Literary Italy

By Anne Schuchman and James Berrettini

What's Literary Italy about?

Anne and Jim welcome you to Literary Italy, a joyous romp through the books and the landscape of the bel paese. Join us as we share our love of the literature, the people, the land, and the experience that is Italy.

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Literary Italy episodes:

11.13.2023
Ep. 63: Castiglione's Book of the Courtier / Urbino, Le Marche
Baldassare Castiglione's Book of the Courtier raises questions such as "What are the qualities the perfect gentleman?", "What are the qualities of language that are suitable for writing?", and "What is the proper balance between artifice and sincerity?". Wake up,...
08.07.2023
Ep. 62: Purgatorio, Canto I
06.19.2023
Ep. 61: Dante's Vita Nuova / Florence
Can't get enough of your love, babe. Or of Dante. This episode we read Dante's New Life , a prelude to The Divine Comedy. Written in prosimetrum, a form that combines poetry and prose, we get to see a little...
03.27.2023
Ep. 60: Italo Calvino's "Italian Folktales"
Italo Calvino was one of the best known Italian writers throughout the world in the late 20th century. In the 1950's he set about working with Italian folklorists to collect, shape, and assemble Italian fables or fairy tales. The result...
03.07.2023
Ep. 59: Frances Mayes’ “Under the Tuscan Sun” / Cortona
Liam Neeson or Leslie Nielsen? You decide.Things to know about Cortona:Ancient city - Etruscans - walls go back to 5th c. BCRomansAlso long history as a tourist destination, even before Under the Tuscan SunWhat to see in CortonaCathedral of Santa...
02.27.2023
Ep. 58: Veronica Gàmbara / Brescia
Another episode in Lombardy, this time featuring poet, politico, and salon host Veronica Gàmbara.
02.20.2023
Ep. 57: Cesare Beccaria / Milan
Cesare Beccaria, author of On Crimes and Punishments (Dei delitti e delle pene) political philosopher, forgotten philosophe, 18th century influencer extraordinaire, arguably had more citations by the first American presidents than John Locke had. We talk about his life and...
02.06.2023
Ep. 56: Leonardo notebooks - Milan and Florence
Coming from their recent travels in Lombardy, Anne and Jim chat about Leonardo da Vinci's notebooks. Why do we keep a notebook -- for ourselves? Our contemporaries? Posterity? Leonardo (who was often commissioned by the Sforza's, the ruling family of...
01.23.2023
Ep. 55: Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa's The Leopard, Palermo, Sicily
We read The Leopard, a novel of the Risorgimento, a tragic-comic story of romance, war, and a stuffed dog.
10.03.2022
Ep. 54: Vincent Schiavelli's "Many Beautiful Things" / Polizzi Generosa, Sicily
Vincent Schiavelli, character actor, chef, and author is the our subject! We look at his book Many Beautiful Things, his wonderfully idiosyncratic memoir/cookbook/fable anthology. Anne and Jim are still scheming to get to Sicily. Maybe we're closer to pulling the...
09.12.2022
Ep. 53: Dino Buzzati / The Dolomites
You got horror in my magical realism. You got magical realism in my horror. -- It's delicious! This week, we talk Dino Buzzati (whom Jim distressingly insists on referring to as "Dee Butts") and his short story "The Bewitched Jacket."...
08.08.2022
Ep.52: Anthony Doerr - Four Seasons in Rome
08.01.2022
Ep. 51: Elena Ferrante - The Lost Daughter
This week, we read Elena Ferrante’s novella The Lost Daughter, set on the Ionian coast. We also watch Maggie Gyllenhaal’s film adaptation. Join us!
07.25.2022
Ep. 50: Tozzi and Siena, Tuscany
The Dynamic Duo are back, this time with a feature on novelist Federigo Tozzi. We read his short story "A Bender"
06.13.2022
Ep. 49: Abandon all hope, ye who listen to this podcast
This week: Canto III of Dante's Divine Comedy!
05.31.2022
Ep. 48: Daphne Phelps' "A House In Sicily"
This week we talk about A House in Sicily, a 1999 memoir by Daphne Phelps. Phelps was the owner of Casa Cuseni, a hotel for artists and writers that opened in 1947. It takes guests to this day while also...
05.23.2022
Ep. 47: Michelangelo
We all know Michelangelo as a giant of sculpture and painting, but, a true "Renaissance Man," he also wrote hundreds of poems. Anne and Jim dip into the life of this fascinating figure.Canadian Broadcasting Corporation show on Michelangelo's poetry
