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227 Acknowledgments A uro eAlberto the crazy musicians; SoniaArcaro for showing us the south; Sebastiano and Rosaria Ascione for gli spaghetti alle vongole; Bruno Baccari and his Moto Parillas; Guido (e la mamma) Breccia for the advice and mozzarella; Fiorella Buonagurelli; Barbara Calenzo; Cristina Cocchi; Anna Cornia; all the Cremoninis; Nives Dotti; Anna Erba for teaching me how to break their balls; Giovanni Erba and his theories of everything; Julie Fast from Boring, Oregon; Antonella Ferrari; Marco and Roberta Fontana and their cat ‘fanculo; Letizia Franciosi; Francesco Garello at Maserati; Sonia Gentilomi for offering me the job and understanding when I had to leave for love; Franco and Giordana Gregorini for keeping watch over Vicolo Forni; Lynne Rossetto Kasper and the balsamic vinegar conference; Elena Keeper; Garrison Keillor; Mary Keirstead; Pasquale Lambiase; Valentina Luciani for marching with the American flag; Stefano Marchetti; Paolo Marucci at Ferrari; Antonio Mascello for publishing the Italian edition; Giulia Muti; Mike Nilles for opening the door; Anna Pagnoni; Serafino Panissidi; Carlo Pedrazzi; Maurizio Pulega for the best cremino in Modena at Il Cappuccino; Liliana Romeo and Massimo for renting us the most beautiful apartment in Modena; Mathilde Rosano and Salvatore; Silvano Rubino; Valeria Ruggeri; Francesca e Bona Scianti; Giovanna “la nonna” Tagliazucchi for taking care of us; Walter “Yankee Go ’ome” Telleri; Tobias and Wilma; and Davide Tognetti for his Italo-American slang. Friends and family back home have put up with my Italo obsession and inability to stop gesturing: Carol and Paul Berg, who treated us to fancy food; Jay Dregni; Nickle S. Hook; Bob and Cheryl McCarthy; Jim and Judy Mundt; Todd Orjala; John “Italia” Perkins; Meredith Sommers; Margaret Tehven; Dan Tomassetti and his dad for the feasts at Trattoria Ermes. Great editors waded through numerous revisions both in Italian and English: Hans Eisenbeis, Julie Caniglia, and Tom Bartel at The Rake (R.I.P.); Chris Welsch and Kerri Westenberg at the Star Tribune; John Lurie, Don Ross, Julie Schumacher, Patricia Hampl, and Mimi Sprengnether at the Creative Writing Program at the University of Minnesota; Kathy Rider, Ornella Lavecchia, and Susanna Ferlito at the Italian department of the University of Minnesota; Ronald Martinez at Brown University; and mostly Roberto Serio, Cecilia Lazzeretti , and Marina Leonardi in Modena, who published the original versions in Italian. The Minnesota State Arts Board believed enough in this project to donate some funds, and Torskeklubben gave me a generous two-year fellowship and kept me fed on cod and giant boiled potatoes while I finished this manuscript and In Cod We Trust. I thank the Italian Cultural Center and Concordia Language Villages for helping with this project, as well as all the fantastic staff and villagers at Lago del Bosco who kept my interest in Italy alive during all these years. 228 Acknowledgments ...

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