Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Oh September, Oh September. You snuck up on us, just
when we thought summer would never end. There you were
abruptly appearing out of nowhere, telling us it was time
to stop lollygagging about and get back to work, Get
back to school, get back into your routine. The kids
(00:26):
are now in school and summer adventures are becoming summer memories.
I'm watching the garden in its early stages of decline.
I did plant a fall garden, though, and that's keeping
me on my toes. Already. The business world is sending
me messages about holiday goings on. Yes, I know, I know.
It isn't officially autumn just yet, but it is in
(00:49):
the air. It's in the air, except you know, in
La where it's one hundred and ten degrees. If you're
feeling a bit ill at ease with it, let me
tell you a fun story to take your her mind
off things. Once upon a time, there was a young
woman named Marie who was born and raised in Los Angeles, California,
again where it's really hot. Marie has always loved to
(01:13):
travel and was excited to take her first trip to
Italy in the mid nineteen eighties. While there, she fell
for a man and a city, a serendipitous occurrence that
changed her life and inspired her to write a semi
autobiographical novel, Beneath the Lion's Wings. Since her move to
(01:36):
Venice almost forty years ago, the former banker has restored
a two hundred year old rustic barn that became the
home where she and her husband Roberto, raised their two children,
and where she learned to appreciate a good glass of wine,
cooked delicious risotto, homemade soups and pasta, and the Nardine
(01:59):
family secret Tira Massioux recipe, which she says never comes
out quite as good as my mother in laws did.
We'll be meeting Marie today and getting her personal backstory
that led to her writing her semi autobiographical novel Beneath
the Lion's Wings. Just after I tell you another story
(02:19):
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and love twenty four with me on today's broadcast, is
(04:10):
a beautiful I wish we could do the video edition
of this instead of just have it be an audio podcast,
because you are beautiful, You are stunning.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
Thank you. That's so lovely to hear. Thank you, Delilah
in mutual respect.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
Thank you. My podcast producer reached out and said, you
are the queen of sappy love songs. Wait until you
hear this love story, this true love story, and she
went in a little bit to your backstory, Marie, and
how you came to write your semi autobiographical book. Semi
(04:47):
you put some things in that were not true to
your story, but it's kind of based on your true
love story and how a young girl went to travel
for a summer and ended up falling in love and
staying forever. Tell me your story.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
So it wasn't even for a summer. Actually, it was
my first going way back to nineteen eighty five, so
it was my first trip to Europe. I was twenty.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
Eight, okay, first trip to.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
Europe with a good friend. And we started in Paris
and then we rented a car and we traveled through
France and Italy, and I only came to Venice because
my then roommate and dear friend had just been to
Europe and we were undecided whether or not we wanted
(05:38):
to visit Porto Fino on the Ligurian coast or Venice,
and she said, listen, Venice is really nice place, but
don't spend more than two days there. So we put
Venice on our itinerary. Some of your listeners and readers
will remember that in the nineteen eighties there was no
internet and everything you did was through a traveler agent. Well,
(06:01):
our travel agent didn't do a job and I ended
up having to call this hotel in Venice to book myself.
And the reason I'm telling you this is only because
my roommate said go to Venice, and my travel agent
didn't book the room for us. Did I book a
hotel which is the exact canal that I first saw
(06:22):
my husband.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
So you didn't even have a room booked.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
Well, I had to call them on the telephone and book,
and we had it booked before before we got to Venice.
But we were on our water taxi getting into this
hotel and as we turned down this small canal, we
passed this gold to Love with a gondolier obviously on
the back.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
Do they really wear the outfits that you see in movies.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
Yes, the stripe shirts has to be or blue and
white stripe or red and white stripe. That's there, that's
their uniform. Or in those years, he was wearing what
they call it was like a white shift type, which
is a more formal uniform. Of they don't. They don't
wear anymore. Some of the older gondoliers might. But as
we as we turned the corner in our water taxi
(07:13):
and we were standing outside in the back, we approaches
gondola and I see the gondolier with these beautiful blonde
curls and tan and this beautiful smile, and we exchanged
smiles and I snapped a photo of him. I still
have the photograph. And we went to our hotel. He
realized we were going to. That hotel was the only
(07:33):
hotel on that canal, and I never thought I was
going to. I just thought, Oh, I'm gonna like Venice.
