About the Author
I was born Angiola-Maria Tassini in this old Tuscan home
I spent the first years of my childhood in Livorno, right by the Mediterranean sea, and my summers in Pergine Valdarno, my birthplace. The Second World War displaced my family. When I was 11 we moved to Florence and I continued my studies there. I earned a Doctorate in Letters at the University of Florence.
The years of forced isolation due to political and war events made me yearn for travel and adventure. When I turned 20, I left Italy and spent two years in France, one with a fellowship from the French government and one trying to survive in Paris by giving private lessons of Italian. I earned a Diploma in French Language and Culture at the University of Lille and visited Belgium and Holland by motorcycle.
Love for an American student I met in Paris took me to the United States. We honeymooned by motor scooter though Southern France, moved to Colorado, then to Oklahoma, Texas and Pennsylvania, where I taught French and Italian languages and literatures at various universities and colleges. A daughter was born, Paula. We traveled and camped in many States.
Throughout my life poetry was an abiding passion. I learned and read and wrote poetry. Some of my poems appeared in a volume entitled In forma di corona (Firenze Libri).
