Canto 28: Dante & Facebook
Dante Bill Giovinazzo Dante Bill Giovinazzo

Canto 28: Dante & Facebook

It is easy to be pessimistic. A pessimist can always find something about which to complain. Looking at recent polling, roughly 63% of Americans think that the country is on the wrong track. For more than the past ten years, over 50% of Americans have felt this way. I should note a slight dip to 49% in May of this year, but the rate has gone back up since then. The cause of this negative outlook is the result of a pandemic more lethal than Covid. A virus whose carriers do so willingly, happily. Dante describes these people in the Inferno.

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Dante Bill Giovinazzo Dante Bill Giovinazzo

Canto 1: Midway On The Journey

Midway upon the journey of our life / I found myself within a forest dark / For the straightforward pathway had been lost. These first three lines to The Divine Comedy are so well known that even many who have never read it know them. However, I have discovered that the deeper meaning of things that are well known often escapes us. Such is the case with these opening lines.

In one Dante class, the students who were in their late teens and early twenties wrote these lines off as Dante having a midlife crisis without much further consideration. There it was, a tidy little package all wrapped and labeled. Let’s move on to the good stuff of seeing people tortured in hell. I must admit that the first time I read The Divine Comedy, I did the same thing, missing the entire setup to the poem. I did not repeat the error in subsequent readings later in life.

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Dante Bill Giovinazzo Dante Bill Giovinazzo

100 Days of Dante

This September 14th will be the seven-hundredth anniversary of the death of the greatest poet of western literature, Dante Alighieri.

This claim of Dante’s position in literature, is more than the assertions of an Italophile. Eric Auerbach, the author of Mimesis, said that there is Dante and then all others. Michael Dirda notes that in the early part of the twentieth century, “one important writer after another argues strongly for Dante – even above Shakespeare – as the central figure of European literature, the linchpin of the great classical and Christian tradition of learning and culture.” For Italians, Italian-Americans, and Italophiles Dante bears even greater importance than the rest of the Western World.

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Dante at 700
Dante Bill Giovinazzo Dante Bill Giovinazzo

Dante at 700

This September 13th is the seven hundredth anniversary of the death of Dante Alighieri, the greatest poet in all of western literature.

I am not sure where to go from there with this post. There is so much I would like to say, but I am not quite sure how to put it all together in a logical way that fully expresses my feelings about Dante without sounding trite. So much has been written over the past seven hundred years that you could easily spend the rest of your life reading about Dante without ever reading his actual work. Has it all been said? Is there anything new to say about Dante?

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Was Sisyphus Happy?
Culture Bill Giovinazzo Culture Bill Giovinazzo

Was Sisyphus Happy?

Was Sisyphus happy? You know Sisyphus, the guy that was damned for eternity by Zeus to roll a huge boulder up a mountain only to have it roll back down once it reached the top. That guy. Do you think he was happy? Now I know this isn’t necessarily specific to Italian culture, but this is an important question, especially as we start a new year.

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Under a Sicilian Sunset
Bicycle Diaries Siciliano Bill Giovinazzo Bicycle Diaries Siciliano Bill Giovinazzo

Under a Sicilian Sunset

Another day cycling through Sicily. I have likened these trips to eating an excellent bag of potato chips when you are very hungry, not just hungry, but a maddening craving for something crisp and salty. You look at the bag only to realize that it isn’t that big, certainly not large enough to fill the need. With every savory bite, you realize that you are getting closer to the inevitable end. An unsatisfying completion that terminates long before your desire is sated.

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“Il bar più a sud d’Europa isole escluse.”
Bicycle Diaries Siciliano Bill Giovinazzo Bicycle Diaries Siciliano Bill Giovinazzo

“Il bar più a sud d’Europa isole escluse.”

We were barely on the road when we stopped at an abandoned farmhouse. The farm had been made into a museum. Apparently, someone who had found some Roman mosaics and were chipping away pieces destroying them and obscuring the story these treasures told. As I understand it, someone had started farming here when they discovered what was under the ground. It reminds me of something a friend once told me. According to him, there is so very much history in the ground that every construction project uncovers something from the past.

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Invading Marsala
Bicycle Diaries Siciliano Bill Giovinazzo Bicycle Diaries Siciliano Bill Giovinazzo

Invading Marsala

As I wrote about in my book, Italianità: The Essence of Being Italian and Italian-American, Garibaldi is the Italian version of Washington. Just like Washington, Garibaldi led a group of volunteers to victory over the professional army of one of the world powers at that time.

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Siracusa
Bicycle Diaries Siciliano Bill Giovinazzo Bicycle Diaries Siciliano Bill Giovinazzo

Siracusa

oday was our first full day in Syracuse Sicily. As I had noted yesterday, I am very excited to be here. This morning, much to the chagrin of my son, we got a bright an early start. There is just too much to see in this wonderful place in just one short day. So, after a quick Italian breakfast, we were on our way. I should note that the breakfasts here are quite different.

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The Road to Noto
Bicycle Diaries Siciliano Bill Giovinazzo Bicycle Diaries Siciliano Bill Giovinazzo

The Road to Noto

What a great day!! It is our first day of riding and it has reminded me of why I love these trips so much. We left Syracuse this morning headed south-west toward the town of Noto. It was a short 34 miles, which I guess is a great way to start the trip. We don’t want to attempt anything too intense and the terrain was relatively flat, very little elevation gain. The sky was overcast as we began our travels making for a cool start to the day.

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Sauce, Gravy, or Dante? (Part 1)
Culture, Dante Bill Giovinazzo Culture, Dante Bill Giovinazzo

Sauce, Gravy, or Dante? (Part 1)

In 1954, Giuseppe Prezzolini, Italian author and historian of Italian literature asked; “what is the glory of Dante compared to spaghetti?” He went on to observe “spaghetti has entered many American homes where the name of Dante is never pronounced.”

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