Welcome to Litsy!

#5JoysFriday

1. Sunrise - I stopped in my commute this morning to take some photos
2. Sunset from my balcony
3. My landlord brought me homemade wine & limoncello - delizioso!
4. This kitten ❤️
5. I live 400 meters from a pizzeria & 200 meters from a gelato shop 😋

Thanks for the tag @TheSpineView

Great book! First time reading this author. Fast read and a good story. Makes me want to travel to Italy

I enjoyed this crime novel about a serial killer in Florence. The police aspects feel authentic (the author draws from his own experience) and I liked the Florence setting & some of the characters. The theme of homophobia troubled me although I read it as a reflection of society rather than the author‘s own views. His wife was one-dimensional. So it lacked the interest & banter that enrich Donna Leon‘s or Louise Penny‘s books for example.

My February stats. Proud Shoes was the highest ranked, but the tagged book is so important right now.

Beautiful writing, without any sensationalism or exaggeration, telling what it was like to live through 1943 & 44 in Italy, first far enough from the fighting to be considered a safe place to evacuate children, then literally the front lines. Fleeing at a moments notice, on foot, with 4 infants, 23 children under 10, and various adults. Dealing with partisans, fascists and Germans, all armed, all wanting to take whatever food, clothes etc.

Rome in May of 1943. Would that I can be that sanguine!

Iris Origo writes this for herself, not for publication, in the years 1939-40, living in Italy and married to an Italian, but of British and American parentage she has a unique perspective on the war brewing in Europe. So well written that after finishing it, before writing this, I went online and ordered two more (tagged in comments.) I could do worse than take her as a model for how to get through the next regime. #LitsyAtoZ #letterC @Texreader

I know the print is small, but I wanted to give you the whole quote. Written in 1939 about Mussolini. But . . . Plus ça change, plus c‘est la même chose.

The diary of a woman whose mother was British, father was American, and husband was Italian. She lived in Italy and is writing during 1939-1940. In a fascist regime. I think there may be much to learn from this slim volume.