Meeting Louise DeSalvo
The level of anxiety was growing foolishly, and it took me some time to convince my brain and then my body that this time we were there only to see a Nutritionist. Hello, can I help you? the nurse greeted me with a smile Yes, 16.30, Doctor A. I remember thinking...
Waste
Waste Here in Italy, news on paper or TV is scaring us with apocalyptic predictions for next Autumn. No Russian Gas to heat our homes, water rationing, skyrocketing fuel prices, and our economy is going back decades. As I live in Rome, how can I not add to this...
Rome, in love forever
Rome, in love forever I can't remember one time in my life when I was not in love with Rome. When we left Rome to immigrate to the U.K., I was five and begged my parents more than once to keep their promise: they had ensured we would return to Rome in five...
love,hate and feminism
I hate men by Pauline Harmange Suppose one day you start thinking that the heterosexual couple exists only to provide a housekeeper for men, and you keep asking yourself why women think they can’t live without a man. If that’s the case, I hate men by Pauline Harmange...
The Waves
Déjà vu This morning while I had my daily walk along the main road of my neighbourhood, a young lady in her twenties walked by me in the other direction. She captured my attention for more than one reason. She had a beautiful smile, the kind of smile that comes from...
Summer Reads
Summer Reads August 2021 I just wanted to lie down on the sofa and watch tv. I binge-watched some tv-series I had missed in the past years. I felt lazy, unhappy maybe a bit depressed after coping for the last year and a half with all that had changed in my life, and...
Teaching Adults
Teaching Adults The first meeting with a student is always decisive for how our teacher-student relationship will proceed. Getting it wrong means wasting a lot of time getting it right, and sometimes it never gets right. When I started teaching, I had only experienced...
Cultural Gap
A silent lesson When I want to explain the cultural differences between England and Italy, I tell two anecdotes I personally experienced. It was December 2004, and my husband and I were in London for a weekend. Our hotel was on the opposite banks of the River Thames...
Coratella: Traditional Recipe for Easter
Sfritt'. My recipe from the family I learned this recipe simply spending time, the days before Easter, in the kitchen with my family. My grandmothers, my aunts and my mother all cooked the Sfritt’ in a slightly different way, adding or taking out some ingredients. I...
Italian Easter : Cooking Legacy
If ever there were a week when Italians must do a lot of cooking, it's the week before Easter. When I was a child, lent fasting was a severe prescription for Catholic families. I remember my grandmother Modestina took it so seriously that only when the bells started...
