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Carol Costello anchors the 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. ET edition of CNN's "Newsroom" each weekday. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author.

I am American. Italian-American. Or maybe I'm American-Italian or an American of Italian descent. Nah, I'm Italian-American. It's how I was raised to think of myself, even though I was born in the most American of cities, Canton, Ohio.

Say the word Italy, and we think of sun-kissed piazzas, stars over the Mediterranean, spellbinding museums, and mouth-watering food. But as veteran Guardian and Financial Times correspondent John Hooper explains in his new book, The Italians, it’s a complex, sometimes infuriating, country where the past is always present.

A huge angry stone face looks down on visitors through giant spires of cypress trees at Giusti Garden. The intimidating mascherone was originally designed to breathe fire, probably the only thing that could make it more foreboding. It was just one of the surprises I and 32 other gardeners found on a 10-day trip in September to visit gardens of Northern Italy.

The island of Giglio, its inhabitants, the Italian government and Costa Concordia cruise ship passengers are banding together to request hundreds of millions of euros in damages from Costa Cruises this week, as the trial of the 2012 cruise ship disaster nears its climax.