The History of Literature Podcast is a member of the Podglamorate Network and LIT Hub Radio.

Hello, come with me to Italy, where young Jack Wilson is studying at the University of Bologna.

He's on his way to visit some friends in the heart of the city.

There will be a grand casino tonight, one them has said a great party but Jack thinks it

might involve some gambling games his Italian is fooled by the false cognate

it's fall he has a lot of hair,

and he's wearing an Italian coat that he bought at the market,

since he could only bring two suitcases and when cold weather gear didn't fit. The coat has big pockets

and wooden toggles with hooks instead of zippers or snaps or buttons. It is already the envy of his fellow American students, who wish they had

an Italian coat with big pockets and wooden toggles with hooks instead of zippers or snaps

or buttons.

He turns down the Viede Poety, the Avenue of Poets, a slight detour.

But he imagines that Dante might have taken this turn when he lived in Bologna.

Maybe these stones on the street would bring him good luck.

Jack reaches the Piazza Majori and then at the base of the famous towers the bookstore

Feltrinelli's with its large English language section. This is a refuge of sorts, a place

where he doesn't have to try to read an Italian, which is slow going, but

he can enjoy himself, he can luxuriate in the comfort of his native tongue.

Thoughts don't go through the translation process,

which works in his brain like some old gizmo

with rusting gears that works in fits and starts.

These books in English are smooth and the words glide from the ink on the page to his mind with

...