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Quote by Kathryn Occhipinti

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Conversational Italian for Travelers: Just the Verbs

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Kathryn Occhipinti

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“Among the people, it was believed, as late as the present century, that spirits were imprisoned in statues. The statue of Neptune by Ammanati in the fountain of the Piazza della Signoria is called 'Il Biancone' or 'The Great White Man' by the poor people, who used to say that he was the mighty river god of the Arno tuned into statue because, like Michelangelo, he spurned the love of women. When the full moon shines on him, so the story goes, he comes to life and walks about the Piazza conversing with the other statues. Michelangelo's 'David', before it became a statue, used to be known as 'The Giant'. It was a great block of marble eighteen feet high that had been spoiled by Agostino di Duccio; personified by popular fancy, it lay for forty years in the workshops of the Cathedral, until Michelangelo made the Giant-Killer, that is, into a patriotic image of a small country defeating its larger foes. Giants, it was related, had built the great Etruscan stone wall of Fiesole, and many stories were told in Florence of beautiful maidens being turned into pure white marble statues.”

“So many memories come rushing over me as I stand here. They run through my mind like a movie…an old Italian movie. Some scenes are in black and white. Some are in vivid color. Some are silent…just images etched into my memory. Many are filled with laughter or tears. They all bring back the happiness of Terra d’Amore and a life in the paradise of my youth. The sights and the sounds and the smells are all returning to me now, filling up my senses, overwhelming my heart.”

“Nelle nostre società industriali noi consideriamo come popolazione attiva la popolazione nel gruppo di età 15-64. Anche questa è una definizione abbastanza arbitraria, derivante dal duplice fatto che a) in molti Paesi l’obbligo scolastico per i giovani si estende fino al quindicesimo compleanno, e che b) il sessantacinquesimo compleanno è per molte professioni il limite di pensionabilità. In realtà però ci sono individui che cominciano a lavorare molto dopo aver compiuto i 15 anni d’età e altri che cominciano prima. C’è gente che va in pensione prima di aver compiuto il sessantacinquesimo anno e c’è gente che lavora ancora a settant’anni. C’è gente che non ha mai lavorato e ci sono casi come quello della burocrazia italiana la quale rappresenta un campionario pittoresco di gente che si trova nel gruppo d’età 15-65 e prende regolarmente uno stipendio, ma la cui aggregazione alla «popolazione attiva» è frutto di una rosea violenza fatta dalla statistica alla realtà.”

“Dante Alighieri wrote his first book in the prosimetrum genre – La Vita Nuova – in 14th century Florence. Since I’m compiling this collection – my first indie publication – in Florence, just blocks from Dante’s house, and since his book involves a lost love, and ‘A New Life,’ I thought it fitting to emulate this style in my own casual, intuitive fashion. My hope is that the juxtaposition of poems, journal entries, essays and prose will create a story; a memoir in anarchistic vignettes.”