The Longer You Are In A Place,

I Find That Other Countries Have This Or This, But Italy Is The Only One That Has It All For Me. The Culture, The Cuisine, The People, The Landscape, The History. Just Everything To Me Comes Together There.

As Travel Pushes Me Forward, Memory Keeps Dragging Me Backward.

I Had The Urge To Examine My Life In Another Culture And Move Beyond What I Knew.

If You've Got A Plot The Size Of A Car Or A Tiny Yard In Italy, You're Going To Be Growing Tomatoes And Basil And Celery And Carrots, And Everybody Is Still Connected To The Land.

When I Was Twelve, I Started Reading Eudora Welty, Thomas Wolfe, Flannery O'connor, James Agee, And - Do We Dare Breathe The Name - William Faulkner.