thanks for all the emails of support folks. it's nice to get when your luggage is lost and you're 6000 miles from home. i'm happy to report that the luggage was found and delivered today, all because of the "her"culean efforts of my publicist here, luisa colicchio, who aside from organizing the most interesting interviews i've had to date, also managed to locate the suitcase and have it delivered to the hotel. GRAZIE luisa. oh! AND, she somehow managed to get me a ticket to la boheme at teatro alla scala tonight! and it's opening night after the big restoration the theater has undergone. amazing! (see photos of the theater at the link below.)

so i need to get dressed for tonight, but i can't sign off without saying how inspirational the interviews were today. each and every one of them. first of all, they'd all read the book. i know that sounds silly, but it was clear that of the publicity i did in the states, few interviewers had actually read more than the back cover. second, everyone here asks MOLTO intelligent questions. that is to say informed questions that come from a deep knowledge of art, history, literature and music. i had questions today that made me think. that had me searching for answers and made me question my own beliefs and understanding of characters that i invented (!) hard to describe really.

but it was like the difference between these two questions below (you tell me which is from the states and which is from italy):

1) david, tell me, is it that your humor is influenced by woody allen or more that you and woody allen are both inspired by the same sources? say of jewish comedians like the marx brothers?

2) the blurbs here make you out to be funny. did you set out to write a funny book?

now do you get it?

more on that after tomorrow's long round of interviews. for now some photos.