Category Archives: Uncategorized

The book I’m reading …


 Le colpe dei padri

20141116_214445by Italian writer Alessandro Perissinotto. This book was runner-up for ” Premio Strega 2013″ and I was very lucky to meet  Alessandro when he came to Cork, last October.

The Premio Strega “Strega Prize” is the most prestigious Italian literary award. It has been awarded annually since 1947 for the best work of prose fiction by an Italian author.

 In 1944 Maria and Goffredo Bellonci started to host a literary salon at their home in Rome. These Sunday gatherings of writers, artists and intellectuals grew to include many of the most notable premio_stregafigures of Italian cultural life. The group became known as the Amici della Domenica, or ‘Sunday Friends’. In 1947 the Belloncis and Guido Alberti, owner of the firm which produces the Strega liqueur, decided to inaugurate a prize for fiction, the winner being chosen by the Sunday friends.

The activities of the Bellonci circle and the institution of the prize were seen as marking a tentative return to ‘normality’ in Italian cultural life: a feature of the reconstruction which followed the years of Fascism, war, occupation and liberation.

DSC_0410
Alessandro Perissinotto during his reading of extracts from Le colpe dei padri. October 17th Cork

Watch this video and you’ll find  out more about the book

La regola delle tre “L”


10304436_573040132823183_4254303685033174225_n

I feel a bit under the weather these days! 😦

With this in mind I thought about “mia nonna” who liked to share and dispense her pearls of wisdom with her family. Like every Italian nonna, mine was also a very wise and practical woman, when I had a touch of cold or flu, her advice was la regola delle tre “L” ie

“Lana, Letto, Latte”!

“Lana” to keep myself warm,

                                      “Letto” stay in bed to rest and recover

                                                                                “Latte” to drink fluids and keep hydrated…

…and that’s what I’m going to do!

Have you ever heard of this golden rule before!? Does anyone else have a secret family cure for the flu!?