And besides, lies sound so much better in Italian

It was a nice stay with our friends in Cortona. They’re living their dream, having cut ties with the U.S. so that they can live in Italy full time. Allen teaches in Switzerland, Karen works in the Milan office of an international corporation. Their place in Lake Como is in a building designed by the Italian architect Giuseppe Terragni , and it has a lake view (George Clooney’s villa is off in the distance somewhere). Their second house in Cortona can be rented online (look for La Magnolia). Their lives (insert sigh here) are their own.

But now Rome, the center of my own Italy, the big, bustling center of the South, which Federico Fellini captured so well on film in “La Dolce Vita” and “Fellini’s Roma” among others.

We arrived this afternoon, having taken the two-hour train trip from Cortona. Since then we’ve cabbed to the city center (near the Trevi Fountain ), been shuffled from our original hotel (it was, apparently, overbooked - thanks Expedia.com), ridden in a minivan to our next hotel (near San Pietro), dodged the rain while in search of a work by Gianlorenzo Bernini ( “St. Theresa in Ecstasy” ) in the chiesa Santa Maria della Vittoria (which we found, so my wife is happy).

As for me, I’m just happy to be here, using my second-grade Italian skills to talk to cab drivers and hotel clerks and waiters who lie to me and say how well I speak. Right. But I appreciate the lies.

Below : La Magnolia is a pleasant break from the reality of urban life.