I usually have three books going at a time: one in Italian to improve my fluency, a novel in English and a nonfiction work in English. Another two shelves are for books in Italian. Are there any classics that you only recently read for the first time? “La Divina Commedia.” I had only read portions of the “Inferno” in English, but my Italian finally got to the level that I could tackle the “Commedia” in the original. For such a timeless poem, it is deeply rooted in the personal dramas and “pop culture” of 13th-century Tuscany.

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Persons: ”, Maurizio de Giovanni, “, Nana Kwame Adjei, Piers Brendon, Montaigne, Sarah Bakewell Organizations: Italian Locations: Tuscany