Zany Renovations in Tuscany by Ivanka Di Felice

A decade ago, Canadians Ivanka and David Di Felice moved it Italy, and David acquired Italian citizenship thanks to his Italian parents. That's when Ivanka began chronicling their adventure with her delightful series of well-written and perfectly edited Zany Italy books. This is book three and it, like the others, treats us to her comic perspective on making a new life in Italy.

Comedy is difficult to write, but seemingly not so difficult for Mrs. Di Felice. She is blessed with that special talent of being able to be in a situation, yet also see it from an outsider's perspective, thus she can see the humor in even the oddest, most frustrating situations. If you were ever curious about starting a new life in Italy, you will get a very accurate impression from this book and the previous two books.

The books to date in the Zany Italy series:

1. A Zany Slice of Italy
2. A Zany Slice of Tuscany
3. Zany Renovations in Tuscany
4. One still to come...

Book 1 in her Zany Memoirs, an Amazon Bestseller

The subject of this book is one that most readers will find very odd: the couple renovate a rental property. Dilapidated dumps are seemingly often rented out in Italy, with the owners expecting the renters to fix them up, and install a kitchen and heating on their own dime. Welcome to Italy! We are treated to vignettes with neighbors, workmen, animals, landlords, other immigrants, and family members.

The internet is transforming Italy just as it is transforming the rest of the world. Products are available online for home delivery, including a vast array of second-hand articles, which the economical couple take advantage of, even with the frustrating experiences with couriers. There are also some wonderful experiences with Italians who drive for hours to find just the right piece, and for some adventure on the weekend.

 Book 2 in her Zany Memoirs, also an Amazon Besteseller

There is a wonderful level of maturity in this book, now that Ivanka has reached the half-century mark, and lived in Italy for a decade. She is more patient and accepting of the drawbacks of Italian life, like the archaic banking and other service sectors, including a government that doesn't consider itself a service. As Ivanka says:

One of the reasons we came to Italy was for the slower pace of lie; now we have it and can't complain.

My favorite chapter in this book is “Happy Anniversary” (except for when they leave the dogs in the car!) because it shows the development of her relationship with her in-laws who were featured prominently in the first book. Part of her mellowing with them is due to great loss: many of the family's elderly relatives have passed away over the decade, and her own father sadly passed away sending the author into a long period of grief.

Ivanka's Memoirs About her Unusual Childhood in Canada

My biggest worry for Mrs. Di Felice is that her husband is using her for a workhorse, just as mine did for years, and that she will pay for it as I have, with many physical debilities. Stop that, David Di Felice! Stop that, right now! With their home fixed up, and hidden from the owner so he won't sell it out from under them or rent out at a higher rate, the author deserves some rest and recuperation, for the rest of her days, if you ask me!

I look forward to book number four, which the author says will be the last. I'm not convinced, however. Her quirky mind, and constantly evolving life in Italy will provide much more comic material in the years to come.

From the book's description:

When Ivanka and David Di Felice discover the downside of their “too good to be true” Chianti region house, they resume searching for their dream home in Tuscany.

Join them on a harrowing journey as professional house hunters, while you peek into Tuscan villas, apartments, and haylofts. At long last, they find an idyllic spot, surrounded by rolling hills graced with vineyards and olive groves, distant stone villas, and clusters of cypress trees. But the home has been vacant for years. Follow their adventures as they embark on renovations, endeavouring to bring the abandoned house and garden back to life.

If you’ve ever imagined packing it in and moving to Italy, the book also provides practical advice on how to do so.

As always, a cast of quirky characters enters their lives, and the author’s candid, sympathetic viewpoint captures their charm and the local color.

Can Ivanka and David finally relax and sit back with a bottle of Chianti wine to watch the sun set over the Tuscan hills? Escape to Italy in this witty, heartfelt travel memoir, Zany Renovations, to find out.

This book can be read as a stand-alone or feel free to tag along for more laugh out loud adventures in Italy by reading Ivanka's A Zany Slice of Italy and A Zany Slice of Tuscany.

Here is a direct link to the book at Amazon.com:

Cooking with Nonna by Rossella Rago

Some of you may know Rossella Rago from her on-line/social-media cooking videos in which she cooks alongside an Italian or Italian-American grandmother (nonna). This book is an accompaniment to that series, featuring 100+ of the basic Italian and Italian-American recipes she's gleaned from various grandmothers who have been featured on her show.

The recipes cover meals from appetizers to desserts, with step by step instructions on how to make the dish, preparation times, cooking times and yields. Photos illustrate many important techniques, and show many of the finished dishes.

