hygiene, football, and business ethics. The Neapolitans taught us that love’s as necessary as eating and excreting. It’s a game in which music and cruelty and peace are all at stake. People are only admirable in ratio to their susceptibility to love. Laughter and good manners and wit are all trappings of love. Even when they aren’t in love, the Italians ape the mannerisms of the lover. Thus they can be joyous at eighty. Italian love is both articulate and silent. The lovers quickly knock down any barrier between them. It’s the only
