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The Case for Gelato
The first gelato cart appeared between the years of 1920 and 1930 in the northern Italian city of Varese. Legend regarding the actual incarnation of ice cream is vague, though history suggests the idea of ice cream started in Sicily, ancient Rome, and Egypt when frozen snow was preserved underground and flavored. A man by the name of Francsco Procopiio dei Coltelli made the first usable ice cream machine in 1686. To all of these innovators of gelato, I thank you. I’m not sure my life would be the same without gelato in it. Gelato means ice cream, and it starts out with the same custard base, but it has…
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Fictography #22—Vivi’s Summer
* * * * * * /FICTOGRAPHY/ def. — The intersection of photography (submitted by readers) and fiction (written by me!). The above photograph was taken by a dear friend of mine, Chrissie Werzinsky, in Rome at Piazza Navona. Chrissie works for the Baltimore Orioles, and has for years, which is how we met many moons ago. Chrissie and I have a lot in common; we both love the Hallmark Channel, Pinterest, baseball, our Orioles friends, and novels that make you feel good. Luckily, my husband and I traveled to Rome before we had children, so I got to spend time visiting Piazza Navona. I was excited to see the…
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The Mistake I Made
I made the mistake of showing “Roman Holiday” this week to my feature writing class. Now I’m in trouble. It’s not because it’s not an appropriate film to show students before they read Taras Grecoe’s super creative travel piece by the same name from National Geographic Traveler; it’s not because I think they can’t relate; and it’s not because it’s an outdated film. It’s still relevant today. If it weren’t, I wouldn’t have had a student pass me in the hallway afterwards and say, “I love that movie! It’s so cute!” Cute, for sure. We’ve got dashing Gregory Peck as Joe Bradley and stunning Audrey Hepburn as Princess Ann. We’ve…
