My Two Italies: A Personal and Cultural History By Joseph Luzzi

A charming, informative personal history that blends the anecdotal, historical, and downright unusual_x000D_

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The child of Italian immigrants and an award-winning scholar of Italian literature, Joseph Luzzi straddles these two perspectives inMy Two Italies to link his family's dramatic story to Italy's north-south divide, its quest for a unifying language, and its passion for art, food, and family._x000D_

From his Calabrian father's time as a military internee in Nazi Germany–where he had a love affair with a local Bavarian woman–to his adventures amid the Renaissance splendor of Florence, Luzzi creates a deeply personal portrait of Italy that leaps past facile clichés about Mafia madness and Tuscan sun therapy. He delves instead into why Italian Americans have such a complicated relationship with the "old country," and how Italy produces some of the world's most astonishing art while suffering from corruption, political fragmentation, and an enfeebled civil society._x000D_

With topics ranging from t