La Bella Lingua and Eat Pray Love reflection

I read La Bella Lingua by by Dianne Hales prior to embarking on this trip and I read Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert while on the trip. La Bella Lingua tells the story of how the Italian language shaped the country and how important it is to the people. The author tells of her love affair with the language and how learning it affects her. Se makes clear how when you lean a new language she possesses it and with her new language she truly learns to the language. I do agree with her that you have to have exposure to the language to fully have a n appreciation and understanding of the people. This book made me realize how beautiful the Italian language is and how even though it is only spoken in Italy still, its a language worth learning. Dianne captures the heart and soul of Italy by telling of the food, the rich history, and of course the language. The book was a nice introduction that got me so excited to come face to face with the places and language she writes about. It is true that Italians talk loud and fast, spend a great amount if time, money, and effort on food, and are proud of their countries rich history. Through living with a family, decoding Italian menus, and exploring places such as Pompeii and the Roman ruins, I feel like a got a small (yet so rich in culture) slice of the pizza that makes up the beautiful country on Italy. Before leaving for the trip my mother bought me a copy of Eat, Pray, Love. The main character is recently divorced and sets out for a self discovery journey to the country of Italy to focus on pleasure while battaling depression. I firsts thought the book would just be a way for me to pass time on long place and train rides but I found Elizabeth and mine Italian experiences overlapping quite a bit. Elizabeth's path was a little more depressing than mine but I ironically read the chapters about her traveling to Florence, Venice, and Rome the same time that I was in those cities. She tells of her interactions with Italian speakers that I can relate to, like how they use their hands when they talk. And how she eats gelato every day (yup did that). What i found the most interesting was reading about her thoughts on the cities. Her thoughts on Venice were similar to mine: an overly touristy place that is sinking but behind all the soot and dirty canals is a city that has so many stories to tell. Both women in both books empathize how even the most simple words sound more romantic and are more enjoyable to say in Italian such as towel (asciugamano) or handkerchief (fazzoletto). Reading both of these books helped make me have a greater appreciation for the romantic culture that Italy has. Italy- its language and people hold so much history that is worth exploring.