Mililla

San Bartolomeo, Italy (Feb 7, 2005)

My new niece Letizia (or “Mililla” as her sister Alice calls her) with my sister Barbara. Letizia is almost two months old and this is the first time I meet her.

As I have probably already said many times on this blog, Alice, Mililla and her parents live in a small village in the italian Alps. They have recently moved into a new house, completely restructured by Giuseppe (my brother-in-law), from an old stone construction that had been in his family for many decades. Seeing the beautiful result of Giuseppe handiwork (he also restored century-old furniture for the house) I am always impressed by the different attitude that italians have with respect to their houses, compared with americans. In Italy, having a solid brick house made to last for generations is the first priority for any family, as opposed to the low importance given to housing by the average american family (houses in America are bought and sold all the time, made with perishable material like pressed wood panels and in general not made or maintained to last). Maybe it’s the “nomadic” tradition of american people (moving incessantly west since the time of the pilgrims)? People in Italy (especially in the countryside) can still live all their whole life within 500 meters from the house of their grandparents (also, they don’t leave their nest as soon as they are 18, but rather in their thirties), so maybe having a family house to pass from one generation to the next still makes sense. I fell still attached to this way of living, despite being forced to live the american style in an anonymous large american city suburb of pressed paper houses...