A few of the dishes may challenge experienced cooks, but this is really a basic to intermediate book. I expect that the sequel will feature advanced dishes. Each recipe is prefaced by a short and entertaining introduction by the author.

The filtered images take on a nostalgic feel, which is intentional, and helps to blend the down-to-earth grandmothers with Rossella's at times too-Hollywood style. The author hopes to create nostalgia for the traditional Sunday dinners she grew up with.

If you didn't grow up with that tradition, the stories from the various grandmothers may inspire you to create the tradition for your own family. The one page life stories about each grandmother are fascinating slices of immigrant life, in which home-cooked meals equate directly with love. One grandmother insists:

You've got love the food like you love your boyfriend.

From the book's description:

Now you can cook classic Italian meals with the long-awaited debut cookbook from the popular web TV series Cooking with Nonna!

For Rossella Rago, creator and host of Cooking with Nonna TV, Italian cooking was never just about the amazing food or Sunday dinner. It was also about family, community, and tradition. Rossella grew up cooking with her Nonna Romana every Sunday and on holidays, learning the traditional recipes of the Italian region of Puglia, like focaccia, braciole, zucchine alla poverella, and pizza rustica. And in her popular web TV series, Rossella invites Italian-American grandmothers (the unsung heroes of the culinary world) to cook with her, learning the classic dishes and flavors of each region of Italy and sharing them with eager fans all over the world.

Now you can take a culinary journey through Italy with Rossella and her debut cookbook, Cooking with Nonna, featuring over 100 classic Italian recipes, along with advice and stories from 25 beloved Italian grandmothers. Learn to make fresh homemade pasta, handcrafted Spaghetti with Meatballs, and decadent Four-Cheese Lasagna that will have everyone coming back for seconds! With easy-to-follow step-by-step instructions and mouthwatering photos, Cooking with Nonna covers appetizers, soups, salads, pasta, meats, breads, cookies, and desserts, and features favorites such as Sicilian Rice Balls, Fried Calamari, Stuffed Artichokes, Orecchiette with Broccoli Rabe, Veal Stew in a Polenta Bowl, Struffoli, Ricotta Cookies, and more! So if you are ready to bring back Sunday dinner and learn how to make Italian food just like nonna, then look no further!

Here is a direct link to the book at Amazon.com:

Visit Rossella's website or YouTubeChannel to view the videos of her cooking with Italian grandmothers.

Out of Rushmore's Shadow by Lou Del Bianco

Lou Del Bianco's first-person account of his grandfather's work on the Mr. Rushmore presidential carvings, as Chief Carver, is entertaining, personable and very interesting. The conversational tone and lightly self-deprecating humor, combined with family photos, made this reader feel like I was an audience of one, enjoying a command performance by the author.

The story of Italian immigrant Luigi Del Bianco's work on Mt. Rushmore takes up roughly two-thirds of the book. The other third is the frustrating and heartbreaking struggle the Del Bianco family (mainly Lou and his aunt and uncle) waged for 25+ years (YES! Sadly, it took that long!) to get the U.S. Parks Service to recognize the Chief Carver's role in the creation of the Mr. Rushmore presidential monument, and to commemorate that at Mt. Rushmore.

For those who don't know, Gutzon Borglum, a master-carver (and amazing self-promoter), artist and engineer, designed the memorial in South Dakota and convinced the U.S. government to foot the bill. He brought to the project expert carvers from his studio, all accomplished artists in their own right, to do the most delicate parts of the work. Chief among those artists was Luigi Del Bianco.

Luigi Del Bianco was designated the Chief Carver by Borglum, and was tasked with not only training the unskilled miners who were hired locally, but with finishing the granite faces of the presidents so they came to life with rich expressions and amazing likenesses to the former presidents. Del Bianco was the only carver Borglum, who was too old to hang for long periods of time off the side of a mountain, trusted to do this delicate work in his stead, and entrusted to make the delicate repairs needed periodically in the friable mountain face.

Luigi Del Biano working on Mt. Rushmore.

The really amazing part of the story is that for decades Luigi Del Bianco was written out of the Mt. Rushmore monument's story, at least by the official historians. His community in Port Chester, New York, knew of their local son's talents and accomplishments, and regularly honored him in their press. But for the world at large, the Italian immigrant with the broken English was “officially” just one of the four hundred or so “workers” who did Borglum's bidding.

Part of the reason for this was likely the out-sized ego of Borglum who saw the monument as his claim to fame. He died during its creation, and biographers liked to focus solely on the larger than life artist when discussing the larger than life presidential carvings. 

