Judith Valente is the author of the new book The Italian Soul: How to Savor the Full Joys of Life. Her other books include How to Live. She is also a journalist and a poet.
Q: What inspired you to write The Italian Soul?
A: I have been spending extended periods in Italy for several years now. When I am at home in the States, I often feel pressed for time, pulled by a hundred different demands, like a hundred tiny cuts of a knife to the skin.
All these distractions prevent me at the end of the day from feeling a sense of accomplishment. I am by nature a hard-charging American, often afflicted with a dual diagnosis of workaholism and over-achieverism.
When I am in Italy, though, my experiences seem more fulfilling and intense. In Italy, I somehow have time enough for everything—work, play, family, friends, cooking, cleaning, walking, exercising, and, yes, simply doing nothing.
Whenever I leave, it is with the haunting intimation that I can indeed reinvent my life in the States to be just as balanced and enchanting. I depart Italy always with the same feeling: I found what I was looking for.
I wrote The Italian Soul to share with others some of the practices, traditions, and rituals I learned in Italy that lend themselves to living, not only in a more sane and balanced manner, but also a more joyful and spiritually fulfilling way. The revelation Italy gave me is that I can do the work I love, and still take care of myself.
Q: How would you define the “Italian soul”?
A: The “Italian soul” reflects a more contemplative way of living. It involves looking out at the world with a sense of openness, attention, and wonder that enables us to see in the simple, mundane elements of daily living both the sacred and the poetic.
The Italian soul is reflected in the way Italians view the sanctity of the dinner table, prize quality over quantity, and recognize when enough is enough.
It is there in the way people engage in the simple practice of chiacchiera, the chitchat that goes on daily in cafés and grocery shops, on street corners and park benches that helps to create bonds between people, a sense of belonging.
Having an “Italian soul” means paying attention to self-care as diligently as one cares for a career. It means taking pride in personal relationships as much as professional achievements. In short, a prescription for living more mindfully and joyfully.
Q: What do you see as some of the most common perceptions and misconceptions about Italy?
A: You often hear the expressions la dolce vita and il dolce far niente in relation to Italy. These phrases mean “the sweet life” and the “sweetness of doing nothing,” respectively. They can give the impression that Italians loaf around, don’t work hard.
Nothing could be further from the truth. Italy is the fourth largest economy in Europe, behind Germany, the U.K. and France. The Italian economy is driven by small, often family-owned businesses.
Many of those enterprises, like Confetti Pelino, which makes those tasty, sugar-coated almonds often given out as wedding favors –and which I write about in The Italian Soul – have been operating for eight generations. Eight!
That takes work to survive for so long given all the changes in mechanization and technology that have taken place in the last 150 years and with so many companies having been taken over by larger corporations or conglomerates in recent decades. So that is a major misconception I see.
Italians know when to work, and they know when to stop work too. I appreciate that businesses in many parts of the country that are open on Sunday mornings, then stay closed on Monday afternoon, and that all the shops in a given town will close for a few hours at lunchtime so people can go home and enjoy an unhurried lunch. We can learn from such self-care practices in our driven American culture.
Additionally, some people might have viewed films that depict life in Italy in the largely poverty-stricken post-World War II era, or in the late 19th century, another period of intense poverty that led to a great wave of emigration, which included people like my grandparents departing from Italy. Those films might leave the impression that there are places, especially in the South of Italy, that are still rather depressed.
While some towns have lost significant population since the 1970s, the country by and large is quite prosperous. Streets in most cities are clean and safe. That is especially true in the small towns I’ve stayed in.
In fact, some of the Americans who join the annual retreat/pilgrimage I guide sometimes complain about the noise of the early morning street cleaning machines that come by on a daily basis in the town of Guardiagrele where we stay.
In terms of personal safety, I have walked home alone at midnight in Guardiagrele and never felt at risk, something I wouldn’t do in the college town where I live in Illinois.
That said, much of the conventional wisdom about Italy remains true, including the perception that you can’t get a bad meal in the country. Many restaurants are still family-owned. People take great pride in the food they serve.
Italians are known for their hospitable nature. When I lived in the town of Guardiagrele for three months, people I’d run into walking in the neighborhood would invite me on the spot to their homes for a coffee, simply because we were neighbors.
Italians genuinely love people. I have found they especially like Americans. You can hardly find an Italian family that doesn’t have relatives in the States.
Q: The scholar Rita Salvatore said of the book, “The Italian Soul is a heartfelt guide for those yearning to embrace a more mindful and fulfilling way of living.” What do you think of that description?
A: I totally agree with Dr. Salvatore, who has long been a proponent, as I am, of slow tourism, in which people spend a concentrated time in one place, focusing on building relationships and getting to know the local culture.
She is also referring to kinds of lessons one takes away from observing life in Italy, lessons I try to communicate in the book.
These include appreciating the sanctity of the dinner table. Placing quality over quantity. Putting forth the best image or impression of yourself, summed up in the Italian expression, fare bella figura, to cut a beautiful figure. Prioritizing relationships over professional achievements. Taking time for leisure and self-care.
These to me are also spiritual practices that nourish the soul, even if one is not interested in institutional religion. They are for all of us wanting to cultivate a deeper interior life.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: I am delighted to have been asked by Orbis Books to write the first biography of the great peace activist Eileen Egan. Eileen was Mother Teresa’s and Dorothy Day’s traveling companion and close friend. In fact, she is responsible for bringing Mother Teresa, now St. Teresa of Calcutta, to the U.S. for her first visit.
Dorothy Day, the founder of the Catholic Worker Movement, which to this day operates houses of hospitality across the U.S. for the homeless and marginalized, is on track for canonization in the Catholic Church. Eileen brought those two women together.
She also worked to get the Vatican to denounce nuclear weapons during the Second Vatican Council, and helped convince the U.N. to recognize conscientious objection to war as a human right.
The list goes on of her contributions and accomplishments. Yet, like so many women throughout history, her story remains largely unknown to the public at large.
After I finish that book, I hope to write a book of meditations based on the writings of the great contemplative Trappist monk and spiritual teacher Thomas Merton, whose writings remain as resonant today as when he was writing in the ‘40s, ‘50s, and ‘60s.
Q: Anything else we should know?
A: I truly encourage people to think outside the box when traveling to Italy. Yes, Rome, Florence, Venice, Cinque Terre, and those well-known places are wonderful to see.
But try also to explore the lesser-known parts of this magnificent and varied country. Look at a map of Italy and if you see a region that you’ve never heard of, try going there.
Try spending time in one place to really get to know the people and the culture. I guarantee you won’t regret it. It might even change your life, as my travels in Italy did mine.
--Interview with Deborah Kalb
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