Terra cognita : dispatches from an over-traveled Italy /
Davidson, Chad, 1970-
Terra cognita : dispatches from an over-traveled Italy / Chad Davidson. - 1 online resource
Acknowledgments -- Prologue -- Spoleto / Mutatis mutandis -- Teulada / Not taking pictures -- Postignano / On ruins -- Rome / The maintenance of ghosts -- Ischia / Not being original -- Assisi / The imperfect -- Bologna / On relics -- Pantelleria / On elegy -- Venice / On exile.
"In Terra Cognita, poet and essayist Chad Davidson investigates the seemingly never-ending fascination that travelers have with Italy. Across nine essays, he probes the spaces that emerge between the travel we intended to take and what we ended up with, as well as how we base our lived experience on all the simulations and imitations around us. A place as overexposed as Italy can become a kind of palimpsest, an amalgam, a projection, ultimately, of what we already had in mind. For nearly thirty years now-more than half his life-Davidson has shuttled back and forth to Italy. Terra Cognita finds literary predecessors such as Dante and Italo Calvino crowding in as much as any travel-show host, Hollywood film star, or hopelessly romantic portrayal of Florence might. Though each essay departs from a particular location in Italy and remains rooted in the author's own history there, they ultimately become less about that place and more about the placeless-ness any such travel can engender. Whether visiting places overblown (Rome, Venice), lesser known (Spoleto, Postignano), or even island outposts (Sardegna, Pantelleria), Terra Cognita meditates on all the demands we place on travel writ large: to fix us, to right us, to console us and dampen our griefs, to entertain and edify us, to feed us what we want. No country or travel to it could meet all those demands. Davidson voices the failures and attractions of such an enterprise, how-even after flying across an ocean and landing in a foreign country-we are still hopelessly and fully ourselves"--
9780807178256 080717825X 9780807178263 0807178268
2022005033
Davidson, Chad, 1970- --Travel--Italy.
2000-2099
Travel--Social aspects--Italy.
Travelers' writings, American--Italy.
Authors, American--Italy.
Voyage--Aspect social--Italie.
�Ecrits de voyageurs am�ericains--Italie.
�Ecrivains am�ericains--Italie.
Authors, American
Manners and customs
Travel
Travel--Social aspects
Travelers' writings, American
Italy--Description and travel.
Italy--Social life and customs--21st century.
Italie--Descriptions et voyages.
Italie--M�urs et coutumes--21e si�ecle.
Italy
DG430.2 / .D38 2022
914.504
Terra cognita : dispatches from an over-traveled Italy / Chad Davidson. - 1 online resource
Acknowledgments -- Prologue -- Spoleto / Mutatis mutandis -- Teulada / Not taking pictures -- Postignano / On ruins -- Rome / The maintenance of ghosts -- Ischia / Not being original -- Assisi / The imperfect -- Bologna / On relics -- Pantelleria / On elegy -- Venice / On exile.
"In Terra Cognita, poet and essayist Chad Davidson investigates the seemingly never-ending fascination that travelers have with Italy. Across nine essays, he probes the spaces that emerge between the travel we intended to take and what we ended up with, as well as how we base our lived experience on all the simulations and imitations around us. A place as overexposed as Italy can become a kind of palimpsest, an amalgam, a projection, ultimately, of what we already had in mind. For nearly thirty years now-more than half his life-Davidson has shuttled back and forth to Italy. Terra Cognita finds literary predecessors such as Dante and Italo Calvino crowding in as much as any travel-show host, Hollywood film star, or hopelessly romantic portrayal of Florence might. Though each essay departs from a particular location in Italy and remains rooted in the author's own history there, they ultimately become less about that place and more about the placeless-ness any such travel can engender. Whether visiting places overblown (Rome, Venice), lesser known (Spoleto, Postignano), or even island outposts (Sardegna, Pantelleria), Terra Cognita meditates on all the demands we place on travel writ large: to fix us, to right us, to console us and dampen our griefs, to entertain and edify us, to feed us what we want. No country or travel to it could meet all those demands. Davidson voices the failures and attractions of such an enterprise, how-even after flying across an ocean and landing in a foreign country-we are still hopelessly and fully ourselves"--
9780807178256 080717825X 9780807178263 0807178268
2022005033
Davidson, Chad, 1970- --Travel--Italy.
2000-2099
Travel--Social aspects--Italy.
Travelers' writings, American--Italy.
Authors, American--Italy.
Voyage--Aspect social--Italie.
�Ecrits de voyageurs am�ericains--Italie.
�Ecrivains am�ericains--Italie.
Authors, American
Manners and customs
Travel
Travel--Social aspects
Travelers' writings, American
Italy--Description and travel.
Italy--Social life and customs--21st century.
Italie--Descriptions et voyages.
Italie--M�urs et coutumes--21e si�ecle.
Italy
DG430.2 / .D38 2022
914.504