Cellini, the family Medici, the Borgias, Vivaldi, Dante, St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Francis of Assisi, Julius Caesar, Columbus, Fellini, Caruso, Galileo, Da Vinci, Michaelangelo, Raphael, Caravaggio, Garibaldi, Pavarotti, Marco Polo, Stradivari, Verdi, Puccini, Rossini, Scarlatti, Bellini, Machiavelli, Andrea Amati, Marconi…….. just a tiny fraction of a list.
If, like me, you are not really all that well versed in the culture, history and anthropology of Italy, or not anywhere near well enough, that is, you could begin reading all the books you can find about these people, their lives and their contributions. This would take you a very long time, no doubt. If you’d like to take the short route, take about 30 minutes to look around on the internet – and find lists upon lists of the most influential artists, thinkers, politicians, musicians, scientists and just about every category of cultural, academic or leading luminary in just about all fields and disciplines, and their home, of Italy. Land of sainthood, cruelty, paganism, the papacy, visions of empires, thought, law, reason, visual splendor, engineering and design brilliance, and the table. Land of all inspiration, of all threads, of all seeds…. Need anyone want more?
No surprise where I am going with this post. Perhaps I have become the most transparent and silly of persons – and yet, not a day goes by since I first stepped there, that I don’t think about the country of Italy and the concentration of invigorating gorgeousness and inspiration that resides there. Honestly, if you went there and stayed until you saw and absorbed everything they have to offer, how long would it take? I would like to find out. And what a feat it would be. I can not think of anything more exciting. Not to mention all the surprises, the beyond the obvious, that one would find……. (Sadly, if you think about it, all else pales in comparison – and so, I don’t think about that aspect of things)
On Tuesday, I got to thinking about this as I mixed up a batch of Strawberry Kiwi scones. This was not a momentous or surprising pursuit. But, sprung from the most inane of tasks, buying two kiwis in anticipation of trying out this recipe, I found a surprise and, a premise was planted. I unknowingly saw the organic label and so I grabbed them. But it wasn’t until Tuesday morning when I went to peel them that I noticed that they came from, yes Italy! And, once again, I was surprised to know that they grow Kiwis in Italy. Just one more crumb in the accumulation of gems. Here is a little compendium of articles:
http://articles.latimes.com/2008/may/20/world/fg-kiwis20
http://www.zespri.eu/en/kiwipedia/_where_does_kiwifruit_grow
It never ceases to amaze me how much I don’t know about so many topics, including my favorite country on earth – and here, today, I find that Italy is the second largest producer of Kiwi in the world after China. Am I the only one who didn’t know that? Am I the only one that had no idea they grew kiwis in Italy? And, what else about this magical place don’t I know? Well……….
Anyway, that little list, above began to form in my head and I got to thinking about how much I have learned from my few travels there. One thread led to another and I wondered to myself, could it possibly be that Italy is the Land of All Answers? Is it the best formed microcosm of all experience? Has it had one of the most profound concentrations of genius in a most impressively wide array of genres over time? And does it not have, in its current deposit, everything your little heart could desire? And, be called a source and fountain of critical learning and thinking? It would seem that it could be pretty darned close. And so, if your definition of a land of all answers should fit in this realm of possibility, as they say, if the shoe fits……
Well, I am most assuredly not the first person to ponder this thought. But, considering that the land we now know of as Italy has such an enormous, blanketing history, an amazing variety of micro climates, has been victim to just about all types of natural disasters including earthquakes and volcanos, has spawned some of history’s most revered artists and musicians, visionaries, architects, builders, scientists, thinkers, nothing short of a huge concentration of geniuses, who have left us with a body of work few could argue with as masterful, well, …….
It is worthwhile to consider that there, they were just one of the civilizations that thought to undertake a project here and there that would take hundreds of years to execute, like the Great Wall of China, the Pyramids, Machu Pichu and other great cradles of civilizations. Gosh, I wish I had that kind of attention span. I wonder how many of us, in this day and age, would ever entertain the idea of beginning something that we knew at the outset, would not be finished until several generations after we had perished. Consider the Duomo in Milan – we are talking 6 centuries, for example, no small feat, as this week kicks off the Milan Expo. The Great Wall, eleven. I suppose many an anthropologist would say today that we have evolved to the point where our attention span has decreased to what you can google in a half-minute, and when the browser doesn’t respond quickly enough, you become agitated. Ah……. what we have lost.
One could almost say that Italy just very well could be the most inspiring country on earth. People leave their native countries to live there, as if pulled by some undeniable instinctive force. Or, if not able to do that, to return again and again in an effort to quench some undeniable thirst or soulful need. (Note that I was reading Elizabeth Minchilli’s Eat Rome the other day). What propels one to uproot their young family, sell the family business, and do this? I was not shaken by the impulse.
Considering it is one of the most beautiful places on earth, and I say this because we all know and accept that beauty is in the eye of the beholder – disclaimer – and I am more than slightly prejudiced, I am hereby proposing Italy for the bestowing of sainthood.
And, this is all before I mention anything about the food…….. or the fashion. How about the depth and breadth of the regional cuisines, their ingenuity, often born of despair but yielding ingenious and enduring results – the seafood, the mountain top herding and ranching, the growing of the most coveted crops anywhere, from almonds, grapes, olives, capers, citrus including bergamot, honey, figs, strawberries, tomatoes, hazelnuts, chestnuts, artichokes, grains, beans, and alas, the Kiwi. This of course is not an exhaustive list as any trip around one of the big or small markets will show you. And, how about the most gorgeous textiles and clothing in the world? What else could you possibly ,ever wish for?
I certainly realize the limitations of living in Italy and yet I yearn to live there. As I have embarked upon my little writer’s journey over the last few years and through the vehicle of Facebook, I have found countless people who have set up shop in Italy, many of them Americans, in pursuit of knowledge, and immersion into the glory of Italian life, past and present. There are Katie Parla and Elizabeth Minchilli, Nancy Harmon Jenkins, and Susan Van Allen and countless others.
I have seen quite a few amazingly gorgeous sites, paintings, sculptures and town centers here and there. But, none can compare to seeing my son sing mass at St. Peter’s Basilica on Father’s Day, or at the Piazza del Popolo, or to gaze out the window on Lake Como, or step to the Messina Gate in Taormina, or to mount the stairs in Positano, or gaze at David, to step into the Vicolo di S. Margherita…….
Shall we go? How could we not?
Here is just a small portfolio of my favorite pictures from Italy, what will always be for me, The Land of All Answers:
I wish to endeavor to see all and hope to never be satiated with the beauty, wonder and lessons there. When I die, in thirty or so years, I shall happily die there.
And, now to those books………