era of classic Italian films\u2014Fellini\u2019s\u00a0La Dolce Vita<\/em>, Antonioni\u2019s\u00a0L\u2019Avventura<\/em>, and the work of Visconti and Pasolini. Italian design was innovative\u2014the compact minimalism of the Olivetti typewriter, the sleek lines of the Ferrari, and the stylish cut of Italian clothes. By contrast, it was also the Italy of men in heavy brown suits and fedoras, of the boy taking his mother to the market on his Vespa\u2014the old woman in black balanced on the back seat. Italy was chivalrous in its manners\u2014I saw an urchin snatch open a car door for a woman and say, \u201cBacio la mano\u201d (I kiss your hand). And whenever I apologized for my Italian I would be told \u201cTu parli benissimo!\u201d (You speak beautifully, though in truth it was no more than adequate). The Italian genius for compliments always smooths the way.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Between intervals of teaching, I traveled\u2014by train, by bus, often simply hitchhiking. The seaside town of Fano was down the hill from Urbino, less than an hour away and I discovered what the wanderer in Italy finds with amazement, that every region, every town, every village, prides itself on its distinctive cuisine, its particular wine, its turns of speech, its festivals, its saints and artists.<\/p>\n

I mention Italy\u2019s magnificence. I found it in\u00a0Venice<\/a>\u00a0and Rome and Naples\u2014it is unmissable. But I also found it in obscure places.<\/p>\n

I was invited to a picnic by friends, picked up one sunny morning in\u00a0Palermo<\/a>\u00a0by a big black car driven by Vittorio, his employer Signora Vanni beside him. I sat in the rear seat with two young women, Signora Vanni\u2019s daughter Anna Maria, and her friend, Kitty Zangara. Less than an hour later we came to a wooded area. \u201cCaccamo,\u201d Anna Maria said, and Vittorio parked under some trees, where there was a table of rough planks. He transformed the table with a white linen tablecloth and wine glasses; he set dishes on it\u2014 salad, pasta, grilled fish, bread; and he uncorked bottles of wine. We sat luxuriously in the shade, eating and talking, with a view of the sunny hillside and the thousand-year-old town. A magnificent picnic.<\/p>\n

Another beautiful memory. I was in Palermo and had spent the last of my money on a ticket to\u00a0New York<\/a>\u00a0aboard the\u00a0Queen Frederica<\/em>. This was in September, 1963; I was going into the Peace Corps, training for\u00a0Africa<\/a>. The farewell party my Italian friends gave me on the night of departure went on so long that when we got to the port, a Sicilian band was playing \u201cAnchors Aweigh\u201d and the Queen Frederica had just left the quayside. In that moment I lost all my vitality and wanted to cry.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cNon preoccuparti!\u201d (do not worry), my friends said. They bought me an air ticket to\u00a0Naples<\/a>, so that I could catch the ship there the next day. Just before I boarded the plane an airline official 7 said I had not paid my departure tax. I told him I had no money. A man behind me in a brown suit and brown Borsalino said, \u201cHere. You need some money?\u201d and handed me twenty dollars.<\/p>\n

That solved the problem. I said, \u201cI\u2019d like to pay you back.\u201d<\/p>\n

The man shrugged. He said, \u201cI\u2019ll probably see you again. The world\u2019s a small place.\u201d<\/p>\n

Italy never disappoints\u2014on the contrary, it inspires and excites, every corner of it is capable of enchantment. I discovered in Italy, no matter where you go, you are always among friends.<\/p>\n

To learn more about Silversea destinations visit https:\/\/discover.silversea.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This article was originally published on Silversea\u2019s first issue of \u201cTalks: People, Places, Stories\u201d magazine, a collection of stories, interviews and photo essays \u2013 dialogues, in essence \u2013 that offer unique and at times unexpected […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":3945,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3938","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.luxurylink.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3938","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.luxurylink.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.luxurylink.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.luxurylink.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.luxurylink.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3938"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.luxurylink.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3938\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3960,"href":"https:\/\/www.luxurylink.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3938\/revisions\/3960"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.luxurylink.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3945"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.luxurylink.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3938"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.luxurylink.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3938"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.luxurylink.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3938"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}