Ask the Author: Amy Azzarito
Answered Questions (2)
Amy Azzarito
The rose is the only flower that I included in Elements of a Rome because its scent and image, as well as the bloom, were so pervasive throughout history. One of my favorite stories is of the banquet that Cleopatra organized to impress Marc Antony. She had a banquet hall filled with roses that were two feet deep! Can you imagine how many roses it would take to get to the point where you were wading through two feet of petals petals? For context: to create a rose aisle runner for wedding, you'd need 120 cups of roses for a 3'x5' aisle (there's actually a website for brides to calculate how many rose petals they need!).
Cleopatra knew her audience - Romans loved roses. They were thrown at parades, wore garlands in the hair and dined while lounging on a bed of petals! I included more fun stories about roses in the book -- and Cleopatra makes quite a few appearances as well!
Cleopatra knew her audience - Romans loved roses. They were thrown at parades, wore garlands in the hair and dined while lounging on a bed of petals! I included more fun stories about roses in the book -- and Cleopatra makes quite a few appearances as well!
Amy Azzarito
I've been interested in why beautiful things seem to be so important to so many of us. And in doing just a little digging, I discovered that, hey, there are books on that! Turns out there is research into the neuroscience of how and the brain appreciates art. I'm currently in the middle of "The Aesthetic Brain: How We Evolved to Desire Beauty and Enjoy Art." by Anjan Chatterjee
Last May, I gave birth to my first child so I've been stocking up on the parenting books. I'm currently dipping into "Secrets of Feeding a Healthy Family" by Ellyn Satter, "No Bad Kids" by Janet Lansbury, and "How to Raise A Reader" by Pamela Paul and Maria Russo.
Last May, I gave birth to my first child so I've been stocking up on the parenting books. I'm currently dipping into "Secrets of Feeding a Healthy Family" by Ellyn Satter, "No Bad Kids" by Janet Lansbury, and "How to Raise A Reader" by Pamela Paul and Maria Russo.
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