in this passage from her book ?????????: ? ????????? ???? ????, martha cooley describes her daily life with her husband, antonio, while living in italy for 14 months. it was a bit uncanny reading it, because it’s an almost-perfect description of me and eric most days.
of course, there are a few differences. we don’t brew tea all day long (though we do have coffee twice and tea once). we don’t live in a location that’s mostly uninhabited. and we have different professions (i haven’t written a book, yet).
but oh, the similarities!
wordlessness? such a strange concept for me. i definitely lacked regular opportunities to try this before moving to italy. i’ve always been a talker. to plunk myself down, after 50+ years of talking to everyone i encountered, in a land where i cannot make myself understood, is what can only be described as a surreal experience. i have more conversations with my online italian program these days than i do out in public (not counting my english-speaking friends, of course).
and the quiet in our home, as martha writes, is not at all disquieting. eric and i are both working in peace – he on the second floor, myself in the third-floor tower. for the most part, our silence is broken only when we come together for lunch and for dinner. shared time that’s become designated for catching up, for dreaming and planning. the daily rhythm we’ve naturally eased into.
????????? is also about grief and loss, something i’ve become well-versed in once again, during these last few months. and the title – ha! couldn’t be a more accurate way to describe our life here in italy.
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by the way, this book is set in our area . . . “lunigiana, a region in upper-central italy unknown to most foreigners.” the medieval village she describes is only 6.5 miles from villa magnolia. (which wouldn’t be far away if not for those curvy italian hilltop roads!)
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