05.02.2022
Ep. 46: Interview with Wendy Holloway of Flavor of Italy
Our guest this week is Wendy Holloway, host of Flavor of Italy, a weekly podcast focused Italian food, culture, and travel. Wendy shares with us springtime foods and traditions of Rome and beyond. What could be better than...
04.04.2022
Ep. 45: E. M. Forster's A Room with a View
Anne and Jim are back in Tuscany for E. M. Forster's A Room with a View, which helped them love Italy and Florence before they had ever set eyes on it.
03.28.2022
Ep.44: Goldoni's Servant of Two Masters
Our guest today is Jay Malarcher. Jay is Associate Professor and Program Director of Theater History and Criticism at West Virginia University. Also, he first introduced Anne and me to each other, many years ago at St. John’s College. He’s...
03.14.2022
Ep. 43: Dacia Maraini / Bagheria, Sicily
We're back with an episode on Dacia Maraini, one of the most fascinating and prolific Italian writers today. We talk about her memoir, Bagheria, named for the town of the same name just outside Palermo on the northern coast of...
02.14.2022
Ep. 42: Minucius Felix / Ostia Antica
Our guest today, Mike Aquilina, has been a friend of ours for years. A prolific writer and authority on Patristics (the writings of the Church Fathers). He’s also a lyricist with rock and roll icon Dion. Mike is the host...
02.07.2022
Ep. 41: Verga / Catania
The short story "Cavalleria Rusticana" (translation online). Later, a tour of Catania, Giovanni Verga's birthplace.
01.31.2022
Ep. 40: The Sicilian School, Frederick II of Sicily, and Giacomo da Lentini
In this episode, we talk about the importance of the Sicilian School, and read from the sonnets of Giacomo (Jacopo) da Lentini (alas, only in Tuscan and English -- the original Sicilian is lost to us). We also touch on...
01.25.2022
Ep. 39: Pirandello / Agrigento
We get META all over the place. Luigi Pirandello's play Six Characters in Search of an Author is one of the most famous and most influential dramatic works of the 20th century. We talk about Pirandello, his hometown of Agrigento...
01.18.2022
Ep. 38: Ungaretti / Lucca, Tuscany and Sagrado, Friuli-Venezia Giulia
In this episode we discuss poet Giuseppe Ungaretti's early collection, Allegria, recently translated into English by Geoffrey Brock. A poet of few words, but so much feeling. We also talk about Lucca in Tuscany, where Ungaretti's family was from, and...
01.10.2022
Ep. 37: I Promessi Sposi / Lake Como
01.03.2022
Ep. 36: La Befana - Pascoli
Buona Befana! We celebrate New Year's and Epiphany with the a poem by Giovanni Pascoli.
12.24.2021
Ep. 35: Piazza Navona at Christmas - Belli
Christmas markets in Italy! We talk about the Piazza Navona market in Rome, and the poet Giuseppe Gioacchino ("GG" to his friends) Belli, author of over 2,000 sonnets about priests, prostitutes, paupers, princes...and Piazza Navona!
12.13.2021
Ep.34: Interview with Elizabeth Namack of My Italian Treasures
This week we interview Elizabeth Namack and discuss her unique approach to Italian travel planning. Liz shares her perspective on trends in Italian travel as she tells the story of her personal journal from the United States to her life...
12.06.2021
Ep.33: Mathilde Serao's "To the Tenth Muse" / Neapolitan Christmas
Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat, and we are getting dizzy from the evocation of the street scenes of Naples, with butcher shops dangling carcasses, the perfumed scents of flowers, herbs, vegetables, cod and eels! We read Mathilde...
11.29.2021
Ep. 32: Pliny the Younger - Pompeii
Anne and Jim travel south geographically and backwards in time to the eruption of Vesuvius and the destruction of Pompeii and Herculaneum, witnessed by Pliny the Younger.Cynthia Damon's translation of Pliny's letters on PompeiiMap of Vesuvius, Misenum, Herculaneum, and PompeiiPliny's...
11.22.2021
Ep. 31: Dante, Inferno Canto 2, and Florence
In this episode we return to Dante and to Florence with Canto 2 of the Inferno! Dante is sort of like the middle of the Bingo card of Italian literature--plus this year marks the 700th anniversary of his death (Jim...
11.15.2021
Ep. 30: Ortese / Naples, Rapallo
Join us for Anna Maria Ortese's "A Pair of Eyeglasses" in Neapolitan Chronicles (Italian: Il mare non bagna Napoli ). Published in English for the first time in decades in 2018, Ortese gives us a gritty glimpse of postwar Naples...
