As an Italian national who lives outside of Italy, I am like an eagle in an aerie, able to watch what is happening throughout my homeland. And let me admit, right off the bat, that I am biased in favor of my beloved Southern Italy. I’m not the first to notice that one effect of […]
9. Ghost Stories
Neither my wife nor I place much stock in the supernatural. Me, I prefer to believe in things I can see and experience firsthand. I know people who are convinced that they have encountered ghosts. Most of these people are reasonable and ordinary, going about their everyday lives as best they can. Some of them […]
8. How Many Homes?
One phenomenon of living in the U.S. that has struck me is how mobile its people are. In particular, I am amazed at how often people move from one home to another. In the U.S. there is a strong sense that changing homes is a forward motion, a progression. In Italy, particularly in the south, […]
7. Chicken
My mother kept chickens on our farm for many years. They provided us with fresh eggs every day and the occasional Sunday main course. Our farm was at the foot of a mountain on which sits a famous religious sanctuary. Quite a few visitors from others parts of Italy and beyond used to drive up […]
6. The Florence Caper
On our first trip to Rome as a married couple, we took a city bus to visit my aunt and uncle in a part of the city that was unfamiliar to me. When we descended from the bus, we were unsure of where to find the street we needed (this was on the eve of […]
5. To Stay or To Go
As a young, newly-married man in southern Italy, my father became a tenant farmer. He rented a large plot of land from a prominent member of a patrician family based near Florence. With only a zappa (a wide-bladed hoe), my dad, joined by his brothers and a couple of day laborers, cleared roots, grasses, weeds, […]
4. A Tap on the Shoulder
A buddy of mine whom I’ve known since I was very small was hospitalized a few day ago. He just died of the virus that’s ravaging the Earth. Another friend is on a respirator, in the fight of her life against cancer. In the last 10 years or so I’ve lost many friends and cousins […]
3. Crossed-Signals, Misunderstandings, and Other Illusions
Have you ever been fond of a song that you Thought you knew the lyrics to, only to find out – sometimes years later – that the words were not quite how you sang them? I was on a snack run with some friends when the Stevie Nicks song Stand Back played over the store’s […]
2. On the Road to …
My sister was driving me in her old cinquecento (Fiat 500) to a new doctor in Naples, and she was unfamiliar with the city. She had never driven there, and if you know Naples, you know how big, congested, and confusing it is. I’ve never driven, so the best I could do was read the […]
1. Circles Just Happen
Ever feel like no matter what you do, what you want or how hard you try, you only go round and round in circles? Well, I do that when I’m not sure what I’m supposed to do. First few times it happened in front of my wife, she tilted her head and scrunched her face. […]
ANTON CIRCLES HIS WORLD 