SOME GOOD NEWS

You could be forgiven, reading this blog, for imagining that, apart from the irritations of the water supply and the post office, my life here is an endless round of lunches and festivities. Well, I have my ups and downs like everybody else and, although I am happier now than I ever imagined I could be, I don't have an easy life financially and long-term readers will know that the past year has been marred by a quite scary period of illness.

So it is with great pleasure that I am now able to share with you some good and, for me, very exciting news: if you have been following the almost weekly poetry posts, you will remember that I have been translating some of the work of our Modican poet, Antonio Lonardo. I have now finished translating a new collection and the book is to be published soon. Professore Lonardo is a finalist for the 2009 Premio Internazionale di Poesia "Coluccio Salutati" and is invited to the awards ceremony in Buggiano [Pistoia] on 3rd May. And guess what? I am invited, too! I was delighted to accept the invitation and I am going to read Prof Lonardo's entry in English, after which I will be interviewed in Italian about the process of translation and the special difficulties and joys of translating poetry.

I'm also excited because we are going to Buggiano by train and, although I have previously visited the beautiful city of Messina, this will be my first crossing to the mainland from that port. [I've always flown before.] And if that were not enough to have me almost dancing in my sleep, Buggiano is only about half an hour from Florence so if everything runs to time, I will be able to spend a couple of hours in that glorious city on the way! [I haven't seen it for 13 years and I have missed it.]

I'm not nervous, except about what to wear and getting up onto the stage in my [pink] heels, but please, wish me luck, readers!