Introduction

Right before leaving for Ivrea, I picked up my copy of Lettere Americane, which, for years now, I've thought on and off about trying to translate. It had been a long time since I spoke or wrote in Italian and all that text was overwhelming. I was about to put the book down, and once and for all, forget about it. But then I accidentally flipped to the page in which Camillo writes about his arrival in Palo Alto in 1893. The coincidence of Camillo having spent six months in Palo Alto 218 years ago combined with actually reading his words about biking down to Lick Observatory, and seeing other local landmarks, felt too big to blow off. So here we go. For anyone who is inclined to follow the progress of the project, have patience! I'll only be able to do a little bit at a time, and the little bit I do may be very rough. So I invite anyone who's following, who knows Italian, to participate in the translation--the more people who are reading the progress, the better the translation will be, I hope.