“The resplendent majolica cupola, a combination of yellow, green, and blue, atop the Chiesa di Santa Maria Assunta, beckoned to my senses, as did the azure expanse of the Positano bay.”
Source: Devil's Puzzle: Love, Sex & Espionage
“The siren call of the azure sea left me no choice as I unleashed the rented BMW 318, reveling in the scenic spectacle along the resplendent Amalfi coast.”
Source: Devil's Puzzle: Love, Sex & Espionage
“...the burden had fallen upon me to acquire crucial documents from the clutches of the Sacra Corona Unita. It was a perilous endeavor, demanding unwavering resolve, audacious valor, and a mind honed in the art of strategy.”
Source: Devil's Puzzle: Love, Sex & Espionage
“...the magnificent Abarth FIAT 124 Spider Rally Cabrio.
I accelerated towards Ravello. The sound emanating from that little Fiat’s double-exit exhaust was music along those winding roads and breathtaking views all the way to the top of Ravello.”
Source: Devil's Puzzle: Love, Sex & Espionage
“Our holidays began here in Catania, this loud, bustling city pulsing with memories. I know these scenes, like a movie once adored and now almost forgotten. I know the large square lava-stone pavers that line the footpaths. I can smell salty, fishy air coming from the fish market I think is just down the far end of the square. I remember this intense heat, the sea breeze flowing like water between the buildings, down the alleyways, never quite cooling enough.”
Source: Just One Taste
“The smells of barbecued seafood waft through the air, and I think about the crazy difference between here, with its blue sea and salty air; luscious, green Tuscany; and sun-burnished Sicily.”
Source: Just One Taste
“La baronessa fece chiamare la sua vettura.
Nel frattempo estrasse dal corsetto le mammelle e quando arrivò il cocchiere le fece sbattere ironicamente in aria, come due colombe d'argento, trattenendole con le mani perché non pigliassero il volo.
-Fossero almeno tre- disse con voce roca il cocchiere, stringendo la frusta.
Con una risatina, anch'essa d'argento, la baronessa salì sulla vettura e il cocchiere se la portò via, verso un altro romanzo, di successo.”
“The need for certainty, homogeneity, rationalization and good road traffic organization, as well as the need to clearly identify the areas of an urban centre, took a back seat in respect to prevailing nationalization, driven by the need to reduce minorities and to make the State's cultural structure almost monistic. Toponymy became a cultural asset, inevitably losing its function as a "historical turnaround, or scientific furnishings that might be compared, in the order of physical events, to the different deposits studied by geologists".”
Source: Topographical Names and Protection of Linguistic Minorities
“At worst, the centralizing effort to remove, where possible, homonymy — and antinomy — of a Peninsula that had always been subdivided into local communities and tiny States, gave vent to an unrestrained toponymical revision, that binned millennial heritage in the name of celebratory intentions, patriotic Risorgimental evocations and moralistic efforts. The two-year period that follows Unification can be defined as a period characterized by "a sort of gutting of street names, which ... disfigured to a certain degree the topographic structure of build-up areas", redrawing streets and squares, choosing heroes and models and consciously ignoring others.”
Source: Topographical Names and Protection of Linguistic Minorities
“Choose to be kind, not because you do not know what you want, but because you know that being kind is good for your heart.”
Source: The Daily Dose of Motivational Quotes