Life is a journey influenced by the words we speak, read, think and hear. Where have a choice, maximizing our exposure to words that make us grow and beauty in all its forms makes the journey so much better. My blog is about those choices of words, sights and sounds.
I have done a few posts the last couple of weeks about the
movie “Eat Pray Love”. It's a good movie, not a great one, but it has some good life lessons and allows us to see some beautiful parts of the world. This movie was the beginning of my love for Italy and its people's passion for life.
In one scene a character named of
Luca Spaghetti (love the name!) says that Americans don’t know how to enjoy life. He says we
have to schedule our fun. We kill ourselves working all week, go home and drink
a six-pack on Friday night and wake up feeling awful. Pretty dang close Luca! However,
Italians, he says, they just enjoy life every day. They enjoy their wine. They experience
their food instead of being so hurried that they don’t even taste it. The movie
portrays eating as more than consuming food. Both preparing it and eating it
are about love, friends, and family.
There is an important restaurant scene with Liz and her
Italian tutor soon after she arrives in Italy. So many things in this simple scene that I love. The mood of the scene isn’t romantic
whatsoever, but the shots of each of them cutting into their food are mouth-watering
and seductive. Liz learns a beautiful new word at that meal that foreshadows
the end of the movie – attraversiamo. It
means “let’s cross over”. Even the Italian language is beautiful and seductive.
There is one more thing in this scene that I like because it made me laugh. After
she learns to speak “attraversiamo” correctly, she tells her tutor that she has
an English word to teach him. She picks
up the large carafe of wine that they are drinking with lunch, does a Vannah
White hand wave in front of it and says “therapist”. :) Love it!
Besides all this, I’m in love with Italy because it’s just gorgeous.
The waterways of Venice, the architecture, balconies and flowers. The fountains
and outdoor restaurants, the music. It seduces me, I’m in love.
In everything, I have a wide range of taste. When someone asks me to pick a favorite
anything, it’s difficult. Book genres – I like horror, some romance, historical
fiction, some science fiction, everything. In art, I like modern and classic. And
in music, there is some of every kind that Ienjoy, including opera.
I can’t
think of Italy without thinking of opera. So I leave you with the awesomeness of Lucianno Pavarotti singing "Nessun Dorma". Ciaoi miei amici!
In the first place...LP singing Nesum Dorma ALWAYS makes me cry. It is so beautiful. In the second place, I read that Americans take an average of 13 vacation days a year while Italians take 42!! No wonder we need to schedule our fun ;) Thanks for the great post!
Thank you for the kind words Leti! Italy is way up on my bucket list! One of these days I'll go and just stay as long as I want. Maybe an entire summer! In the meantime I'll drool over all things Italian from a distance! As far as Pavarotti, I don't care what he's singing, I cry. Glad you enjoyed it.
In the first place...LP singing Nesum Dorma ALWAYS makes me cry. It is so beautiful. In the second place, I read that Americans take an average of 13 vacation days a year while Italians take 42!! No wonder we need to schedule our fun ;)
ReplyDeleteThanks for the great post!
Thank you for the kind words Leti! Italy is way up on my bucket list! One of these days I'll go and just stay as long as I want. Maybe an entire summer! In the meantime I'll drool over all things Italian from a distance! As far as Pavarotti, I don't care what he's singing, I cry. Glad you enjoyed it.
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