Life between cultures
Kruja and the three sieges: keeping the dates clear
At Kruja, I returned to the story of resistance that had accompanied our journey. The castle makes the scale of that history feel close, and I…
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Life between cultures
Home can be more than one place. I write about returning to Kosovo, finding a familiar community abroad and the people we meet between countries.
Follow the Europe Tour for the journey through Vienna, Bratislava, Prague, Berlin and Hamburg. A good place to begin is coffee and Albanian encounters in Prague.
Life between cultures
Ibn Kemal: a passage I read in Kruja
In Kruja, I recorded myself reading a passage attributed to the Ottoman historian Ibn Kemal. Its vivid description of Albanian fighters caught my attention, and
Life between cultures
The Devil’s Bridge in Civita: a story among the rocks
At the Devil’s Bridge in Civita, the Arbëresh town we call Çifti, I shared a local legend.
Life between cultures
On the road to Bari: meeting Shkelzen Veseli
On the way to Bari, we made a short stop to meet Shkelzen Veseli, whom I had first got to know online. I shared a group…
Life between cultures
A poem for Vjosa Osmani in Bellusci’s library
During our visit to Papàs Antonio Bellusci’s library, we paused over a poem dedicated to Vjosa Osmani. In the recording, it is introduced as.
Life between cultures
A painting and the balcony outside Bellusci’s library
“What do you see in this painting?” That was the question in my short video from our Arbëreshë visit. The camera lingers on a painted street…
Life between cultures
Language and worship in the Arbëreshë communities
During our visit, the conversation turned to communities that had kept their language and religious traditions. The speaker contrasted the Byzantine rite with t
Life between cultures
Three hours in the library of Papàs Antonio Bellusci
We spent three hours in the library of Papàs Antonio Bellusci, together with his brother, Tommaso Bellusci.
Life between cultures
Do not forget our language
Katerina, also known as Rina Bellusci, sang in Arbëresh during our visit. The song was “Kur na Arbëreshë”.
Life between cultures
The law that recognises the language of the Arbëreshë
Among the Arbëreshë in Calabria, I kept returning to the question of how a language survives far from its place of origin. Italy’s Law 482 is…