Amsterdam and Milan Travel log
On Halloween I flew home to Aiken for a few days of R&R before my next trip to Europe. I was also able to accommodate requests for telephone and email interviews from Brazil, Argentina, and Germany, countries I have not made plans to visit.
After a restful week, I left on November 9 for Amsterdam for twelve hours of interviews spread over two days. These interviews were a mixture of print, TV and radio, and fortunately, translation was not necessary. In The Netherlands, it seems everyone speaks English-as well as two or three other languages. The Mynx publicist Marc van Biezen proved to be very welcoming- also efficient, organized and pleasant. Mynx has been very pleased with the early book sales: they are already into their second printing- the first having been released mid October. My schedule was very busy, so I spent very little time outside my beautiful and quaint hotel, which was situated next to a very active canal.
The twelfth of November was a beautiful clear day, and my flight to Milan, Italy afforded me a spectacular view of the Alps. I could not imagine more beautiful scenery, as every small mountain village nestled under the snow capped peaks seemed special.
On my first evening in Milan, I had the pleasure of having drinks with two gentlemen, school counselors by profession, who a few months prior had parts in the first Italian production of the Dean- Balderston stage play, Dracula. They had played the characters Renfield and Harker, and their passion was obvious as they described their preparation for the roles.
The next morning I met with the Piemme publicist, Arianna Malacrida and translator Chiara Bertolino who would spend the next 3 days ushering me around Milan, Rome, and Cuneo from one interview to another. On that Thursday morning, my wife Jenne and daughter Belle arrived to join me for a week. My days proved to be quite full, but I did have time in the evenings to be with my family, who seemed to alternate between exhaustion from jet lag and building up their endurance visiting shops and trying out their Italian phrase book.
On Friday, the troupe from Piemme escorted me to Rome for a series of interviews. One of these interviews is most memorable- the lovely Italian television hostess strayed from the usual line of questioning when she brought up a possible film adaptation of Dracula the Un-Dead and asked what I thought about casting George Clooney and his girlfriend, an Italian model, in the lead roles. Of course the audience loved the idea and cheered wildly.
I flew to Turin with Arianna, then drove on to meet Jenne and Belle in Cuneo, a lovely small town at the foot of the Alps. I had a translator with me the entire time, but Jenne and Belle had the adventure of driving the three hours to Cuneo often at 150 kilometers per hour in a cab, with a driver and another passenger who spoke no English. In Cuneo, we attended Scrittorincitta, an annual book festival whose schedule left time to explore. Our hotel was on the town’s very large cobblestone square, which was surrounded by shops, restaurants and hotels. Little alleyways wound throughout the town and led from one amazing architectural treasure to another. Although the weather was cold and gray, we found enough coffee shops to keep us warm and energized.
I was one of only four foreign authors present amongst the one hundred and twenty Italian authors, and the language barrier kept us from taking advantage of attending other writers presentations. And although we were at a disadvantage at restaurants with only Italian on the menus, we made the best of whatever it turned out we had ordered, and chalked it up to experience. The Italian language is so beautiful and melodic, we all enjoyed being surrounded by it. I particularly love how the translation of Jack the Ripper into Italian could smooth out the rough implications of the name; phonetically “Jackolas Quatre Torry”. The publisher, Piemme, had a large presence at the festival, and we were well cared for throughout the weekend.