On the Football Show on Sirius XM yesterday, Charlie asked Ray to name the best soccer books.

"The Miracle of Castel di Sangro, by the late, great Joe McGinniss," Ray said, launching into a long answer about why McGinniss, who'd written a bestseller about Nixon's 1968 presidential campaign, had gone to Italy to write about a small team newly elevated to Serie A.

The book sounded interesting, so I requested it from the Duke Library, and picked it up today.

I'm a few pages in, and wanted to note this passage on page 30:

The sidewalks, in fact, were filled with walkers spilling out into the street. "This is the time of the passeggiata," Barbara said. "Everywhere in Italy, in early evening, almost everyone turns out for a walk. No destination. No purpose. Just to walk slowly and to look and to talk occasionally with one's friends. Maybe to shop, but that is usually an afterthought, not the purpose. The charm of the passeggiata is that it has no purpose beyond itself.

What a great idea. A daily walk, to be outside, with people without purpose.

I see from the McGinniss entry on Wikipedia that Hudson spoke at McGinniss's funeral.