{"id":6001,"date":"2016-06-06T12:09:34","date_gmt":"2016-06-06T10:09:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rickzullo.com\/?p=6001"},"modified":"2018-09-05T18:48:46","modified_gmt":"2018-09-05T16:48:46","slug":"una-lettera-dalla-florida","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rickzullo.com\/una-lettera-dalla-florida\/","title":{"rendered":"Una Lettera dalla Florida"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/a>A few years ago I took a course in creative writing in Italian at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton. It was given by my friend, Professor Emanule Pettener, an accomplished fiction writer, who published his first book in English<\/a> last year.<\/p>\n The class was challenging for many reasons. Obviously because my Italian grammar isn’t great. But more frustrating was the fact that I consider myself a writer who is always trying to improve and mature my abilities. When forced to write in Italian, I suddenly feel like I’m in sixth grade again. All nuance and personal style struggle to emerge when hindered by a limited vocabulary. I strive\u00a0to put forth a little irony and sarcasm in my (English) writing, while staying just this side of snarky. In Italian, I’m so concerned with trying to get the grammar right, that I doubt anything “creative” is communicated. Va be’<\/em>.<\/p>\n But this is a common feeling known to anyone who has lived in a country where they’re forced to speak another language. The sentiment is, “I swear I’m a smart person! I’m not as dumb as I sound in <insert foreign language<\/em>>!”\u00a0<\/p>\n <\/a>Anyway, I came across some of my old\u00a0assignments the other day, and one of them struck me as timely. I wrote it from the perspective of a middle-aged\u00a0Italian man living in Florida for some time, trying to convince himself that\u00a0he made the right choice as he writes a\u00a0letter to a friend back in Rome.\u00a0Having been back in my home state for a while now, I sometimes find myself pondering the same thoughts.<\/p>\n So if you read Italian, please don’t judge me too harshly! And if you don’t read Italian, well then, let me assure you that the piece below is destined to be a classic of Italian literature!<\/p>\n You can listen to my interview with Professore Pettener<\/a>\u00a0in Episode 10\u00a0of my podcast.<\/p>\n Caro amico,<\/p>\n Come stai in questi giorni? Come va la vita a Roma? Ci sono i soliti problemi con l\u2019economia, la politica, e la nostra squadra di calcio?<\/p>\n Invece qua, a Boca Raton, non mi sembrano in crisi. Anzi, la vita \u00e8 molto tranquilla e le persone non si lamentano tanto. Eccomi in quella mitica catena di bar \u201cStarbucks\u201d intorno una piazza che si chiama \u201cMizner Park.\u201d Diciamo \u201cpiazza,\u201d ma non \u00e8 propriamente una piazza come si trova in Italia. Per prima cosa: non c\u2019\u00e8 una chiesa con il campanile che suona ogni ora. Al contrario, l\u2019unico suono che sento in questo momento \u00e8 di una tagliaerba.<\/p>\n