LA GIUSTA DIMENSIONE At my present level of acquiring a very modest capability in the Italian language, my translations into English are still something of an approximation. La giusta dimensione, by my loose linguistic reckoning, I take to suggest that something has ‘just the right size.’ This concept is being factored into my current stage of development in attempting to fathom how the Italian language reveals something about the Italian Soul. I think I am finding a parallel with the Italian concept I wrote about earlier – Quanta Basta – Just Enough. These phrases are relevant for us because they help convey our assessment of the place we now call home. In contrast, I have a sense as a native born American the culture that nurtured me tends to think more in terms of superlatives. Perhaps it is the domination of a very competitively oriented marketplace in America that instinctively believes “Bigger is Better!” Even the fast food industry encourages Americans to ‘super size’ everything. Soon we will be coming up on the second anniversary of arriving and beginning to settle into Ascoli Piceno in the Marche Region of Central Italy. Some mechanism we acknowledge we don’t yet completely understand determined how our instincts lead us to choose to settle into the historic central district in this Italian Provincial Capital town. By some very fortunate chain of events, we seemed to have opened ourselves up to being more trusting of our instincts and feelings in guiding the all important decision on where we were going to settle in becoming expatriates. However we came to it, the decision to settle in the center of Ascoli Piceno has turned out to be absolutely correct for us. An early post on this Blog commented on the unique physical layout of Ascoli. Two rivers, on a relatively flat valley floor in eastern, central Italy, form the setting of this remarkable place. The rivers each delineate the north and south boundaries of central Ascoli. They then they join at the eastern boundary of central Ascoli as a continuation of the River Tronto. The river then meanders its way flowing eastward toward the not very distant Adriatic Sea. These deep river gorges define a formidable,...