I am, it must be said, a good patriot. I love my country and adore all things American. However, America, beautiful as it may be, lacks a certain something. We might have wilderness and amber waves of grain, but our melting pot mentality makes a unified national character somewhat harder to obtain.
Not that I am complaining; I am thoroughly convinced that the United States is one of the most wonderful places in the world. However, I occasionally feel a certain twinge of jealousy when reading about the historic centers of the so-called Old World. As much as I adore our purple mountain majesty, I sometimes suspect that Europe has cornered the market on majestic. There is a grandeur conferred on buildings and squares by age and the slow weathering of time that no amount of modern mechanics can ever recreate.
Today Literary Traveler has added a new feature article to our website, titled Sun & Moon in Montepulciano, Under The Tuscan Sun & New Moon Film Locations. In this piece, writer Deborah Downes journeys to a hill town in southern Tuscany to see the sights immortalized in two famous films. Both movies (and both books) center around an American woman visiting Italy, traveling through the crowded city streets and learning her way around the new landscape and culture. Although very different, New Moon and Under the Tuscan Sun share more than just a setting – they also share a sense of adventure, the over-brimming of excitement that comes with the exploration of an ancient place, and the somewhat contradictory feeling that stems from the discovery of something new.
Join us in Italy this May Day by taking a look at our newest feature article. Not only did Downes teach me a thing or two about Italian history, but she also takes her readers on an imaginative journey through the snaking alleyways and winding streets of Montepulciano. For those of us unable to travel across the Atlantic, this is the perfect weekend getaway. Just try not to get lost.