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August 6, 1999 |
One day, not long after Rome had gone into brief if heartfelt mourning for the passing of Fellini's favorite composer, Nino Rota, I received a phone call from Sandro. (The names in this little tale have been changed to protect the delightfully guilty.) Sandro was part of a small avant-garde theater group whose members included a slumming count and Sandro's own live-in lover, the beautiful and talented Francesca. They were a few years my junior and minor rising stars in Italy's rich artistic firmament. Sandro explained that the group had been commissioned to broadcast a radio play based on an episode in the life of Marilyn Monroe. They had thought to hire me, an American, as a consultant on the pronunciation of American names. In Italy things are frequently not what they seem and, though it went unsaid, I understood that this was partially a ruse to give some work to a friend and fellow party-goer. The "job" would require spending a few days in Bologna, and Sandro made several references to that city's culinary arts, famed even in Italy. Italians like to combine pleasure with work whenever possible and I had little trouble deciding to continue our revels in another setting. Thus began an interlude that could have easily inspired one of the salty tales of Boccaccio's "Decameron," a work that, for good reason, has never lost its relevance in the country's literary and cinematic traditions.
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