“L’Aquila? Where’s that?” I’ve heard that question countless times over the past 20 years, since I left Italy for graduate school and made my life in the United States. I can’t bring myself to tell the questioners that I’m from Rome, although that would simplify things considerably. So I explain that I come from a small town 70 miles east of the Italian capital, northeast to be precise, and no, it’s not Florence. “L’Aquila” — that’s L-apostrophe — means “the eagle,” and like an eagle’s nest, the city is high in the mountains. Not far from town is the tallest peak of the Apennines; if you climb it on a clear day, you can see the Tyrrhenian Sea on one side, the Adriatic gleaming on the other
