Friday, June 29, 2012

Dreaming About Italy

Ravello, Italy
Photo via here

Happy Summer!  What are your vacation plans?  I will be staying close to home most of the time, but I have been dreaming of far flung destinations.  Especially Ravello, Capri, Positano...oh those names conjure up such beautiful images.  Gorgeous scenery, delicious food, great wines, the Mediterranean, magnificent views, glamour, getting away from it all...  I have never traveled to this region, but its beauty is legendary. Twice in one day two different friends mentioned Ravello to me. One was on her way there for a  vacation (lucky girl!) and another was reading a book set in Ravello.  I am half Italian and spent a lot of time with my Italian grandparents when I was young.  They were always cooking delicious food for me and "mangia bene" was a frequent refrain in their house. My grandfather had a vegetable garden in his backyard and I spent many happy hours there as a child wandering through the tomato plants and swinging on the hammock.  I have always wanted to go to Rome and Naples, their birthplaces, and trace the footsteps of my ancestors.

Venice, 2005

I have been to Italy once and oh, how I loved it!  We went to Venice, Florence, and Rome, the three cities that I imagine everyone starts out with.  However, I am hoping one day to travel to the Amalfi Coast and experience the true La Dolce Vita.  In the meantime, I am gravitating towards books about Italy.  Summer is here and Italy beckons. There are so many good ones to choose from:




Who can forget the scene in "The Enchanted April" when Lottie, one of the four Englishwomen who have traveled to Italy, throws open the windows of their Tuscan villa and sees their Italian paradise for the first time.  That setting has transformative powers for all of them.


E.M. Forster's first novel is about his signature themes:  the collision of cultures and the hypocrisy and snobbishness of Edwardian England.  The story concerns an English widow who goes to Italy and marries an Italian.  I haven't read this one for a while, but I remember enjoying it.  I love this new edition by Vintage Classics.


"A Room With a View" is a gem, romantic and optimistic, once again about young people escaping their restrictive lives and finding love and happiness in Italy.  And who can forget the beautiful movie starring Helena Bonham Carter and the scene where Lucy Honeychurch and George Emerson walk in the meadow carpeted with bluebells!


This book must have been responsible for a surge of people buying and restoring villas in Tuscany. Frances Mayes made it sound so romantic and life in Tuscany so beautiful and simple.


"A Year int the World" is another book by Frances Mayes that I have been reading.  She writes about the allure of travel and the many places that she has visited all around the world and what they have meant to her.  I love her thoughtful reflections about travel.  She visits many spots in Italy outside of Tuscany.


A vintage book on Italian cooking given to me by my daughter, don't you love the cover?

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And here are some that I have accumulated over the years, but haven't had a chance to read:


In these essays Henry James writes of the qualities he admires about Italy, as well as the political shifts and cultural revolutions he observed at the time (from 1872 -1909).


"Innocence" by Penelope Fitzgerald is described as a "delectable comedy of manners" that takes place in Italy in 1955.  The story concerns an old Florentine family struggling after the war to keep their villa and farm going.


Author Shirley Hazzard writes about her friendship with the writer Graham Greene on the island of Capri.  He came to Capri each summer for years and it was there that they formed their friendship. 


"A Book of Secrets" sounds intriguing, the subtitle is "Illegitimate Daughters, Absent Fathers." It tells several different stories that took place in the beautiful and mysterious Villa Cimbrone in Ravello.  Can't wait to read this one.

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Monique at her blog Bringing Travel Home just mentioned a new book "La Bella Lingua" about the beauty of the Italian language.  The author Dianne Hales writes about her "love affair with Italian, the world's most enchanting language."  It sounds excellent!


Many writers have celebrated the beauty and pleasures of Italy in their books, using Italy as a metaphor for love and liberation.  Elizabeth Von Armin, E.M. Forster, and Henry James all wrote about characters finding themselves in Italy. Tell me, are you dreaming about Italy and if so, what books are taking you there?  Have you been to Italy?  Please tell me about your favorite region or city. We can all be armchair travelers!

20 comments:

  1. Book of Secrets by Michael Holroyd and Jan Morris's Venice are both on my TBR list. I've been to Italy once, when I was quite young - on a school trip. We stayed near Lake Como. I've been dreaming of visiting Venice ever since reading Miss Garnet's Angel by Salley Vickers.
    Joanne

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    1. I would like to read both of them also. And now I will check out Miss Garnet's Angel. Thanks!

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  2. We were in Tuscany, Rome and then on to the Amalfi Coast last summer. It's truly a magical place. The sad part though is how polluted the Mediterranean Sea has become ~ it's the most polluted sea in the world. I love to spend time in the ocean, and it was hard because of the taste of oil and gas, and watching plastic bottles floating by. Sorry to introduce this note to the discussion. That being said, it's just all so physically breathtaking that I'd go back in a second, and plan to. Hope you go soon, Sunday - you'd love it all.

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  3. Sunday, I am actually reading "Beautiful Ruins" Jess Walter. The story opens in 1962 in a small village along the coastline of the Ligurian Sea. It then moves forward to the present when an elderly Italian shows up at a movie producer's office to find the actress he fell in love with long ago in Italy. It is a tale of a colorful cast of characters (including Richard Burton) navigating flawed decisions while holding onto their dreams.

    I am about half way through and enjoying it very much. Yesterday was my last day of summer school, after a little housekeeping this morning I may sit down and finish it.