11.08.2021
Ep. 29: Spooky Italy
Anne and Jim note their disappointing lack of Scooby Doo-like adventures in Umbria. Then they talk about 6 (5 1/2?) scary places in Italy!PovegliaLucca and the legend of Lucida MansiBenevento, the City of the WitchesCapannori and the Oak of the...
11.01.2021
Ep. 28: Capuana, "Un Vampiro"
Erin O'Rourke's translation as read by her. In this episode we talk about Halloween traditions in Italy (especially Sicily and Sardinia) and the ghost/vampire story by Sicilian writer Luigi Capuana.
10.25.2021
Ep. 27: Return to the Via Francigena
Jim's back from his walk on the Via Francigena from Siena to ROME! And a mere hours after his plane touches down on American soil, Anne interviews our jetlagged traveler to find out more about the experience, the towns he...
10.18.2021
Ep. 26: Elena Ferrante's "Story of a New Name" / Amalfi, Ischia, Pisa
A little bit of everything as we chat some more about Elena Ferrante, the Amalfi Coast, the island of Ischia, even Pisa! And Jim (nervously) talks about his plans to spend two weeks walking from Siena to Rome! That's three...
10.11.2021
Ep. 25: Pellegrino Artusi / Art of Eating Well
With his cookbook "Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well," Pellegrino Artusi revolutionized the idea of Italian home cooking, and 130 years later the book is *still* a bestseller in Italy. But in addition to offering delicious...
10.04.2021
Ep. 24: Pavese / Piedmont
In this episode we’re talking about Cesare Pavese and the Piedmont region. Poetry and prose, city and country, wine and chocolate, love and loss: it’s all here!
09.27.2021
Ep. 23: Morante / Procida
I guess we can't get enough of islands! This time it's the island of Procida, just off the coast of Naples. Tucked between the more famous islands of Capri and Ischia, Procida quietly offers small fishing villages, stunning beaches and...
09.20.2021
Ep. 22: Camilleri's "Inspector Montalbano" series / Sicily
Today we're off to the beautiful isle of Sicily, for sea, sun . . . and murder. Andrea Camilleri's Inspector Montalbano series of novels, and the entertaining RAI/BBC series that was made from them.
09.06.2021
Ep. 21: Collodi's Adventures of Pinocchio / Tuscany
This week we're hoping to become a real boy! That's right, it's The Adventure of Pinocchio. The fourth most translated book in the world, it's a work for children and adults the world over. Anne and Jim go back to...
08.30.2021
Ep. 20: Machiavelli / Tuscany
Machiavelli: It's complicated. Today's readings: The PrinceThe Mandrake
08.23.2021
Ep. 19: Grazia Deledda / Sardinia
You say, "Sardinia," but I say, "Sardegna" . . . Today, we read Grazia Deledda's Il Paese del Vento (Land of the Wind). Sadly, we haven't located an English translation, but Anne is working on that now! We also eye...
08.16.2021
Ep. 18: Intervallo
Cari Ascoltatori!We’re taking a week of for a much needed vacation; we’ll be back with a story from the Bel Paese next week.Thank all of you for listening, and for sharing ideas for upcoming shows! Here’s how to...
08.09.2021
Ep. 17: Nel Blu Dipinto di Blu / Puglia (Polignano a Mare)
With a song in our hearts, the wind sweeping through the window, and our hands and faces inexplicably painted blue, this week Anne and Jim swing along with Domenico Modugno's international hit record, "Nel blu dipinto di blu" (also known...
08.02.2021
Ep. 16: Via Francigena / Tuscany and Lazio
This week, we take a hike...on the Via Francigena, an ancient pilgrimage route that runs from Canterbury, England to Rome, passing through some marvelous scenery along the way. Anne walked part of it in 2019, and Jim is planning a...
07.26.2021
Ep. 15: Giacomo Leopardi/Le Marche
This week we tackle the great Italian poet and philosopher Giacomo Leopardi and the region of Le Marche, his birthplace and source of both inspiration as well as despair. In one of his most famous poems, "L'Infinito" ("The Infinite"), Leopardi...
07.19.2021
Ep. 14: St. Catherine of Siena
Mystic, Leader, Writer, Saint, just a general Badass, Catherine of Siena set her fourteenth-century world on fire. In this episode we head back to Tuscany to talk about Catherine, her life, her letters, and her hometown city of Siena. Plus,...