 Luigi Del Bianco worked on the marble fireplaces in Kykuit, John D. Rochafeller's Pocantico Hills home in New York, some pictured here.

Another part of the reason for Luigi Del Bianco's being kept in the shadows was certainly the contempt that immigrants were held in during the 1920s and 1930s, the time of the monument's creation, especially immigrants from Italy, who were also unfortunately Catholics arriving in a predominantly Protestant country. That bigotry was so intense in the U.S. at the time that it brought the Klan back to life in the Southern states, and gave it fresh ground to grow in the Western states. Oddly, Borglum was a supporter of the new Klan.

Luigi Del Bianco suffered from that bigotry during the project, with docked wages, disrespect, shunning... all sorts of indignities, and was repeatedly defended by Borglum. The grandson doesn't go into the details in this book because he tries to focus on his grandfather's accomplishments rather than paint the man as a victim. Luigi Del Bianco didn't see himself as a victim; of all the hard work he did in his adopted country, he was proudest of his work creating a truly American iconic monument:

I'd do it again even knowing all the hardships involved.

 Luigi Del Bianco made plinths for monuments in and around his New York area. Here is one he made, with one of his three sons and late-life-gift daughter seated before it.

That's how this book becomes more than a biography of one Italian immigrant who helped create a modern masterpiece of monumental patriotic art. It becomes an iconic story of how an immigrant to America contributed to the country with his unique skills, hark work, and determination to succeed, supported by a community of immigrants who helped pull each other up, and by those open-minded Americans who recognized the rich talent that immigrants could contribute to the country.

I suspect that for Luigi Del Bianco's New York community, a monument as great as Mt. Rushmore was certainly their local cemetery, decorated with over five hundred memorials to loved ones, carved with skill, talent and heart by their local, celebrated artisan. Immigrant, son, daughter and grandson join together in this book to tell a timeless tale of familial love, pride and the life of newcomers and their descendants. I highly recommend this book.

From the book's description:

Sometimes history does not tell you the whole story. When 8-year-old Lou Del Bianco finds out that his Grandpa Luigi was the Chief Carver on Mount Rushmore, his young life is instantly changed. Follow Lou’s journey as he and his Uncle Caesar make the painful discovery that Luigi is not even mentioned in the most definitive book on Rushmore. Cheer them on as you read the historic documents they unearth from the Library of Congress that not only tell Luigi’s story but also prove his great importance. Finally, ride the roller-coaster of the 25 year journey to get Luigi the recognition he deserves. Out of Rushmore’s Shadow is the dramatic and touching story of Luigi’s legacy and the immigrant’s struggle.

Here is a direct link to the book at Amazon.com where it is available in paperback and as an e-book:

Please visit the Luigi Del Bianco Mr. Rushmore website for videos, interviews and lots of photographs.

On this site I have a review of another book about Luigi Del Bianco, Mt. Rushmore and the era in which it was made, by the author Douglas J. Gladstone: Carving a Niche for Himself: The Untold Story of Luigi Del Bianco.

 The Black Hills monument in South Dakota during the work, which involved blasters removing initial layers of rock, pointers marking the carving parameters based on the scale model in a nearby studio, drillers removing more stone, and carvers doing the final work to get the faces just right under the guidance of the Chief Carver, Luigi Del Bianco, who did the most delicate work himself.

Looking for Garibaldi by Nancy and John Petralia

The subtitle of this book is:  Travels on Three Continents in the Footsteps of a Hero. Looking for Garibaldi is this US-American writing couple's second travel memoir. The first, Not in a Tuscan Villa, provides lots of details about their one year living in Italy. At times I felt inundated by details while reading that book. That is not the case with Looking for Garibaldi. I feel they have achieved the right balance with this one, between a vicarious travel book and a spot of history for casual readers.

Giuseppe Garibaldi was a complex man with a complex life. I've always thought that the many history books dedicated to his story appear to struggle to present a coherent narrative. So I approve of the Petralias' choice to not write a history book, but instead a travel memoir in which they describe some of their experiences while crisscrossing the Atlantic, just as Garibaldi did, while visiting points of interest from Garibaldi's story.

Giuseppe Garibaldi

If readers are later drawn to learn more about the Italian freedom-fighter (from Spanish colonialism) and Italian unification military leader (of the famous Red Shirts) I think that's wonderful. When traveling in Italy and many parts of Latin America, one can't help but encounter squares, streets and parks named for Garibaldi. Gaining greater understanding of why that is, can only help one appreciate Italy and Italians better.

