AUTHOR KATHERINE WILSON TALKS ABOUT A LIFE TRANSFORMED IN NAPLES

Our fourth program of the year, held at Casa Italiana on July 23, 2017, drew a large and enthusiastic crowd of 95 AMHS members and friends to share a delicious lunch and hear author Katherine Wilson tells us her fascinating story about how she, a recent American college graduate, went to Naples (Napoli) for a few months (or so she thought) to do an internship at the U.S. Consulate which changed her life.

Since Katherine comes to Washington during the summer to visit her Mom, Bonnie Wilson, we invited her to give us a talk if her schedule allowed. Fortunately for us, the TED talk she was supposed to give this summer was postponed and so she was able to come and talk to us, and she brought her mother with her.

Having heard all the stereotypes about Naples (especially from her Calabrese grandfather), Katherine said she looked beyond all that and saw a chaotic, vibrant energy that she came to love. That is, after she fell in love with a local guy, and then with his glamorous, wise mother, Raffaela (her future motherin-law) who would come to have a huge influence on her life.

In her book, she quotes Goethe as saying “see Naples and die,” to which she says, “I saw Naples and started to live.”

No doubt her training in the theater at Princeton University prepared her for the drama she was going to see a lot of in her beloved adopted city. Katherine told us she has lived in Italy for the past 22 years with her husband, Salvatore, and their two children, and she works as an actress in television, film and stage. That was apparent in her dramatic way of reading excerpts from her funny, insightful book, including the part about her first date with Salvatore and another part about assigning blame for a celebratory meal which included one very tough octopus.

Her book is now available on Amazon in paperback under the title “The Mother-in-Law Cure.” The book has just been translated into Italian and Katherine says that some of her Italian friends in Rome, after having read the book or heard her story, are now interested in visiting Naples for the first time, instead of just passing through on the way to somewhere else. She added that when she travels to northern Italy, people notice that she speaks Italian with a Neapolitan accent. She said she is encouraging her husband to teach their children the Neapolitan dialect.

Before signing books towards the end of the meeting, Katherine graciously answered questions from the audience. When asked what was the hardest thing to get used to, living in Naples, she said it was letting go of expecting things to get done on her American timetable and just relaxing her expectations in order to live a more stress-free life.

For example, she said she went to a post office that was supposed to stay open until 1:30 p.m. But when she got there at 1:15 pm, it was already closed. She told herself, well, what can you do? Or as she said the Neapolitans would say as they shrug their shoulders, “eh eh eh eh eh.”

Or when she was in a rehearsal and a piano was needed, her American self would expect for the piano to be there on day one. But that didn’t happen, and in fact days later, the piano eventually showed up, and all was well.

Before the meeting began, we had a wonderful lunch catered by Osteria da Nino of Shirlington, Virginia, with Nino himself helping us to set up and serve. By all accounts, the food, which was plentiful and delicious, was a big hit.

We were also pleased to have with us a guest from Isernia in Molise, Giuseppe Iglieri, who is currenty the personal assistant to Molise’s regional deputy for culture and for Molisani nel Mondo. He is also a doctoral student at the University of Molise in Campobasso doing research at Columbia University. He brought a videotaped message of greetings from the region which was played for the audience.

We concluded with a successful raffle which brought in $238 for our scholarship fund, along with merchandise sales of $110. We thank all those who helped set up and serve the lunch and who donated prizes and bought raffle tickets and merchandise. Special thank you to Nino Pino, owner of Osteria da Nino, who catered the lunch, and to all the helpers who set up served lunch, and cleaned up. We appreciate your support!