What's Literary Italy about?

Download our free app to listen on your phone

Literary Italy episodes:

Ep. 63: Castiglione's Book of the Courtier / Urbino, Le Marche

Ep. 62: Purgatorio, Canto I

Ep. 61: Dante's Vita Nuova / Florence

Ep. 60: Italo Calvino's "Italian Folktales"

Ep. 59: Frances Mayes’ “Under the Tuscan Sun” / Cortona

Ep. 58: Veronica Gàmbara / Brescia

Ep. 57: Cesare Beccaria / Milan

Ep. 56: Leonardo notebooks - Milan and Florence

Ep. 55: Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa's The Leopard, Palermo, Sicily

Ep. 54: Vincent Schiavelli's "Many Beautiful Things" / Polizzi Generosa, Sicily

Ep. 53: Dino Buzzati / The Dolomites

Ep.52: Anthony Doerr - Four Seasons in Rome

Ep. 51: Elena Ferrante - The Lost Daughter

Ep. 50: Tozzi and Siena, Tuscany

Ep. 49: Abandon all hope, ye who listen to this podcast

Ep. 48: Daphne Phelps' "A House In Sicily"

Ep. 47: Michelangelo

Ep. 46: Interview with Wendy Holloway of Flavor of Italy

Ep. 45: E. M. Forster's A Room with a View

Ep.44: Goldoni's Servant of Two Masters

Ep. 43: Dacia Maraini / Bagheria, Sicily

Ep. 42: Minucius Felix / Ostia Antica

Ep. 41: Verga / Catania

Ep. 40: The Sicilian School, Frederick II of Sicily, and Giacomo da Lentini

Ep. 39: Pirandello / Agrigento

Ep. 38: Ungaretti / Lucca, Tuscany and Sagrado, Friuli-Venezia Giulia

Ep. 37: I Promessi Sposi / Lake Como

Ep. 36: La Befana - Pascoli

Ep. 35: Piazza Navona at Christmas - Belli

Ep.34: Interview with Elizabeth Namack of My Italian Treasures

Ep.33: Mathilde Serao's "To the Tenth Muse" / Neapolitan Christmas

Ep. 32: Pliny the Younger - Pompeii

Ep. 31: Dante, Inferno Canto 2, and Florence

Ep. 30: Ortese / Naples, Rapallo

Ep. 29: Spooky Italy

Ep. 28: Capuana, "Un Vampiro"

Ep. 27: Return to the Via Francigena

Ep. 26: Elena Ferrante's "Story of a New Name" / Amalfi, Ischia, Pisa

Ep. 25: Pellegrino Artusi / Art of Eating Well

Ep. 24: Pavese / Piedmont

Ep. 23: Morante / Procida

Ep. 22: Camilleri's "Inspector Montalbano" series / Sicily

Ep. 21: Collodi's Adventures of Pinocchio / Tuscany

Ep. 20: Machiavelli / Tuscany

Ep. 19: Grazia Deledda / Sardinia

Ep. 18: Intervallo

Ep. 17: Nel Blu Dipinto di Blu / Puglia (Polignano a Mare)

Ep. 16: Via Francigena / Tuscany and Lazio

Ep. 15: Giacomo Leopardi/Le Marche

Ep. 14: St. Catherine of Siena