Talking Location With author Nikki Erlick – ITALY

29th July 2022

#TalkingLocationWith…Nikki Erlick, author of The Measure – ITALY

The first time I came to Italy, I came as a tourist. The second time, I came as a writer.

As soon as I set foot in the country, I fell in love immediately, absorbing the physical effects in my body: The paintings and statues in the galleries, and the architecture on the street, took my breath away. The culinary offerings made my mouth water. Even among crowds of tourists, I felt somehow calmed, enveloped by the warmth of both the sunshine and the people, invited to relax into la dolce vita while also feeling energized and excited by the history and the culture, the sights and sounds and smells. By the time I left, I already longed to return.

When I finally, joyfully, landed in Italy for a second time in 2018, the earliest roots of my novel, The Measure, had just begun growing in my imagination. I knew the premise: The story would explore what might happen if everyone were suddenly given the choice to learn how long they will live. I knew a few of the characters: lovers and friends. But the rest of the story had not yet unfolded when I arrived in Venice, once again. During my second visit to the city, much more than the first, I felt an unshakeable awareness of the fate encroaching upon this unique place. I spotted the signs of decay, the stains on buildings where water had flooded. I heard the near-constant clanging and drilling of construction. In just a few years, the ravages of climate change had substantially heightened the existing threat to the city.

And yet, I still heard the laughter of children’s birthday parties in courtyards on quiet backstreets. I met chefs and artisans and shop-owners who treated me with kindness. I felt fortunate and grateful to be here, to see this remarkable city while it still stands. And I couldn’t help but feel that there was something about Venice—the potent sense of an inevitable fate, coupled with the resilience of its people—that reminded me of my novel-in-progress. A story in which the characters’ fates may be predetermined, but their courage and love and strength endure. That was when I decided that two of my characters would journey to Venice in the middle of my story, at their lowest point of hardship, to recapture their sense of wonder and joy.

It would take another year for me to reach that section of the novel and finally write those scenes, but when I sat in front of my laptop and closed my eyes, I was back in Venice. To my surprise, when I finished writing, I felt there was still something missing. These two characters who venture to Venice are deeply in love, and these scenes are crucial portrayals of how their love can survive even the most challenging circumstances. The symbolism of Venice felt important for my overall story—for all the characters who refuse to quietly succumb, confronting their fate with bravery and continuing to build meaningful lives. But I wanted something else, something in addition, that could capture the love between these two particular characters who travel to Italy together. And that’s when I remembered Verona.

I had taken a daytrip there myself, only 90 minutes by train from Venice, and walked straight to the Casa di Giulietta, the famous courtyard underneath the even-more-famous balcony. Every inch of the walls was covered in letters, notes, stickers, signatures. So many souls had traveled from every corner of the world and converged here, in this tiny courtyard, to express their deepest desires within these walls. There is one word that appears over and over in these notes, in nearly every language. Por siempre. Per sempre. Pour toujours. Para sempre. Forever. Hundreds of writers pledging that their current love will last forever. Or wishing for a new love, an eternal love.

When my characters arrive in Italy, they know their time together is limited. No one gets to live forever. But that doesn’t mean love can’t endure for all time. It lives on in the wedding photos we keep of our ancestors, in the poems and novels and music composed centuries ago, in the handwritten letters exchanged between lovers that will end up surviving them both. In all the words etched into the walls of Juliet’s courtyard in Verona.

I could see the scenes so clearly then: Venice would remind my characters to never give up, even in the face of a seemingly harrowing fate, to keep pursuing their passion and purpose for as long as they could. And Verona would remind them, even after that fate has taken its toll, even after they are gone, their love will live on forever.

The Measure by Nikki Erlick, out 7^th July, published by Borough Press

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