I’m excited to announce that Amaretto Amber, my third Franki Amato mystery, is one of 11 finalists for the Mystery & Mayhem Award! I absolutely love the St. Joseph’s Day lemon tradition featured in the story, so it made me smile to learn that the book finaled.
Speaking of that series, on my recent trip to Italy I had a couple of “Franki moments” (a.k.a., those things that make you cock your head and say, “Wait. Now, WHAT?”)
The first happened in Verona at the Casa di Giulietta, which is where Juliet Capulet lived in the 1300s (Romeo’s place is less than half a mile away). The house and famous balcony (added in the 1930s!) is located inside a courtyard at the end of a long, covered walkway. And I was surprised to see people scrawling things like “Danny + Tracey 4 EVA!” on the walkway walls—and attaching love notes to the 700-year-old walls of the house and courtyard with their chewed gum.
But the biggest shock was the crowd of tourists lined up at a bronze statue of Juliet—to grab her right breast! (Note the shiny chest area.) Apparently, this boob grab tradition will bring you luck in love. Keep in mind that I brought my 15-year-old son with me because his English class is reading Romeo and Juliet. So seeing that with him was kind of awkward. And, ironically, one of the questions he has to answer is whether Shakespeare intended the play to be a love story or a tragedy. I’ll let you decide the genre, but what I saw at Juliet’s house wasn't romance.
The second Franki moment took place in Rome at the home of some of our dearest friends (I was the “best man” at their wedding in a small village in Southern Italy, but that’s another story). They had us over for dinner and, because it’s so close to Easter, they bought us a Colomba di Pasqua (Easter Dove) cake and a uovo di Pasqua (Easter egg), which, in Italy, is chocolate and has a surprise inside.
Anyway, because our friends know how fascinated I am by these eggs, they wanted me to have the honor of cracking the thing open. So, I did. And the prize? Plastic shoelaces with the hashtag #PimpMyShoes on the package—in English, no less. I don’t know about you, but the word “pimp” in any context just doesn’t say “Easter.”
While I’m on the subject, if you celebrate Easter, I wish you a Buona Pasqua!
Congratulations Traci on being a Mystery & Mayhem finalist! Who better than you and Franki?!
Loved learning about the 1930’s balcony on Juliet’s house as well as the strange statue custom. I personally was horrified about writing on the walls and sticking up notes with gum. That all smacks of disrespect to me. (kinda like pimp and Easter!)
Yeah, even though Romeo and Juliet were a real couple, the balcony is proof that Shakespeare took a lot of liberties with their story. As for the all of the stuff that tourists do at Juliet’s house, it’s a love story gone horribly wrong—like the play!