Anthony Burgess on Rome, a city he lived for a good while, and which inspired one of my favourite of his novels (but the quote is not from it, as far as I can remember):
"Rome's just a city like anywhere else. A vastly overrated city, I'd say. It trades on belief just as Statford trades on Shakespeare."
I have never been to Rome, and I doubt he seriously disliked the city all that much, but he seems to have the same love/hate relationship with it as I have with Italy as a whole. I decided to put that quote here as I want to go to Rome one day, but I am in the same time wary of what I can find there. I can love it, hate it, or both.
Rome perhaps...but I've always wanted to visit Tuscany! I wanted to see Venice, but most people I know who've been there say it is rather dirty. But beggars can't be choosers....I'd take any city in Italy just to go there.
ReplyDeletePreferably some small quaint village with narrow cobblestone streets where I could photograph laundry hanging on clotheslines strung between the old buildings, brightly colored shutters, awnings and doors and lovely people who speak only Italian, but bring you into their restaurant and feed you the best authentic home cooked meal you have ever tasted! Hmmmm....maybe one day! :o)
I do want to see Venice and Tuscany too. And from my experience of Italians, they are the living proof that speaking English is not enough to get by in life. You need to know a bit of Italian to get what you want in Italy.
ReplyDeletebirra a la spina
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