Columbia business man lost in Italy
By Jackie Perrone jacper@juno.com

Howard Hellams

Howard Hellams's love affair with Italy begins thus:

"Better you should have died in childbirth than have your first glimpse of Italy through the window of a tour bus."

Now that he's retiring from the workaday world, he'll share that romance in a yet- to- be- written paean to Old Italia. This Columbia adman will turn the writing and marketing talents of a 40- year business career to the book he's been brewing

for the past 10 years, Lost in

Italy, where the soul as well as the physical may be surrendered in classical bliss.

"We [Howard and his wife Brenda] found Italy as a side trip from southern France 10 years ago," Hellams reminiscences. "We've gone back every year. I'm planning a book which I hope will point out different ways to enjoy the food and the culture by traveling on your own.

"Why sign on to a tour? What's to be afraid of? Of course there are places in the world which would not be safe to travel independently. Italy is not one of them. Anywhere in the civilized world, people should journey on their own and be open to what they may find. Two plus two just might equal seven or eight."

Hellams's book is likely to be (1) polished, (2) expert, and (3) hilarious, as his wit and literacy have been honed along an award- winning advertising career. His résumé summarizes more than 400 national and regional advertising awards, including the Clio Award, The Andy Award (New York Advertising Federation), and The Addy Award (American Advertising Federation), just a few of the best known.

Par exemplar: He reigned over the impressively- named Harper Hellams and Paige advertising agency in Columbia. This successful business had no other employees. Harper and Paige are his children, drafted onto the letterhead to make things sound big.

The agency mounted successful campaigns in health care, banking, real estate, economic development and manufacturing. Hellams has served as president and on boards of various professional and philanthropic organizations, and his work has hung in the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

A graduate of USC with a B.A. in journalism, he served there as an adjunct instructor in advertising in the 1980s.

Now that he has lost his soul to Italy, he wants to share that ambience with others. "Just think about it," he says. "You really couldn't stay lost very long in Italy. It's a skinny country, like Florida. If you drive for several hours and haven't run into the ocean, you must be traveling on a north- south axis. And some town or city will give you a clue where you are.

"Where else could you find a tiny hamlet called Monteriggioni, a walled town owned by some Duke in the 12th Century. Population 72, with a wonderful restaurant called Il Pozzo. That means "well," because there is a real well at the wall.

"There's a sweetness to life in Italy."

It seems a safe bet that Howard Hellams's readers will want to take that chance and find it for themselves.