Italy

This lion has a face like Bert Lahr, the Cowardly Lion in “The Wizard of Oz.” Insecure, melancholy, timid, weary. Just a big old ‘fraidy cat.   His stony countenance appears to whimper, “How long is this going on anyway? I want out; I want to go hide.” No chance. Bert, as I call him, is stuck in this pleasant southeastern Italian city, Lecce, soaring but not roaring … [Read more...] about LECCE IS SO PLEASANT THAT EVEN THIS LION SHOULD SMILE

VERONA, Italy – Are we sitting where they sat? “Why not?” says my friend, Aurelio, nothing if not a romantic. “Right here, I’ll bet . . . those two love-buggy kids, Juliet and Romeo.”   She pats the weathered-gray tier of Verona’s ancient Roman Colosseum-style stadium called the Arena, an imposing pen that has witnessed gladiatorial contests and innumerable other … [Read more...] about VERONA – HOME TO TWO LOVE-BUGGY KIDS; IN THE HEARTS OF LOVERS, ROMEO AND JULIET LIVE ON IN THIS ENCHANTING TOWN

TORRE DEL LAGO, Italy – Kansas City was the town where I made Giacomo’s acquaintance. I don’t think he’d mind if I call him by his first name, although most people generally deferred to him as “Maestro.” As in Maestro Puccini.   Anyway, it was Kansas City a long time ago, 1954, where I’d been lured by college basketball players of the NCAA’s Final Four: LaSalle, the … [Read more...] about SPIRIT OF ‘THE MAESTRO’ IS STRONG IN THIS TOWN