Eat.

I'm currently reading Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. After I finish the book, I intend to watch the movie.

The book is set up sort of like a blog. It is broken up into 108 entries, with 36 in each of three sections: Eat, Pray and Love. Some of the entries are short and I think that's why it reminds me of a blog. A few of them are long enough to seem like actual chapters.

I just finished reading the Eat section. And I'm craving pizza. And mushrooms. And cappuccino. And a trip to Italy, thankyouverymuch.

I am so ready to start learning how to speak Italian.

Here is a nice passage from the book:


"So far, though, my favorite thing to say in all of Italian is a simple, common word:

Attraversiamo.

It means, "Let's cross over." Friends say it to each other constantly when they're walking down the sidewalk and have decided it's time to switch to the other side of the street. Which is to say, this is literally a pedestrian word. Nothing special about it. Still, for some reason, it goes right through me. The first time Giovanni said it to me, we were walking near the Colosseum. I suddenly heard him speak that beautiful word, and I stopped dead, demanding, "What does that mean? What did you just say?"

"Attraversiamo."

He couldn't understand why I liked it so much. Let's cross the street? But to my ear, it's the perfect combination of Italian sounds. The wistful ah of introduction, the rolling trill, the soothing s, that lingering "ee-ah-moh" combo at the end. I love this word. I say it all the time now. I invent any excuse to say it. It's making Sofie nuts. Let's cross over! Let's cross over! I'm constantly dragging her back and forth across the crazy traffic of Rome. I'm going to get us both killed with this word.

Giovanni's favorite word in English is half-assed.

Luca Spaghetti's is surrender."


I wish that I had a favorite Italian word, but alas, I don't speak any Italian, yet. I do have a favorite Spanish word, though, so I know exactly what Elizabeth Gilbert means. My favorite Spanish word is entonces. It's a simple word, to be sure, but I love the way it sounds. It means then. I think one of the reasons I like it so much is because it sounds so much more elegant and complex than the simple English version of the same word.