You know, this is a really nice place.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
Oh if all the gondolires look like this, I'm really
gonna like Vennis.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
Yeah, we're good, We're good. And actually the next day,
because that was towards the evening, the next day, we
were walking through Saint Mark's Square, which is the center,
the main center in Venice. I don't know I who've
ever been to Venice. If you have, I invite you
to come, because it's a beautiful place to visit it.
And he spotted me in the crowd. He saw me
(08:05):
in the square and he waved over to me, and
I walked up to him, and he walked up to me.
And at that point, well, you know, it's just the
first hello. What's your name? What's your you know? And
I remember saying to him, oh, well, always your Italian.
He says, no, I'm Venetian, because the Venetian's a very
cloud and being Venetian, he's also Italian. And it started there.
(08:30):
And that evening we had some other plans. We changed
our plans. He and a friend of his who is
now a very good friend of ours. We the four
of us with my girlfriend. We went and had a
lovely dinner. We went to a club, kind of a
typical little Italian, small but you know, it still had
the mirror ball, what do they call that, the globe,
(08:52):
the disco.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
Ball, the disco ball. We're talking nineteen This was what
nineteen eighty five.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
Nineteen eighty five.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
Oh yeah, did you have big hair? Did you have
really big bangs and big hair back then?
Speaker 2 (09:03):
Well, I still had big hair, but I kind of yeah,
I had kind of that feathered thing going. And yeah,
we hit it off, and I really never expected. I
wasn't looking for any kind of relationship and neither was he.
And like I said, we weren't in Venice for very long,
and in fact, our next trip, of our next stop
(09:26):
was on the Florence and he started writing me letters.
When I got home. We literally I still have the letters.
This is when there was no email. It was just
all letter writing and so forth, and I almost had
a letter a day and back and forth. And then
he made plans to come to Los Angeles and spent
he spent about two less less than two weeks with
(09:46):
his friends in Los Angeles, and then I came back
to Venice for about a month that following May. So
within six months, it was pretty much of a whirlwind,
and we decided we wanted to be together. And I
I had a good job. I worked at a bank
in Beverly Hills, and I had my own apartment in
(10:08):
life and so forth, and we went from there we
survived the odds of this not succeeding, let's say, as
a marriage for this many years happy, a good marriage
with its ups and downs, like any relationship of any
type has. But I would do it all over again.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
So this is like a play. I could see this
on Broadway or a movie scene. The gondelier, the shirt,
the smile, the curls, the American girl just on a
two day stay in Venice, and boom, love happens.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
Yeah. Yeah, that's actually what was the incentive to write
the book, because when I would tell people of this story,
I was living it. So I just thought, Okay, this
is my life, this is what's happening, this is what
feels right for me. And over the years, as I
would continue to meet new people who didn't know before
know me before I had met Robertus, my husband, they
(11:06):
would say that it sounds like a movie. It sounds
like a book. And so one day, it was two
thousand and nine, twenty ten, I had a little more
free time, and I said, well, why don't I just
start writing it down? And I did. It took me
a long time. It took me about eight years because
there were some stalls in between there were some people.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
Some life happening.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
Life happening. We have two daughters that are now grown,
but they were in high school in university at the time,
and other things that came and went. You worked with editors.
I was pitching and trying to pitch it here here
in Italy, also in the US, and in the end
I self published, and I'm actually very pleased that I
(11:51):
did that. Perhaps if I had been a younger writer,
if I had started at a younger age, it may
have been more important to have an agent and so forth.
So I'm very pleased, and it's done quite well for
self published book, and I think your listeners would love
it because it is definitely based on my story and
(12:12):
taking twists and turns and struggles of an American professional
woman moving to Venice and not speaking the language and
having to listen a lot, and getting to know herself
better that way too. So it has definitely been I'm
a different person today for having lived half of my
(12:32):
life in the United States and the other half here.
Speaker 1 (12:36):
So what did mom say, like when you came home
and you were over the moon, Like did she say, yes,
this is real love or did she say, oh my gosh,
you know, this is a summer fling. This is a
you need to get back to real life focus on.
