On prior vacations they had experienced the warmth of the Italian people and an elusive quality that author, Denise Perrotti Hummel, J.D., describes as "the extra" something her life was lacking. She hoped that some of it might rub off on her family. At a minimum, she expected that jumping off the treadmill of the rat race she and her husband were on, might give them some perspective about what wasn't working in their demanding lives.
''When we left America, people
asked us why we were going. The honest answer was that we weren't really sure.
Now that we were preparing to return, I knew why we went. We went to re-discover
who we were and what we were made of.''
What she didn't expect was the hilarity that resulted when their fast-paced American
culture met head-on with living at
ritmo
lento Italiano, the authentic Italian slow life, or that the effect would
endure much longer than the one-year they anticipated living in Italy. Nor did
she
expect
that the lessons learned over a leisurely vino bianco would extend beyond the
confines of the lush valleys of Lombardia, toll louder than the bells of the
campanile in the local piazza, and last a lifetime.
This book is for anyone who ever said they'd be happy "if only." After you speak a little milk and drink a little wine, the term "if only" just might become an expression of the past. The courage exhibited by the author and her family in reaching for their dreams is laudable, but the lessons they learned so simple, that even the most timid will be inspired to action.
