Come to Italy with me ... OK, not me exactly, but with The Evening Sun. Starting Monday, we’ll be publishing a five-part series by Norwich resident Mary Musson, titled “Come to Italy With Me.”

Let’s leave politics, economic woes and every day frustrations behind for a least a week and go to a sunny place on the Adriatic Sea, exploring together how another culture lives, works and plays.

Mary is a gifted and generous writer who can transport our readers with her descriptive and intimate writing. Four years ago, we published a week-long series Mary wrote for us on another trip to Italy, and it was one of the most well-received pieces we’ve run in recent memory. Trust me, when people stop me in the grocery store to tell me how much they’ve enjoyed something, you know it’s good. When Mary approached me a couple weeks ago with the idea for another package, I jumped at the chance. As with Don Windsor’s “Souvenirs of Yesteryear” or Jim Dunne’s “Y Giants” series, giving good local writers space in the newspaper for a unique idea is something I love to do – and something you readers seem to appreciate as well.