Like were they cheering you on and saying, oh my gosh,
it's a great idea. Move over there.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
No, that's so funny that you me because I called
my mother soon after I came back and said, Mom,
we're going to get married. And my mother was not
a woman. A few words and she was a nickname
of you was the general, so she was. She was
very silent, and I think she was in shock. And
(13:20):
then the next day she called me up. I have
two older brothers and she said, Marie, I've spoken to
your brothers and I've asked them to introduce you to
any friends of theirs that they might think is a
good match. And I went, Mom, I'm not talking about
going to the movies with someone. I'm talking about someone
(13:42):
i'm really in love with. She hadn't met Roberta yet,
so that was what I needed to tell her. He
was here and I was back in Los Angeles when
she met him. She adored him, she really did. And
my family they all adore him and he adores them,
so it was hard. She would come and visit. She
no longer with us. My family comes from time to time,
(14:03):
and I've gone back almost annually. It would be for COVID,
and so I was going back almost annually. Our daughters
spent a lot of their summer vacations there dual citizenship,
and they speak English and Italian fluently.
Speaker 1 (14:18):
So that was something I was going to ask you
when you met Roberto and he's Venetian, very proud, you
said to me from Venice? Did he speak English? Did
you speak Italian? Was there? How did you communicate?
Speaker 2 (14:31):
Okay? Roberta spoke English quite well. In fact, a lot
of Europeans of our age and younger speak English. It's
they teach it in schools, and so the majority, the
older generation, the majority who are no longer with is
didn't speak English as much. But except I noticed the
(14:52):
German population after the Second World War there was a
lot of English influence and so forth. So he spoke
English very well. I had to learn Itali, and I
went to a UCLA extension course, and I could practically
order pasta and pizza in a restaurant. But I just
learned when I moved here. I also took Italian for
foreigners is what I call, and that helped me a
(15:14):
little bit with a grammar and so forth.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
But living here immersion, total immersion.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
Absolutely, And I touch on that in the book too,
because there's a scene in my book that actually happened
to me. And this is of trying to go to
the greengrocer and say, give me to zucchini, who is
not very easy. So I had to learn everything all
over again. So that's why I had to listen so
much too.
Speaker 1 (15:51):
So I want to talk about I want to talk
about something that's near and dear to my heart, and
that is your barn home, Marie. But first I want
to tell people, if they're listening, where they can get
your book. You said you're self published.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
They can catch it on Amazon and just Loogan Books.
Beneath the Lion's Wings. It's in paperback and in ebook,
so you can find it by looking beneath the Lion's wings.
The winged lion is the symbol of venice, so that
is where that title comes from.
Speaker 1 (16:23):
Beautiful. Now let's talk about my husband and I are
just finishing our barn house. He lives in another state.
We have a commuter marriage, and he lives in another
state because of his career and my career and my
family have me here right now. But we just finished
our barn house, just like in the last couple of months.
(16:47):
And I didn't have a two one hundred year old
barn to begin with. Mine was not nearly that old,
so I had to bring in two hundred year old
wood and flooring and things like that because I wanted
that antique, warm, inviting barn home. But you have the
real thing you've done.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
Well, this is actually it's not the home we live
in now. It's the home that we bought in what
we call an absolute total rustic form. It was a
portion of a barn that was once property of a
regal villa that no longer existed. So this portion was
(17:30):
had these enormously high ceilings and downstairs and upstairs the
lower ceilings. But we went in there with our own hands.
This was in the early nineties, with professionals too to
do the professional work. And like you said, with the beams,
to get the beams that had to be changed, we
brought in older beams to match those that we were
(17:52):
able to salvage. And that was that was just the
work of love. It absolutely was a work of love.
And I'm very pleased that you also to understand the
restoration every time we've done this is we're on a
third we're doing we're restoring. In fact, we're going down
(18:12):
in a couple of weeks to Sicily where we bought
another very oldport home, and the restoration is coming along
very well. And each time I say it, I'm just
never again. I'm never going to do this again, because
it's like, you know, it's a lot of work, and
there's a lot of detail, even if you're not doing
the work, but there's so much that you know, you
(18:33):
think it's going to be this much work, and I
guess it's much work because there's just more and more
that comes. Every time you open up a part of
the house, something else needs to be addressed. But we
spent many happy years in that homer. Our eldest was
already four or five when we moved in, and our
youngest was born, and that was the only home she
(18:55):
knew into the home that we live in now, which
is a brand new home, but we also bought it.
