Weekly Stories

a family travels Italy: Pompeii Palazzo San Gervasio Matera and Altamura the best cheese I’ve had in my life and the best capicola (but you’d have to know my Zia)

We are bombing down a back road on the border of Basilicata somewhere between Palazzo San Gervasio and Altamura. Nunzio is playing my sister’s CD (Eve Hell – Snake Oil) full blast for the fifth time straight. I brought it for him from Canada, at his request. He always turns it up during Blue Eyed Devil. His hands tap the steering wheel and he says this music reminds him of when he was nineteen and he can’t stop moving his body. He says he’s going to pass this CD onto a friend of his that arranges tours for bands. He…

A family travels Italy day 4-5 Vatican Trevi and our best gelato in Rome

It is 2am and I up nursing an upset stomach, the thought of dinner is causing me to gag. I’m not sure what makes me more ill, the fact that the six inch scampi were served raw or the fact that the bill came to 290.00 Euros. We learned an important lesson tonight: do not let the waiter decide what to order. He brought us small squid, large squid, fish balls, those were all cooked. But then raw shrimp, raw oysters, raw scampi, raw tuna, enough for all four of us. The kids couldn’t handle it, understandably, though Nora gave…

a family travels Italy day 3: provocative public art

As we headed to the colosseum we passed an “anarchist” a “rebel” and a “fascist”. The local graffiti seemed to be all political. Near the station Quadraro, there’s a recent mural I later discovered was painted by Gary Basemen, commemorating the raid on this neighbourhood in 1944, where the Nazis came in and rounded up over 700 men, partisans, and sent them off to concentration camps in Poland. (The raid on the Jewish ghetto in Rome saw over 1000 Jewish people taken to the extermination camp Auschwitz.) The mural leers with grotesque victory: chop one head off a partisan and…

A family travels Italy day 2: the Dark Rome tour and fart jokes under the Full Moon

Our first full day in Rome is planned out by my step-son. We gave the kids one day to plan any way they liked. We are all fresh and eager to get out and see the city. We’ve had a good sleep. Choosing the suburbs instead of the centre of town meant a quiet night. We slept in, had a homemade breakfast and then headed out. Within a few blocks of Porto Furba, we took the metro to Barberini piazza and had a bite of delicious but insignificant pizza near the fountain full of ancient bees before taking the “dark Rome”…

a long travel day and the amazing Osteria Bonelli!

The curvy Italian airline attendants have tailored red suits and beautiful green leather pumps. Silvia on the intercom commands, “Enjoy a your flight” with the same intonation as, “You better behave.” We have been up now for eighteen hours. Nora’s enthusiasm has been squashed. Her little face reminds me of the Italian ricotta cake I once made that the dog sat on. She sleeps in the shape of the liberty bell. She wakes up and rings in the day with a sudden ferocious vomit on the rug floor of the Air Italia bus. I buzz feebly for help mid-descent and…

teaching my daughter the C word

We arrive an hour early for our stress management session. They say it’s five, I wrote down four. This throws off the whole evening. It’s rainy and dark and the parking is meter. I am sure the error is not mine, but I’m also sure Mom’s terrible time management has already come up in session, so I swallow it and we hunt around for a light supper while I phone and rearrange her homework date for later. Beaucoup cafe is full of tailored cashmere and the display case is entirely empty again, save a few arrogant empty shiny croissants all…

Obese Vegas

The outdoor hot tub is lukewarm this afternoon at the MGM hotel. We are beside the “talent pool”, watching morbidly obese people wade into the water while sipping slushy alcoholic drinks served in the shape of a stripper’s leg. My husband decides it will be great fun to bring up the presidency with a retired red-head from Pennsylvania. She immediately confesses she’s a moderate. “Well, I’m going to vote Republican no matter what, but I can’t say as I like Trump.” I sigh and lean my head back against the tile. The Trump tower looms black and ominous to the…

have Joy

A great woman hovered above the glassy city as fifteen thousand marched below. With a keen eye for theatre and an understanding of audience, she knew this was a very good show. What an excellent day to die. The world is in many hands and she could let hers go. The heavens, in response, offered the universal symbol of hope, a rainbow, that stretched its spectrum over the crowd and out to the sea. She breathed her last and folded herself into that sky, into the colours closest to joy. This is what I saw in my head when I…

the eggplant is not afraid

The children stare at me in the pool because I have bright pink athletic tape across my shoulder for support, thanks to my inventive RMT, Michael. Apparently there’s an upper body muscular disaster going on from years of maid work that causes me chest pain. I’m not allowed to swim with my arms so I do a bunch of paddling, like a wingless duck, and then submerge into the hot tub. Middle-age is just plain sexy, all the time. Oh good! The adorable woman sits beside me and leans her back into a jet and closes her eyes with bliss….

ritual loyalty sacrifice

I fly through the aisles at the Bay, plucking everything off the shelf remotely Christmassy and sixty percent off. I have half an hour to find something before I get groceries, bake pies, clean the house and get my kid. I pull something pleasing over my hips, “yes, this will do”. To be honest, we’re quite exhausted this year. Why can’t I do what I used to do? I’m getting older…Scott has been pulling a lot of extra shifts and I’ve been doing a show. Today he worked until six while I wrapped the last of the presents and whipped…

Lucia Frangione