my interview with mi.o (my modern italian network)

Let's Meet Author Maria Novajosky

Let's welcome Maria Novajosky to mi.o! She is a relatively new member to our community, but has been blogging a very long time! Maria tells us her story on exploring her Italian-American heritage and how her Nonna made a HUGE impact on her life. I can certainly relate, and I'm sure many of you can, too. Regardless of your own heritage or where you live, Maria reminds us how written words on a piece can help us stay connected with our roots!

Q: When did you first create your blog and what was the inspiration behind it? 

I started my blog, La Dolce Vita: The Sweet Life with Three Sons, twelve years ago.  I was working as a contract writer for a Catholic company (conducting interviews and writing articles), but I was looking for ways to write on what I was most passionate about—family, food, faith, and my Italian heritage. Blogging was a good fit for me. In my very second post (My Nonna and Michelangelo) I described how Nonna became emotional as she gazed up at the majestic ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. That was the beginning of what I call my Nonna stories where I write about my Nonna and what she taught me through the years. And while I also write about the perfectly ordinary day-to-day life (with a husband and three sons there is ALWAYS something to write about), my Italian heritage is the foundation for everything I write.

Q: Which topics really resonate with your readers and why? 

My readers especially enjoy when I share our Italian traditions—such as making homemade tortellini, celebrating the Feast Day of St. Joseph, or choosing Italian bomboniere for our son’s First Communion. Also popular are the posts about our travels to Italy—the trip with my entire family when we rented a farmhouse in Tuscany, the time we traveled with the Nonni to Rome and the Amalfi Coast, and the two Girls’ Trips that my sister and I organized (22 women accompanied us on the first trip, 31 on the second). I also write on Italian culture and art, and have a Fun Facts series in which I list the highlights of a specific city or region.

Q: What is the Italian-American culture like in the Deep South? Could you recommend authentic Italian eateries or cultural events?

Prior to moving to the United States, we had been living in Vicenza, Italy—just 30 minutes from my mother’s hometown of Verona. When my father retired from the military and we moved here to Augusta, Georgia, my life turned upside down. The world was much bigger then—there was no internet, instant messaging, or skype to make it smaller—so it seemed as if I was cut off from everything I had known and loved. I truly felt I would lose a part of myself and that the South would swallow me whole. But through Nonna’s letters (she wrote to us weekly for almost 50 years), and the visits we made to Italy or that our relatives made to us, I held on to my Italian heritage. Eventually our family met a group of Italian-Americans who, like us, had retired from the military, and when we gathered there was a fun mixture of Italian and English, heaping plates of food, backyard bocce, and plenty of espresso, homemade limoncello, and red wine. 

Today, it is much different. There is so much about Italy—the food, culture, history, art—that appeals to people all over the world, and it is no different here in Augusta, Georgia. There may not be a large Italian-American population such as you would find in New York or Chicago, but we are just as passionate about our heritage. For example, our local Italian-American Club hosts an annual Pasta Festival, several members of the club have taught Italian at our local college, my mother worked as a translator for the Italian athletes during the 1996 Atlanta Olympics and for the Italian President of the National Barrel Horse Association (NBHA) who was competing here in Augusta, and a few years ago I was invited to give a presentation on la cucina povera at The Sacred Heart Garden Festival, one of the premier gardening events in the southeast.

Q: You wrote your first book An Ocean, an Airplane, and Two Countries Full of Kisses. What was the most challenging part of writing it? 

Two years ago, I was at my mother’s house looking at a box of old photos from Italy, when I noticed that many photos were taken in downtown Verona in front of a fountain in Piazza Bra; in fact, there were so many photos of this fountain that I took them all out and placed them in a line. Some photos were black and white, while others were in color; some featured my Nonna or my mother and her sisters standing in front of the fountain, while in later photos my sons were throwing coins into that very same fountain. As I looked at all those photos, I was struck how each one was different, and yet the fountain was the anchor that tied the photos together.

And I saw a parallel between that fountain and my Italian heritage. My circumstances may be constantly evolving—where I live or what season of life I am in—but the essence of who I am as an Italian-American is, like that fountain, the constant in my life.

A few days later, my mother showed me all the letters Nonna had written us through the years—weekly letters that began in 1966. As I read each letter, I realized how much Nonna’s love had influenced my life, especially after we moved to Georgia when I had to learn to find happiness on this side of the Atlantic. So much of who I am today as a wife and mother, or how I entertain, worship and raise my sons, can be traced back to her. It was then I decided to write An Ocean, an Airplane, and Two Countries Full of Kisses.

Writing the book was definitely an emotional journey. Just touching the thin pages of the letters and running my fingers over Nonna’s handwriting brought forth the sound of her voice and the joy of her laughter. It’s a wonderful thing to travel back through memories, but it’s also bittersweet.

Q: What’s been your most important skill you've developed as a writer?

Patience. Nothing about writing a book—from the manuscript, to the editing process, to the cover design—is done quickly.

Q: Which kinds of tours to Italy do you put together? Could you offer a travel itinerary that is a little out of the ordinary? (Something for more experienced travelers to Italy)

In 2014 I came across a Caravaggio painting where I was not expecting a Caravaggio painting to be—in Kansas City, Missouri. Hanging in the European art wing of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of art, St John in the Wilderness is one of the few Caravaggio paintings in the United States. As I stood in front of that unexpected discovery, exploring the feelings evoked when art, history, culture and travel collide, I decided then and there that within a year I would organize a trip to Italy.

Exactly one year later I was standing in St. Peter’s Square waiting for Papa Francesco to give his Angelus blessing. With me were 23 women from Georgia, South Carolina, Maryland, Illinois, and Washington State who had signed up to travel with my sister and me for 9-day adventure to Rome and the Amalfi coast.

The trip was such a success that we organized another one this past September—a customized 12-day tour to Tuscany (Siena, San Gimignano, Firenze), Santa Margherita Ligure, Portovenere, Stresa (Lago Maggiore, Isola Bella, Isola dei Pescatori), Isola San Giulio, Bolzano (Otzi the Ice Man), Verona, and Venezia.

Our last few days were in Venezia, which was the perfect way to end our trip. But as much as we loved la serenissima, everyone on the trip also loved the Northern lakes region of Italy—especially Santa Margherita and Stresa. (It’s a little of the beaten path, but I highly recommend visiting Isola San Giulio with its peace and serenity.) Finally, and this may sound odd, but we all enjoyed our visit to Bolzano to see Otzi, the 5,300 year old glacial mummy discovered by hikers in 1991. It was fascinating.

Grazie to Maria Novajosky for sharing her story with us! Please feel free to visit her blog and check out her book An Ocean, an Airplane, and Two Countries Full of Kisses on Amazon.