And what they call in Italy the algredzo form, which
is a rough form, and so you just subcontract and
do everything the way you like and I like doing
that too, and I said never again. And then we
found this house in Sicily, and so that's definitely going
(19:17):
to be the last time, because then I'm going to
go down to Sicily as our second home. And it's
surrounded by these beautiful vineyards and olive orchards, and we're
in what they called an ancient quarter in the area.
It was. Tell you the name Sambucchia. It's from the sea,
and the Greeks and the Arabs and the Spaniards have
(19:40):
all come and gone and left their mark on the
architecture and the history.
Speaker 1 (19:44):
It's beautiful, sounds gorgeous. Ours is not quite that romantic.
It's a barn on a hill surrounded by cattle.
Speaker 2 (19:53):
But it sounds beautiful to me anyhow. It is own nature.
Speaker 1 (19:57):
It is lots of old oak trees and maple trees
and cedar trees. And the place that I live I
have spent the last twenty two years rebuilding and remodeling.
It was a house built in nineteen oh seven, and
I have my gardens in and my watering system in
and blah blah blah. There's none of that at the
(20:18):
barn house. Nothing not as shrubs, nothing landscaped, and so
I have big plans, but now I'm tired. I'm like,
I don't I don't know if I want to do
any of that, because I'm heard.
Speaker 2 (20:33):
I know. I see the house that we've the house
we've been here, has a lovely large garden. So for them,
we do have some people come and give us a hand.
But the house and Sisily, they're just two terraces where
we're going to sit and have a nice glass of wine,
where our daughter's can sunbathed on the top terrace, so
there's no people. Have a couple of cactuses and some pots,
(20:56):
but we're going to go really easy there.
Speaker 1 (20:57):
Yeah, that's what I'm thinking. That's what I'm thinking. And
maybe the next place it's going to have cactus in
a pot.
Speaker 2 (21:03):
That's it.
Speaker 1 (21:05):
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Learn more about mercyships at mercyships dot org. Beneath the
(22:34):
Lions Wing is semi autobiographical. So I'm guessing it's based
on your love story with Roberto, but maybe he made
a few tweaks to what I did.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
First of all, the characters are Victoria, who is from
southern California. She's thirty something, single woman in a career
as an executive assistant for an entertainment agent and she
goes on vacation and Alvise is the young fourth generation Gondelier,
(23:11):
which I moved the story up to more recent times.
What happens there that differs from mine because it is
semi autobiographic, there are things that it is not a memoir.
There's some twists and turns which I don't want to
give away. But there's something from Alvise's past that springs
(23:34):
up in the middle of their romance that risks them
staying together. And they have to resolve this problem where
with a very what's the word and I can think
of it in a time, but a very invasive in
(23:56):
laws who try to separate them based on this situation
that comes up from Alvisa's past that neither he nor
she were aware of this. Now I don't want to
give that away, Okay, So is.
Speaker 1 (24:14):
That part autobiographical? Now? When I read the book, I gotta.
Speaker 2 (24:18):
Know no, that that part sways from from from our life.
It sways from our life.
Speaker 1 (24:26):
So sways, RUMs yeays.
Speaker 2 (24:29):
Sways it sways because.
Speaker 1 (24:32):
I could write, I could write some stories, but I
would never I know I would just I would be
incriminating myself on too many levels.
Speaker 2 (24:43):
So well, so you have to be careful, Yeah, you
have to be careful.
Speaker 1 (24:48):
So it's loosely based on your love story, does it's very.
Speaker 2 (24:52):
Very loosely based on on our love story, my story.
It's there's a lot of context of Victor Gloria facing
a new culture, trying to find friends, female friends. There's
rowing and boating is very much a part of how
(25:13):
she tries to insert herself in the lifestyle. That is
a very Venice is a very small city, especially for
somebody coming from Los Angeles, and so it's very They're
very kind, but they're also very closed. So just the
adaptation of making a life here, finding a job here.
(25:37):
She finds a wonderful job working in the jewelry business,
which I did not.
Speaker 1 (25:46):
So did you find did you find a job you
loved or did you focus on your family and your
kids and restoring it to under your own.