    After reading "Under the Tuscan Sun" I also dreamed of visiting Italy and began a collection of books. I would still love to travel through the area. My family is Welsh and I am now feeling the tug to go explore Wales. I think there is something to be said about walking in the footsteps of ones ancestors.

    You have once again supplied me with a wealth of reading material. I need never venture far to find the next great read. Have a wonderful weekend. Bonnie

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    1. Hi Bonnie, "Beautiful Ruins" sounds very good. Thanks for the recommendation. There are so many good books about Italy!

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  4. My parents recently visited Ravello - what book is set there as I think my mother would love to read it. I'm intrigued by Penelope Fitzgerald's Innocence as I like her as an author. And oh Room with a view. My sister and I could quote chunks from it and spent a delightful summer in Florence stopping to quote the Italian parts.
    Happy travelling this weekend.

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    1. Hi Joan, "A Book of Secrets" is the one that is set in Ravello. I read "Offshore" by Penelope Fitzgerald and enjoyed it, which makes me think I would like "Innocence." And yes, "Room with a View" is utterly delightful!

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  5. thank you for the mention sunday !- and , in addition to La Bella Lingua, you have recommended a wonderful group of books! Many to add to my growing list! Ravello is wonderful - we have stayed there when we lived in Italy - I hope you get there and many other wonderful locales across this diverse country- so many places to explore from Taormina, Sicily to Cilento (not far from Naples) to our former hometown region of Lombardia - at Lago di Garda, the biggest, and in my (biased) opinion, the most beautiful lake in Italy!

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    1. Yes, I want to go to Lake Garda as well as Lake Como. Your suggestions for places to visit in Italy are very helpful, and I know you lived there for a while. Must have been fun. Lucky you!

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    1. Pamela, no I haven't and I will now check it out. I am loving all these great suggestions!

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  7. I've always wanted to go to Italy and I love reading Frances Mayes on Italian art. She has so inspired me to want to visit the many truly magnificent museums in Italy.
    I read A Book of Secrets last fall and it is very curious book, but a lovely one and Italy is definitely a refuge for many of the people Holroyd writes about.
    Thank you for the wonderful Italian reading suggestions!

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  8. What lovely pictures. Brings back memories of several wonderful holidays and even work trips ... I remember getting lost in fields of sunflowers on the way to a wonderful palazzo in Umbria, and the car once breaking down - very conveniently! - on a potholed road by a famous sculptor's villa, whereupon we were kindly invited inside for tea.
    And don't forget San Gimignano and its towers ...
    Oh dear, far too long since I've been there. You have distance as an excuse.

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  9. You and I (and probably alot of others) are dreaming of travel. We travel in fall and spring (off seasons and my favorite times of the year) so I am flooded with family vacation stories right now and itching to go somewhere. Two blogger friends are in Capri! What travel am I dreaming of??? Istanbul...reading about Istanbul. Oh, BTW, A. Bourdain's episode on Sardinia is wonderful. His wife is from Sardinia so it is a "family" related episode. It's on "instant watch" on Netflix...Enjoy your reading!

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  10. So funny!! I've been dying to do the Amalfi coast as well - and Capri!! I have been to Italy many times - my sister used to live there and we had a business for a while that took me there but I have never been to either of those locations. Love all the titles (and many of the book jackets) - I have a few. Also, I must tell you that I have been chatting with Frances Mayes on twitter - she is delightful!!

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  11. Sunday and other readers,
    I've been feeling uneasy about what I first wrote regarding the pollution in the Med. Feeling like Debbie Downer! I in no way meant to imply that it's not still one of the most magical and beautiful places to vacation or live, in the world, it is...absolutely. I was there the first time when I was 20, working as a cook during the summer on a charter sail boat. Fell in love with the coast then.
    So again, sorry for the rant.
    Kathy

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    1. Kathy, please don't give it another thought! It is sad to think about the pollution in one of the most beautiful bodies of water in the world. I had no idea you had such a connection with this area of Italy. It must have been an amazing experience to work there when you were 20. I can understand falling in love with this gorgeous region. I hope to go there one day!

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  12. Ciao mama! I love Italy - I first was a Roman explorer by my lonesome, then saw the canals in Venice with you, then took a trip under the Tuscan Sun with my sissy, aka your other daughter :) Oh, how I love Italia and plan to return oh-so-soon. Seeing the new Woody Allen movie Friday night got me very excited at the thought of another Roman adventure. Who knows..maybe I'll get out to Europe sooner than I ever could have planned ;)

    p.s. favorite Italian place? Heather and I went to Piemonte in wine country for sunshine, relaxation, lavender and wine. It was so special, poetic and magical. xo

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  13. The Amaifi coast, Positano, Capri, Serento and Florence are among my favorite towns. I've been fortunate to have traveled to Italy several times. Jim wanted to visit the museum in Naples before we went to Pompeii so we spent a day in Naples and had lunch at a wonderful little restaurant where I had the best pizza I've ever had, or will have! We hope to return again, soon he says. I see several of my favorite books I keep for reading when I get a travel buzz. I love your beautiful photos and this was a fun and delightful post to read.
    Have a delightful weekend.

    ~Emily
    The French Hutch

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  14. Hey thanks for writing such a beautiful blog with beautiful pictures. Keep Writing. Tuscany Villas Rentals

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