And this book helped make it so. Highly recommend, especially when you are homebound with a cast. But, honestly, whenever you want to know more.

I’m happy to say that I have used the last few weeks more or less confined with my broken arm to study ancient Roman history. I’ve never had the time to do so before and it has been very rewarding personally.

I appreciate the fine scholarly studies available in English.

And, btw, reading in English has been extremely comforting to me in these foreign times of physical discomfort and healing. We are so blessed to have the world at our fingertips through the inter webs, even if 5 of my fingertips are essentially immobilized.

And, happily, there are yet more books to read, as always. I remember walking through a remarkable state-funded library in my small hometown when I was in high school and being filled with the melancholy recognition that in my lifetime I would not have time to read all of the books even in that library. And I knew even then that it was a relatively small library in the world of such repositories.

I’d be happy to tell my younger self: true that, but I did make a huge reading dent in the world of books and I even offered up some of my own.

PS: Im updating this post on a Sunday afternoon from my apartment in Florence and when I gaze out my window to my terrace, I think how lucky I am to be safely and warmly ensconced in this little cocoon, traveling back centuries via literature in the absolutely amazing history of this country in which I am privileged to live. Grazie a dio!

Outside, the wind is howling, but I’m almost unaware, lost as I am in the first century BC. I am traveling with Julius as he crosses the Rubicon. That die was cast.

The current holder of the US Presidency threatened to close our American consulate in Forence, but thank goodness he didn’t.

My passport was due to expire in mid October, so in September I knew I had better get the ball rolling on a new one. I filled out the form I found online and took it, along with a color photo, to the consulate to apply for a new passport. When I arrived, I was told I needed to make an appointment online, but since they weren’t that busy that day, they let me come into the building and file my documents.

Going through security to enter the building was beyond anything I expected, way beyond what you experience at any airport. They went through everything. They took my phone and put it in a locker. They found something suspicious in my handbag and made me take everything out, including my wallet and everything inside it. I had a 2 inch long little tweezer that I had forgotten about completely. But they found it and confiscated it. No worries, it didn’t matter to me.

The consulate is in a pretty, little (by Italian standards) building, beautifully situated right next to the Arno River. The street it sits next to is named Lungarno Amerigo Vespucci, which seems very appropriate!

The street behind the building is Corso Italia, which also strikes my mind as very appropriate. I like the idea of our American building being next to Italia and on a street named after Amerigo Vespucci.

Roughly two weeks after I applied for my new passport, I got notification that I could pick it up on a specific afternoon in September. My belongings were streamlined and I was prepared to go easily through the security check.

But the consulate is professional! Instead of taking all of us applicants into the building, they came outside. I was presented with my new passport within 10 minutes of my appointment!

Above, the little line of people waiting for the new passports. Some were replacing passports that had been lost or stolen from them. Others of us were renewing. It was a painless process, especially given that we are in Italy where bureaucracy is a big part of life.

Long live America! Viva America!

You’d never know it, but just being here in the neighborhood bar is a huge step forward!

My broken wrist is still in the cast, I’m still more or less immobilized. You never realize these fragile abilities until you lose them.

Writing a blog takes dedication and effort. Taking photos and videos is a challenge. So is typing one handed!

Getting out is a gift. Today I had an appointment for a shampoo e piega (that’s a wash and bend or fold in italiano and blow-dry in inglese). I decided a cuppa te on this rainy afternoon was a nice idea after.

My neighborhood bar is a fine pasticceria. Look at the cakes on offer!

Two weeks from today the cast comes off! I should not complain! There was a 50% chance I would need surgery to set my arm properly and I waited 9 days from the application of the cast until I could get the xray that revealed the setting the orthopedic doc at the emergency room had managed with my wrist was adequate.

I’m thanking my lucky stars I escaped that!

I finished Kneale’s excellent history of Rome and wanted more. I found this and am enjoying it!

Summary and Reading Guide
Overview
Lavinia is a 2008 novel by American author Ursula K. Le Guin.

As her last novel, it tells part of the story of Virgil’s Aeneid from the perspective of Aeneas’s wife, Lavinia, who appears in the Aeneid as only a minor character.

Although primarily a retelling of myth, the novel also attempts to explore what little is known about the people of the Italian peninsula before the founding of Rome.

The subject matter of Lavinia differs dramatically from most of Le Guin’s more famous works, given that she wrote primarily science fiction and fantasy.

In this final novel, Le Guin explores Lavinia’s entire life, far beyond the limited detail provided by the Aeneid. Lavinia becomes aware that she’s a character in a story, which changes her relationship to fate and duty.

Enjoying my bubble. I waited my whole life for it!