Speaker 2 (25:53):
Barn I actually went and worked with Venetian Glass for
a season, and then our daughter born, and so I
thought yeah, and I went back to work just for
a month after she was born, and I just said, no,
if I'm going to do this, I want to I
want to be home with her. I left my career
in Los Angeles, so I'm not going to leave my
(26:15):
daughter at home for something that just maybe is getting
me out of the house every day. But in the book,
she travels about and she's trying to find a way
to balance work, family and this new language and this
new country, this new culture.
Speaker 1 (26:34):
And the gorgeous gondolier.
Speaker 2 (26:36):
You want to talk with Roberto or the real Robert,
the real gorgeous Gondelier. He's also gorge My character is
also al Viza is also very very attractive. Roberto is
a very wonderful man. He's a very kind man. He
loves his family, and he's in love with me still
and can I how can I argue with that after
(26:57):
thirty seven years?
Speaker 1 (26:58):
That's a beautiful thing. What a beautiful thing?
Speaker 2 (27:01):
Yeah? And there's also I know, because you do dedications, right,
love song dedications And if I were to ask you,
can I ask you for what? Maybe just to not today,
I know, but if I were to ask for a dedication,
because it's a song that I speak about in the book,
that I wrote about and it's ed Sheeran thinking out loud. Oh,
(27:24):
it's on one of the first pages in my novel.
Speaker 1 (27:26):
I love that song. I can definitely play that for
you in Roberto.
Speaker 2 (27:32):
Thank you. I appreciate that.
Speaker 1 (27:35):
So Beneath the Lion's Wing is the name of the book, Marie.
Is there any chance we'll ever see this like on
the big screen? Do you think with a gondolier and
your smile and his curls and you know, because this
would be such a sweet, sweet love story.
Speaker 2 (27:54):
Let me tell you this. A few years back, while
I was still writing it, was approached by a producer
from Los Angeles who has made a number of very
beautiful films in Italy and elsewhere, but he's made a
number in Italy. He was very interested in it, and
we were at the point of signing an agreement and
(28:15):
so forth, and then he backed out. And I think
it was more a personal decision for him, because he
said it was had nothing to do with the story,
and he since has retired, so I think it was
just a personal decision for him. So I think the
book would make a beautiful movie, honestly, you do. I'm
very partial, but I do think it would be great
(28:36):
on the screen.
Speaker 1 (28:38):
Marie. Thank you for your time. Thank you for sharing
your heart with us and your stories with us and
your handsome gone delier with us.
Speaker 2 (28:46):
Okay, thank you so much, Delilah, have a great day,
Han Okay you too, Bye bye, Cacha.
Speaker 1 (28:54):
Marie has worked as a fixer production assistant in Venice
for US and UK based me outlets such as NBC
and CNN, and has contributed articles to different news outlets
and travel media magazines. She taught English as a second
language in Italian middle schools and in adult learning centers,
and recently earned her certification as a wine taster from
(29:19):
one of Italy's most recognized organizations. She is currently involved
in the final stages of her third home build restoration.
This time it's their family vacation home in Sambuca de Cecilia, Sicily.
She plans to spend many days of the rest of
(29:39):
her life, she says, surrounded by the town's vineyards, olive groves,
ancient monuments, the nearby Mediterranean coast, fine food, wine, and
the kind Sicilian people. Let's hope more writing comes from
her time there. When Maria is not writing, tending her garden, volunteering,
(30:01):
or traveling, she returns to her beloved southern California to
visit family and friends, to watch the sunset over the
Pacific Ocean and stop by her favorite Mexican mom and
pop eateies. Marie's main residence remains in the Venetian countryside,
where she lives with her husband Roberto and their four
year old bernadoodle Remo. Catch up with Marie and find
(30:25):
links to her book at Marie Ohannesseannardine author dot com
and also on Facebook and Instagram. You can also order
Beneath the Lion's Wing at Amazon and Goodreads. I know
it's here too soon for many of us, but let's
embrace September anyway. It's a month that brings inevitable change,
(30:46):
and though change can be challenging, resistance, as they say,
is futile. It happens, and we either get on with
the program or go sulk in a corner. I'm going
to spend some time each day enjoying the earlier suns
and revel in every warm moment and cool breeze sent
my way. I hope you do the same. Read some books,
(31:07):
spend some time in meditation or prayer, eat good food,
and take care of yourself and others. September is a
beautiful time to slow down and love someone