Italy is a relatively young country, formed of very different regions with different histories, languages and values. The Petralias describe these contrasts well in their earlier book, and touch on them again in this memoir as they move from the north to the center, then to the south of Italy. Once again, the personal connections they make as they travel are the most memorable parts for me, and the connections to John Petralia's Italian-immigrant family that come up during their travels are very moving.

 Monument to the man in New York's Washington Square

In this book we encounter the loving couple as they deal with the difficulties of aging combined with the difficulties of travel, which many readers will find understandable. We also get some interesting recollections from John and Nancy's childhoods in the States. Fans of the couple will get to know them better. Be warned, some of John's chapters (they alternate chapters) contain vulgarities, politics, controversial economic theories, some coarseness, and punctuation that purists may find distracting.

I enjoyed my vicarious travel with the couple. For those of us who can't, for whatever reason, hop on a plane to Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, France, Italy, or the east coast of the U.S., this travel memoir could help fill the void for excitement, risk, human contact and sensory stimulation. Their writing brings people and places alive. I wish them success and good health.

 Garibaldi-Meucci House Museum, Staten Island, NY

Here is the book's description:

Can following the footsteps of one of history’s most colorful figures lead to an unusual travel adventure? Absolutely. Giuseppe Garibaldi led freedom fighters on two continents, unified Italy, and almost headed America’s Union Army. His statues stand in cities around the world. So what do people today think of his accomplishments?

In Looking for Garibaldi, John and Nancy Petralia discover that answer and more as they explore, often in hilarious ways, the places Garibaldi lived and fought, and how their lives parallel his. In stories of gun wielding gauchos, Italian family roots, nautical Christmas displays, historic battles, young lovers, old soldiers, tango missteps and travel with friends, the Petralias remind us that life’s most memorable moments often begin by taking a chance.

Here is a direct link to the book at Amazon.com:

Here is the description of their other travelogue, Not in a Tuscan Villa:

What happens if you decide to make a dream come true? Newly retired and looking for more than a vacation, John and Nancy Petralia intrepidly pack a few suitcases and head to the "perfect" Italian city. Within days their dream becomes a nightmare.

After residing in two Italian cities, negotiating the roads and healthcare, discovering art, friends, food, and customs, the Petralias learn more than they anticipate--about Italy, themselves, what it means to be American, and what's important in life. Part memoir, part commentary, quirky and sincere, Not in a Tuscan Villa is about having the courage to step out of your comfort zone and do something challenging in later life.

The adventure recaptures the Petralias' youth, rekindles their romance--and changes their lives forever.

Here is a direct link to the book at Amazon.com:

I review the book on this site, for those interested...

Return to Glow by Chandi Wyant

The subtitle of this book is A Pilgrimage of Transformation in Italy, and it falls in the genre “Women traveling to get over divorce/breakdown/depression/and or mid-life crisis”, within the sub-genre “Travel to Italy”. Actually, the book is less the purported memoirs of a walk along Italy's ancient pilgrimage route, the Via Francigena, and more an autobiography that includes the childhood, adolescence and adulthood of the author, and even background on the author's family.

The writing is educated and well-edited, with beautiful quotes from literature and poetry to illustrate many important points. At times the writing rises to the romantic lyricism of Marlena di Blasi in her famous A Thousand Days in Venice. At other times the subjects covered by the author seem less for romantics and more for fans of schadenfreude, or for armchair-analysts. Those latter parts were my least favorite. They always make me cringe and say a silent prayer that the author has at least changed the names of the people she exposes.

 Siena's Cathedral

As a pilgrim along part of the Catholic religious route of pilgrimage, the Via Francigena, we learn a lot from the author about the places she visits during her ill-conceived trip of healing, which leaves her physically worse off than at the start. Psychologically, she feels she has healed quite a bit through her ordeal, and the time it gave her to reflect critically on her life choices. We are given a front row seat to her ruminations and remembrances. Honestly, too many of them brought back bad memories of my own, so I can recommend the book only to those readers who won't suffer the same upsetting flashbacks.

So what exactly happened to set the author out to conquer her demons and rediscover her lust for life (her glow)? First, she did the very modern-day thing for worldly, well-educated women: she married down. It is such a common phenomenon these days that it is even a major plot element of the popular TV show “Modern Family”. The author belatedly realized her mistake and ended the ten year marriage. Second, she had a near-death experience coupled with a horrific, trauma-inducing stay in an Italian hospital that left her with lasting poor health. (If you have a hospital phobia, as I do, those parts of the book may be unreadable!)

