Marta Palazzesi: Hello. My name is Marta Palazzesi. My surname is typical of an Italian region called Toscana, which you may know for cities like Sienna and Firenze. And in fact, my father was born in a tiny village near Sienna. Despite being very common in the central area of Italy, Palazzesi is seen as an unusual surname in the north of Italy where I live. So at school it was always mispronounced, typically as Palazzeschi, who actually was a very respected Italian writer back in the '50s. Maybe my teachers already knew I was going to be a writer.

Another fun fact is that Palazzesi comes from the Latin world Palazzium, and that is how the Romans refer to the Imperial Palace and they call it Palatino in Rome, and also to every kind of important building in the city. So somehow it kind of makes sense that I study architecture in college and that my favorite subjects were history of art and history of architecture. But you can forget everything I told you so far and just remember my name, Marta Palazzesi.