Italian History and Culture

White jasmine spilling over a  stucco wall, its scent climbing down the wall to the pedestrians below.

An Italian man dressed in a purple jacket and dark-washed jeans, white belt and shoes, walks by us: the wash of his cologne.

A 800-year-old cathedral: wooden pews and candles and eight centuries of worshippers.

The exhaust of 12 red Ferraris as they drive through the winding streets of San Gimignano.

Brushing a lavendar bush on a rocky path outside the city walls of Amalfi.

The salt of the perspiration of our own bodies, after climbing the half-mile up Mount Vesuvius.

The seashore of the Mediterranean, off the island of Capri.

The bouquet of a red wine, opened for tasting at a small vineyard in Tuscany.

Tomato sauce and buffalo mozzarella and pizza dough, plus proscuitto and melon.

Lemons in the market in Sorrento, some the size of limes, others, the size of eggplants.

A Roman bakery’s first bread of the morning, its fresh, warm scent coming out the open door as we walk past.

–Prof. Charles Israel, Jr.