My Experience of Italy through Elizabeth Gilbert's Experiences: Part Two

Italy or "Say It Like You Eat It" or "36 Tales About the Pursuit of Pleasure"

Parla come magni is translated to speak the way you eat. Elizabeth Gilbert has a personal translation of this though it is, "say it like you eat it." This is especially present when you're making a big deal out of explaining something, when you're searching for the right words--to keep the language as simple and direct as Roman food. Just lay it on the table.

I think parla come magni is a philosophy is one that should be lived by truly. In today's day in age people make everything so complex, and I know that I'm guilty of this too, when really life would be so much easier. If everyone just laid what they are trying to get across on the table. If its a touchy subject, people normally feel the need to make the subject seem less controversial by making it seem less bad than it normally is. But that little bit of bluntness on a subject could be just what the situation needs.

This doesn't just apple to conversation either, at least I think. From what I've noticed is that our era continues to progress everything becomes more and more complex, from technology to food. Sometimes its the simple things in life that makes everything and everyone happier. Sometimes the simplicity of Roman food is just what you need in your life to make sure you aren't getting to bogged down with the complexity of everyday life.

My Experience of Italy through Elizabeth Gilbert's Experiences: Part One

Italy or "Say It Like You Eat It" or "36 Tales About the Pursuit of Pleasure"


Eat Pray Love is a book about Elizabeth Gilbert's 36th year of life and how she comes to terms with her ending marriage, new relationships with humans and with God, as well as how she evolves into the person that she has always wanted to be. Her book is broken into 3 parts which she explains in the Introduction of the book which she titles Introduction or How This Book Works or The 109th Bead. She then goes into explaining that the book is based off of the Indian tradition of prayer called japa mala. The book is then broken into 3 parts: Italy, India, and Indonesia, the three places that she travels in the year that she takes off in order to "find herself". So there is the explanation of the book in the briefest form possible without just rewriting her entire Introduction over again.

So now its time for Italy...

When I decided to start this blog I was already a good portion of the way through the Italy section of this book so therefore I need to do a bit of backtracking with what I want to discuss with my readers, so I made a list with page numbers so that I remembered where things were when I went back to make this post complete to the part of the section that I am at. As I sit and look at this list I realize that it is very long so I am going to address maybe two or three topics in this post and then continue to another post within the next couple of days. Since at chapter 30 I have a list of 0 things and there are 36 chapters meaning my list will probably get longer.

So onto our discussion...Today: Italian Phrases

Gilbert an American that has always wanted to learn the Italian language because of the beauty she has found in it has also found and given her readers many Italian phrases that I believe speak to the soul of the reader.

One phrase she tells her readers about is l'amor che move il sole e l'altre stelle which she translates to mean "The love that moves the sun and the other stars." I am beginning to really love this Italian phrase do to the fact that it makes me think that anything you do can give you the strength to be able to move mountains if need be. It makes me think of the experiences that need the strength that this phrase gives, but also shows that all you need to be strong is the right kind of love.

Another Italian phrase that speaks to me in this book is Dal centro della mia vita venne una grade fontana translating to "From the center of my life, there came a great fountain." This is a phrase that makes me think of the English sayings about making something beautiful out of something ugly. Especially because during this point in Gilbert's life she feels like everything is in shambles and she needs something beautiful to appear.

The expression Il bel far niente translates into English as "the beauty of doing nothing." Gilbert makes the comparison of American's happiness to Italian's and is showing that if she were talking to any American about her trip to Italy where she doesn't want to do anything and not worry about anything that she would normally worry about her they would find her trip boring, because as Americans "we spend billions to entertain ourselves" where as the Italians were happy doing nothing because it often means that they are truly enjoying themselves and not worrying about the problems of life.

The final Italian expression that I truly inspirational is L'arte d'arrangiarsi which is "the art of making something out of nothing". A task that many try to achieve but never are truly satisfied with. Gilbert talks about "turning a few simple ingredients into a feast, or a few gathered friends into a festival." She then says something that I think really speaks to the heart of many Americans were they to read it "Anyone with a talent for happiness can do this, not only the rich". As Americans we are only ever trying to better our social and financial standing. Not just trying to make something out of nothing. Just working towards the betterment of ourselves not our community or to help others.


Okay so that's all for today and while I know I made some giant generalizations about Americans today and I am truly sorry for that it is fairly true for a giant part of our American population.

First Post

This blog is all about the books that I am going to be reading both mandatory reading and pleasure reading throughout my senior year of high school. I find a great pleasure in reading and have very diverse tastes. This blog will help we reflect on the experiences I have through reading the books I want to read and sometimes the ones I don't want to read. Right now I'm in the middle of Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert.

I also have a summer reading list that I haven't really put a dent into but I figure whatever I don't get to read this summer I'll just read during the school year. My goal is to become attuned to different styles as well as find more respect for the classics and move farther away from the trashy teen reads that I loved so much throughout high school.

To my readers: If you reading something especially interesting let me know I'm looking for something new and fun to read.

My summer reading list is:
The Fountainhead: Ayn Rand
Catcher in the Rye: JD Salinger
Catch-22: Joseph Heller
Atlas Shrugged: Ayn Rand
Fahrenheit 451: Ray Bradbury
The Time Traveler’s Wife: Audrey Niffenegger
Anna Karenina: Leo Tolstoy
Pride and Prejudice: Jane Austen
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland: Lewis Carroll
1984: George Orwell
Animal Farm: George Orwell