 Cinqueterre, a detour for the author

Who comes off badly in the book? Airlines, doctors, the ex-husband, some friends and family, the hole-riddled U.S. social net, and the U.S. jobs market that can't provide secure, good-paying, full-time jobs with benefits for highly educated people. Italy comes off the best in the book. The sections set in Italy clearly show the author's love of the country, the Italian people and the culture. The author admits:

Learning Italian is the greatest gift I have given myself.

For Italophiles, there is much to enjoy in the book. You'll need to be a fan of this genre of book, Female Travel Therapy, however, to really enjoy the whole book. This is not a guide to the Via Francigena. This is an autobiography of an Italophile who endured the pilgrimage route, ill-prepared for its challenges, while attempting to jump-start her life.

 San Gimignano

From the book's description:

In her early forties, Chandi Wyant’s world implodes in the wake of a divorce and traumatic illness. Determined to embrace life by following her heart, she sets out on Italy’s historic pilgrimage route, the Via Francigena, to walk for forty days to Rome.

Weakened by her recent illness, she walks over the Apennines, through the valleys of Tuscany, and beside busy highways on her 425-kilometer trek equipped with a nineteen-pound pack, two journals, and three pens.

Return to Glow chronicles this journey that is both profoundly spiritual and ruggedly adventuresome. As Chandi traverses this ancient pilgrim’s route, she rediscovers awe in the splendor of the Italian countryside and finds sustenance and comfort from surprising sources. Drawing on her profession as a college history instructor, she gracefully weaves in relevant anecdotes, melding past and present in this odyssey toward her soul.

This delightful, transporting tale awakens the senses while inviting readers to discover their own inner glow by letting go of fixed expectations, choosing courage over comfort, and following their heart.

Here is a direct link to the book at Amazon.com:

Please visit the author's website where she offers great advice to those who wish to emigrate to Italy. 

Here's a short video to give you an idea of the route and travelers, made in English by a Dutch couple who start at the Via Francigena's beginning, in Canterbury, England.

Living in Italy, The Real Deal

The ex-pats in this memoirs about moving to Italy come from The Netherlands. The couple purchased a property and renovated it into their new home, and two rental properties to provide an income in their adopted land. European Union legislation makes their move to Italy simpler than it would be for non-EU residents, but in Italy that is not saying much!

Their stories about finding and buying the property, and then renovating it, show that things that may be very straight forward in some countries can be anything but in Italy. Besides odd customs, unhelpful business hours, and unprofessional conduct by some so-called professionals, the stories also demonstrate how in-comers to Italy may find it very difficult to integrate with Italians.

 The Original Dutch Version

This is a translation from the original Dutch text, and it is an excellent translation. The charming accounts of life in Italy are never mean-spirited but they do convey the frustration Italian bureaucracy can generate. They also convey the joy the writer and his partner find in Italy's culture and rural landscape in the Pavia area, south of the Po River.

Sometimes when reading memoirs about people moving to Italy, I have an overwhelming urge to force-feed the books to Italians so they can see how the outside world views them. Perhaps if they saw that most of the rest of the developed world functions more efficiently than they do, it might speed up improvements in the service sector, both public and private, is my thinking. If that would help, I really don't know. Just know that if you move there, you must be ready for worst-case scenarios.

 The renovated villa

The author keeps his cool throughout everything, and offers the reader some insightful views on life in Italy.

“Like every coin, Italy seems to have two sides: manic and depressed.”

The story ends successfully for the couple, and now, five years on from the events in the book, their rentals are generally booked up by fellow Dutch and Belgians, who help the couple see Italy continually with fresh eyes, keeping their love affair with the country fresh.

“The Italians with the funny ways and the fantastic food.”

 The guest apartment terrace and view

From the book's description:

In 2008 Stef Smulders, his partner Nico and their dog Saar emigrated to Italy to start a new life and set up their B&B Villa I Due Padroni. They sold their home, left their friends and family behind and took a leap into the unknown. Now Stef shares his experiences in a collection of witty short stories. The book treats the trials and tribulations of an emigration: what it was like to buy and renovate a house, to import a car, to gain residency, and much more.

The reader is introduced to a full range of Italian characters, from the trustworthy to the rogue, from the gentle to the shameless, flesh and blood Italians. Some are stereotypes, others unexpectedly original. Yet they never fail to amuse and entertain.

Here is a direct link to the book at Amazon.com:

Please visit the Villa I Due Padroni B&B website.

Not My Mother's Kitchen by Rob Chirico

This is a combination memoirs and cookbook by a self-taught Italian-American chef who was inspired by a trip to Italy to create meals that combine the fresh taste of Italian cooking with some classic tastes of American cooking. The references for on-line sources for ingredients are for American readers.

