As I looked back to several years of my "Vita di paese" articles written for this publication, I selected a number of images worth publishing again, all of them reflective of an unusual Italian experience, such as the Pinocchio store (fig. 1) near piazza Navona in Rome! During one of many trips to the countryside, the cloister of a small, almost deserted convent in Leonessa (fig. 2) captivated my attention with its simple, beautiful structures in total contrast to the