Linda Lappin gingerly tests the waters of the blogosphere

Yes, I have other blogs -- one on amazon, where I occasionally make posts related to my books that are sold there -- and another on my website, which is essentially a showcase for my books, published articles, interests, and events -- Usually in that blog, I post short essays about my life in Italy which have been published elsewhere,  or postcards, notes specifically about the history, culture, cuisine of Tuscia that remarkable corner of Italy where I have my get-away place and where Centro Pokkoli organizes its writers workshops and retreats. But a real blog, done as a  daily discipline, honestly telling it like it is, for better and for worse -- the shades and light --well I have never gotten very far with that.  Partly because  I am a terrible perfectionist. I can work on a 1500 word essay for weeks - blogs are not like that, however. You can't take that much time to shape and hone them.

Sometimes, seeing my enchanted little house in Tusica, or learning that I teach English at an Italian university and travel frequently to exotic places like Sardinia or Crete - people have expressed envy -- and yes, I am lucky, I have been blessed in many ways -- but there are always two sides to every coin. And Italy nowadays isn't a place only of pleasure and delight.

Years ago I sat in a piazza with a poet friend of mine, much older than me, who like me had first come to Rome on a Fulbright, and had considered staying here when his grant finished, but then went back to the US to conduct an illustrious career as a poet, man of letters, distinguished professor, critic, and translator.  I've always wondered, he said, what it would have been like if I stayed.

Well obviously, his life wouldn't have necessarily worked out like mine has.  Still maybe this blog might go some ways in showing what it's like to be an expat, an expat fairly integrated into another cultural system, and an expat who aspires to be a writer.

-it's a sort of schizoid life-  I have a multiple identity as writer, translator, teacher, journalist  and live in two houses, fortunately, with only one husband ---

I'll be talking about a little of everything here.  Daily life, shopping, food & family   politics,  the scarier things about Rome and Italy lately, travel, friends, recipes, culture shock, culture clashes, writing, and books. I'll close here for the moment. It's time to step into my kitchen and think about the dinner I have planned for tonight- a rich fish soup on a cold, windy day.