He writes and cooks with the at times irritating conviction of a convert, so casual cooks might find some of his recipes a bit too fussy, and normal people will find some of his opinions rather too opinionated (like his views on the table salt shaker!). But the author includes some basic recipes too, and some classic Italian recipes, all accompanied by detailed instructions.

The memoirs part of the book, in my opinion, picks much too much on his mother's cooking, which was the cooking of millions of Americans in the sixties and seventies: frozen foods, processed foods, and convenience products. He could just as easily have written about those millions than picked on his mother by name.

I prayed that the woman had passed on, so she wouldn't have to see this book and read her son's rants about her and her cooking. However I was horrified to learn at the end of the book that his mother is still with us! Shame on you Rob Chirico for humiliating your mother in this way!

From the book's description:

Serving up a tale that is part memoir and part cookbook, acclaimed foodie Rob Chirico shares his culinary journey after growing up with an Italian-American mother who was hopeless in the kitchen.

Rob Chirico learned to cook as a defense against his mother's awful meals. After discover-ing that there was more to real food than canned ravioli and frozen vegetables, he decided to try his hand in the kitchen. His memoir offers recipes, cooking techniques, and tips he has cultivated over decades. He blends his expert experience with an engaging and humorous narrative on growing up with suspect meals.

In the Name of Gucci by Patricia Gucci and Wendy Holden

In the Name of Gucci is a heartfelt recounting of several lives and one iconic business through the lens of Patricia Gucci, the daughter of the family-firm Gucci's powerhouse behind the company's growth into an international luxury goods firm, Aldo Gucci.

Aldo Gucci's daughter by his second wife Bruna, Patricia is now a mature woman with a mature understanding of human nature, and is informed by her mother's strong memories.  The author sets out to do three things:  to honor her father, to honor her mother, and:

to give my children a unique and truthful memento

There are some omissions to spare feelings, and to avoid lawsuits, no doubt, and there is spin on things that could be viewed from a very different, unsympathetic perspective.  If you set those things aside, the book is highly readable, often fascinating, fluidly written, and gives the reader a close-up view of people who filled the newspapers for decades.  That many members of the Gucci clan would not be out of place in a recent book about psychopaths in boardrooms, makes the book compelling reading.

The spinning in the book generally relates to 53 year-old Aldo Gucci's sexual harassment of a 20 year-old employee.  What makes the egotistical assault by the old-man-with-an-infatuation on the young woman most damning is that the young woman was very immature, and emotionally and psychologically weak and vulnerable.  Hounded into a relationship with a married man old enough to be her grandfather, left the fragile woman scared for life.  She is the author's long-suffering mother.

Other spinning in the book involves the disgusting wealth that went to the Gucci family from their luxury goods business, rather than to their employees or the tax authorities, to the former for their hard work and long hours and having to put up with the vicious abusive tantrums of the company's owners, and to the latter what was their due by law.  The conspicuous consumption, of especially the 1980s, turned this reader's stomach.

If you are someone who prefers non-fiction reading to fiction reading, like me, you'll enjoy every word in the book.  Truth is stranger than fiction, and the truth of the Gucci family is especially strange.

From the book's description:

The gripping family drama—and never-before-told love story—surrounding the rise and fall of the late Aldo Gucci, the man responsible for making the legendary fashion label the powerhouse it is today, as told by his daughter.

Patricia Gucci was born a secret: the lovechild whose birth could have spelled ruination for her father, Aldo Gucci. It was the early 1960s, the halcyon days for Gucci—the must-have brand of Hollywood and royalty—but also a time when having a child out of wedlock was illegal in Italy. Aldo couldn't afford a public scandal, nor could he resist his feelings for Patricia's mother, Bruna, the paramour he met when she worked in the first Gucci store in Rome. To avoid controversy, he sent Bruna to London after she became pregnant, and then discretely whisked her back to Rome with her newborn hidden from the Italian authorities, the media, and the Gucci family.

In the Name of Gucci charts the untold love story of Patricia's parents, relying on the author's own memories, a collection of love letters and interviews with her mother, as well as an archive of previously unseen photos. She interweaves her parents' tempestuous narrative with that of her own relationship with her father—from an isolated little girl who lived in the shadows for the best part of a decade through her rise as Gucci's spokesperson and Aldo's youngest protégé, to the moment when Aldo's three sons were shunned after betraying him in a notorious coup and Patricia—once considered a guilty secret—was made his sole universal heir. It is an epic tale of love and loss, treason and loyalty, sweeping across Italy, England and America during the most tumultuous period of Gucci's sixty years as a family business.

