Karen Haid inherited her love for Italy and its traditions from her parents, deeply immersing herself in the Italian language and culture. She earned the Dante Alighieri Society's most advanced certification and credentials to teach Italian language and culture from the University for Foreigners in Reggio Calabria. Her work, stemming from a four-year immersion in Calabria, explores the wonders of its people and place. Haid teaches, translates, and writes about Italy and other topics, offering readers an authentic glimpse into Italian life.
Magnificent natural beauty, rich culture and longstanding traditions, Basilicata packs an incredible diversity into the unassuming instep of the Italian boot. From the renowned Sassi di Matera to the smallest village, this in-depth travel essay uncovers a land, its people, their past and present, sharing the joys and challenges of the experience.
Once the hub of the Mediterranean, Calabria now dangles, largely ignored, at the bottom of the Italian boot, struggling for survival, acceptance and a place in modern Italy and the world. Little-known even to Italians outside the nefarious activities of its 'Ndrangheta mafia organization, Calabria allures with its simplicity and rewards with an underlying complexity, as in savoring an artisanal cheese, appreciating an ancient Greek masterwork or interpreting a particularly expressive phrase in the local dialect. Calabria: The Other Italy paints a compelling picture of contemporary Calabria and Southern Italy, weaving observation, personal anecdote, salient historical information and social commentary into a nonfiction narrative that combines travelogue with an exploration of everyday life and culture. At times humorous, at others poignant, this engaging work portrays the joys and challenges of the "other Italy."