As the Romans Do: An American Family’s Italian Odyssey by Alan Epstein is a wonderful book on the Eternal City. This insightful memoir beautifully blends to show the people, art, food and community of Rome. I especially enjoyed the author’s light heartedness to the madness of the city, including the Politics of the time. While I would have loved to know how the move to Italy happened for Epstein, I did enjoy his magically complicated Roman life. A word of caution to my Italian readers though- read it with a huge pinch of salt as this book is full of cliches 😉
As the Romans Do: 10 Magnificent Quotes by Alan Epstein
Of all the monuments of Rome, the Colosseum is perhaps the ost well known, the enduring symbol of the city. It is also in many ways the strangest, for the very reason that it is the prototype of the kind of sports stadium that stands everywhere in America, hosting the same kind of combat, albeit stripped of the gorier excesses that took place in ancient times when the arena was built.
There are some terraces in Rome that are as beautiful as any gardens anywhere in the world
Rome is so crazy, so hectic, so often impossible to manage during the year that there is a strange temptation to hang around in the summer.
Romans constantly lament the high taxes they incur to keep Italy afloat, but deep down they know what it means to live in Rome, to know that the city is a gift they give to the rest of the world.
I’ve come to the conclusion that the reason why Romans make endless trips to the bar to take a coffee is because it is simply the easiest thing to do in the city.
Mangiare, eating, is the true passion of the city, the inviolable religion, at the same time sacred and profane. Food is everywhere.
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The rhythm of Roman life is marked by certain types of foods, which are eaten only at certain times of the year.
All roads lead to Rome. Imagine living in the place where this is not simply a proverb, a metaphor, a way of describing a point that is the source of all other things, but rather the actual, factual phrase used to describe the city that all roads lead into and out of.
What makes Romans so alluring?? It’s their availability, their readiness– whether real or imagined–the charm and ease with which they move in and out of highly charged situations, how smooth, glib, and unafraid they are of the opposite sex.
Romans don’t need to talk about family values because they live them, personified in the oft-heard phrase, tengo famiglia: I keep a family.
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