Here is a direct link to the book at Amazon.com:

Please visit the author's website. Here is a direct link to the photo page at that website.

Under the Lion Sun by Michael Caputo

An Italo-Canadian recalls his life in Calabria before his family emigrated to Canada.  His advanced education in Canada, along with several return visits to his family's home town of Capistrano, have given him a perspective that is rich with insights about Calabria of the past and present.

I believe that Indie publishing really comes into its own with these sorts of accounts, so I'm more than willing to overlook the handful of typos that come with them (hopefully they will be weeded out soon in this quality book).

The description of the book is overly negative, in my opinion.  Most of the author's recollections are positive.  Like every life, there are bad remembrances too, but not much that is out of character for a small agricultural community in the 50s and 60s, in an area with depleted soil and a baking sun.  They were not wealthy, but:

simple joys made life in Calabria worth living

The author covers the area's traditions and way of life in great detail, including the food, festivals and superstitions.  He also presents vignettes of local bigwigs, interesting people, and his family members. 

Like all emigrants to other lands, his remembrances of food and tastes are the strongest, and luckily they can be renewed in visits to Italy, and even in some delicatessens in Canada.

The overly negative description is deceptive.  Agricultural societies in the 50s and 60s in Calabria and Canada suffered from rural accidents, violent quarrels, preventable deaths, and untreated mental illness. 

The unique elements in Calabria were the criminal sociopaths who thrived in an area with weak governmental institutions compounded by a passive fate-believing populace, and the lack of jobs that encouraged friends to help friends to jobs while excluding talented people from the workforce, and the paternalism that excluded women from societal decision-making and jobs.  Those three elements continue to hamper economic development in Calabria, where the author admits:

the civil rules of life do not always apply

One custom in particular is described briefly in the book, and I know that it continues to this day in many towns in Southern Italy:  the public slaughter of the family pig and the festival that surrounds it.  The slaughter is gruesome and prolonged, causing suffering to the animal, and untold psychological suffering to those who witness it and participate in it.

Those kinds of rituals are not the norm in civilized societies because they make citizens too familiar with how to take life, and they destroy compassion for the suffering of other living beings.

In Northern Europe, they have never been the norm.  Families would signal the local butcher with a special flag flown outside their home when it was time to butcher an animal.  The butcher travelled the local roads regularly, and stopped where a slaughter was needed.  He did it quietly in the barn, minimizing the suffering of the animal as much as possible, and sparing the family from suffering seeing the killing of an animal that was often more of a pet by then.

The governments in Muslim countries are trying to stop people from the ritual slaughter of lambs for a religious festival because they recognize the psychological harm it does to people.  The arrogant superiority shown by those who find killing easy, is reason enough to ban those sorts of festivals, in my opinion.

The author succeeds in giving the reader a good idea of what life was like in the 50s and 60s in a small Calabrian town, and telling why a few hundred Capistranesi moved to Canada in those decades.  They were in search of greater prosperity and a better future for their children, like migrants today.

But the first-world's culture has moved forward since then, and the rural communities of many of today's migrants are very similar to what the author left behind in the 50s and 60s.  That growing cultural gap does not bode well for the integration of new poor rural immigrants into the societies of first-world nations.  The importance of understanding the life a newcomer left behind, in order to help them adapt to their new home, is made all the more clear by this book written by an earlier immigrant.

From the book's description:

Join the author on a journey back through time to his beloved town in Calabria, in Southern Italy.  Accompany him through a painful mental journey to the fifties and sixties, as he was growing up in a location which could be simultaneously a blissful heaven and a brutal hell.

In this book you will meet very loving people whose whole existence was self-sacrifice, and others who had no conscience and did the unthinkable, without a hint of guilt.  The author will also dissect and expose beliefs, customs and traits which both ennoble and limit the very energetic and intelligent people of Calabria.

This book is especially of interest to people whose roots are in that special region of Italy. Anyone whose interest is anthropology will find this work very enlightening as well.

"...this book is not just an autobiography by someone who wants to share a joyful past; this is the autobiography of someone who witnessed the most wonderful acts of kindness from people who justly deserved the title of saints, juxtaposed with incomprehensible acts of violence by people who acted like devils and left behind incomprehensible pain."` (M. Caputo)

Here is a direct link to the book at Amazon.com:

Please visit the Capistrano-Canadian website.

