Meeting with Zeffirelli and the beauty of mortadella
Reading Table V.
Hi, I’m Peter, and you’re reading Anywhere Italy. Our mission is to cover the 1,000 Italian towns most travelers skip, in person, one at a time. To come along, join free, and go paid if you want to keep us on the road.
I write about Italy and the towns and experiences most people skip. Mine is one point of view. Others have theirs, and I love to read them all. So most weeks, I find a few pieces from other writers worth passing on.
This is Anywhere Italy’s Reading Table. Here are the latest articles from writers who made my days better.
Eric J Lyman on Franco Zeffirelli
I don’t know, but Eric simply just can’t miss. Haven’t counted, but this is not the first time I’ve included him in this roll. But I can’t help it, I’m a sucker for his small stories. This time, it’s about the maestro, Franco Zeffirelli.
Eric is a journalist who describes an encounter with Franco Zeffirelli at his villa off the Via Appia, where the 91-year-old director was presenting a limited-edition book of stills from his film about Saint Francis. The piece captures Zeffirelli in his final years. Opinionated, commanding, surrounded by the artifacts of a life spent between Florence, Rome, and the world’s great opera houses and film sets. It is a portrait of a place (the villa as museum), a person (Zeffirelli as aging maestro), and a moment suspended between Zeffirelli’s past grandeur and the present weight of age.
Alessandro Palombo on hidden cities of Northern Italy
I like how straightforward Alessandro’s entire publication is, even though his expat business angle is not for me. He sometimes writes about Italian towns and places, and you can tell he is from around here, because he never falls into the clickbait-heavy tips and carousel-style content which is popular on this angle everywhere on social media.
He argues in this post that these are not villages with charm plays but proper cities where Northern Italians already live, off the radar of the typical expat migration routes. It’s oriented toward readers considering relocation to Italy, not tourism, and treats place as livable texture rather than destination. I know he hit the mark because he included three cities which we have considered moving to many times: Parma, Treviso, and Vicenza. I was inches close to buying a home in Treviso a couple of years ago.
Erica Firpo on mountain trips during summertime
I loved this piece because we literally just did this last weekend, though not the Dolomites, but the Apuan Alps. Erica lives in Rome, and the city is gripped by a fourth consecutive heatwave, with temperatures so extreme that daily life transforms.
Romans have retreated to the coast since Augustus, a practice Ciao Bella’s author has always followed, until this summer, when she broke the pattern. The post captures the sensory reality of the city in crisis heat and hints at an unexpected turn in how one long-time resident responded to it.
M. M. Fosco on the musical portrait of Genova
I loved this because it felt like we two had collaborated on this topic, since I also published a piece with a different angle on how Versilia played a huge role in Italian pop & disco. To be fully transparent, we have had a conversation in the background. This piece, though, is like a history book of Italian singers and nowadays, rappers and local artists who are coming from the multinational, busy, and narrow streets of a port town, Genova.
The piece is part of a planned series on different city portraits from a music POV, so sign up at M.M.’s blog, not missing the new ones.
Being in Italy on the mortadella
Marostica, a small Venetian town of 14,000, hosts an annual Spring Festival on May 1st centered on a 226-kilogram mortadella, a giant salami that arrives by horse-drawn wagon, garlanded with flowers, and is carried by eight men to the town square. After the mayor speaks, the mortadella is carved and served with bread and local wine to the entire community until it is entirely consumed.
Perfect piece on one dish. I might add that it is probably only mortadella that is better bought pre-packed and pre-sliced. I know, please, don’t throw stones at me. You have to be in a very close relationship with your salumeria guy, so when you buy mortadella, and they slice it for you, they won’t cut finger-thick pieces. I want my mortadella to be thin like paper, thanks!
Robert Camuto on the volcanic terroir of Naples
I love pretty much anything Robert writes. This time, he skips Naples and focuses on the soil around the city. He wakes in Naples’ Campi Flegrei to a paradisiacal view from his hotel terrace, then smells rotten eggs on the breeze, the natural sulfurous calling card of one of Europe’s largest active volcanic zones.
He visits winemaker Gerardo Vernazzaro at Cantine Degli Astroni, learning how the winery operates literally inside a smoldering super-volcano, unlike Mount Etna, where you can look up and see it from outside. The piece digs deep into how Campania’s volcanic terroirs have been overshadowed by the fashionable attention now lavished on Sicily’s Mount Etna, and why Naples’ wines deserve a second look.
Some other hit pieces I’ve read this week that were amazing:
Eric J Lyman’s another piece on the struggle he had getting fed in Bologna, Too Late for Tortellini was just funny.
Clay Space’s piece on the jetlagged tour in Rome and the sacred moment in Saint Peter’s.
Tino Masecchia’s post, which was moving and deeply personal on finding childhood again through the smells of a Tuscan town.
Agnes Crawford’s article on film memory, archeology, and the newly restored sanctuary above Rome. Super niche trip that only a Roman can write.
Lastly, Angelica Frey’s review of the Siege of Paradise documentary. It’s darker than the movie itself is, which says a lot.
That was this week’s Reading Table. If you read something I missed, send it my way: ciao (at) anywhereitaly (dot) com.
Honored to be included! And I always enjoy these round-ups.