Amore: An American Father’s Roman Holiday

Part memoir, part cultural exploration, Amore follows an American father as he and his teenage daughters journey into the heart of Rome, into the way Romans love and what they have to teach about its erosion in America.

As his twin daughters approached adolescence, sociologist Roger Friedland was worried. The thing that most bothered him was not the erotic heat of its youth culture, but the lovelessness of its sex.

Offered the chance to live and teach in Rome, Roger and his wife, Debra, seized the opportunity to take their family to live in a city where love is alive, family bonds hold, divorce and rape are rare, and "ciao, bella" is a constant refrain.

In Amore, Friedland shares the stories of his family's enchanted and unnerving passage into the heart of Rome and considers its lessons for America where love is at risk.

Amore is a love story, a family's voyage between two states of feeling.