Coins in the Fountain by Judith Works

It is difficult to review a book that is like several books in one, and that is the case with this book.  The memoirs was inspired by the author's time living in Rome, Italy, while she worked for two United Nations organizations.  The stay allowed the shopping and travel addict to indulge her dual addictions liberally.

We read about her work, her travels, her purchases, and also about her past and present life.  All is sprinkled liberally with quotes, Italian words, humor, history and Italian food.  Her travels in Italy left her a lifelong Italophile.

...my heart remains in Italy with its abiding connection to the past.

Despite all her travels and reading, she admits:

...it is impossible to know all of Italy with its overabundance of everything.

This book offers an abundance of anecdotes.  I had to put it down often because I came to feel it was an overabundance of stories, but that just means the reader will get their money's worth with this memoirs that is about much more than Rome and Italy.

Ever wonder what it would be like to work for one of the UN's charitable organizations?  You'll discover that in the book since the author worked for two such organizations, both based in Rome.  The pampered existence for the ex-pats who too often revert to their worst when not surrounded by the social pressures of their home country to behave, is not as attractive as it might seem.

Ever wonder what it would be like to live in Rome?  You'll discover that in the book, in minute detail.  It might not be what you expect, because Italian cities are pretty horrible.  Only the history and art make them livable.  The pollution, expense, inefficiencies, crime, filth and lack of amenities that many of us take for granted, would put off most people.  The nearness to the Italian countryside is the biggest appeal of the city.

Ever wonder what it would be like to work in a personnel department?  You'll discover that too, in the book, since that is where the author spent her working career.  You'll see how one comes to view employees rather cynically from that perspective.

Ever wonder what sights are within easy drives, or overnight stays, from Rome?  You'll discover many of those, in much detail, in this book, because the author and her very supportive husband were rarely still, exploring central and southern Italy, even neglected regions like Basilicata.  Longer trips in Italy to Sicily and other popular locations are included too.

There are more stories than those, about trips to African countries and Cambodia and Spain, Italian food, parties, colleagues, the U.S. Forest Service (her employer in the States), shopping, more shopping, an ex-husband (who should have been spared inclusion in the book, in my humble opinion), markets, apartments, clothing, tourists, Gypsies (Roma), sailboat trips by her husband, and ex-pat life in-country and after returning home.

To spend that much time with one person, via their memoirs, you need to be able to relate to them on some level.  If you share some of her pre-Italy U.S. American life experiences, that would help.  She doesn't always behave honorably, and shows some superficial values, but that is mostly forgiven because of her erudition and intellectual curiosity.  Everything is filtered through a U.S. lens.

The author admits to having lived a sheltered U.S. American life of affluence and ignorance before moving to Italy.  Actually, I was very surprised she got the job in Rome; she seemed an unlikely candidate for a foreign post, lacking language, life and work experience.  She became a person one could consider very greedy for new experiences.

If you enjoy history along with your travel stories, peppered with thoughtful literary quotes, you should enjoy this book.  I think it might hold most appeal for armchair travelers, readers who like living vicariously through others, or those who are planning to go on an extended tour of central and southern Italy.

From the book's description:

Innocents Abroad collide with La Dolce Vita when the author and her husband arrive in the ancient city of Rome fresh from the depths of Oregon.  While the author endeavored to learn the folkways of the United Nations, her husband tangled with unfamiliar vegetables in a valiant effort to learn to cook Italian-style.

In between, they attended weddings, enjoyed a close-up with the pope, tried their hands at grape harvesting, and savored country weekends where the ancient Etruscans still seemed to be lurking.  Along the way they made many unforgettable friends including the countess with a butt-reducing machine and a count who served as a model for naked statues of horsemen in his youth.

But not everything was wine and wonders.  Dogs in the doctor’s exam room, neighbors in the apartment in the middle of the night, an auto accident with the military police, a dangerous fall in the subway, too many interactions with an excitable landlord, snakes and unexploded bombs on a golf course, and a sinking sailboat, all added more seasoning to the spaghetti sauce of their life.

Their story begins with a month trying to sleep on a cold marble floor wondering why they came to Rome.  It ends with a hopeful toss of coins in the Trevi Fountain to ensure their return to the Eternal City for visits.  Ten years of pasta, vino, and the sweet life weren’t enough.

Part memoir, part travelogue, Coins in the Fountain will amuse and intrigue you with the stories of food, friends, and the adventures of a couple who ran away to join the circus (the Circus Maximus, that is).

Here is a direct link to the book at Amazon.com:

Please visit the author's website and via Facebook.  She is the author of a Women's Contemporary Fiction novel set in Rome, City of Illusions, inspired by her experiences, that I reviewon this site.