When former Los Angeles Times foreign correspondent John M. Glionna set out to write about Pomarico, a town of 3,500 people in the southern Italian region of Basilicata, he brought with him decades of journalistic experience. As an international reporter, Glionna was accustomed to dropping into foreign lands across Asia and beyond, reading the room, gaining the trust of strangers, and capturing daily life before moving on to the next assignment.
When he arrived in Pomarico to research his book, In the Land of the Midday Sun, the rules of engagement shifted entirely. For Glionna, returning to Pomarico wasn’t about observing locals and their lives but an attempt to learn about his own identity and bridge generational gaps.
