Just started a GREAT book about Italy!
 

I just started a WONDERFUL book about Italy and had to share it with the Fodorites. It's called "Italian Days" by Barbara Grizzuti Harrison. Nonfiction, and the next best thing to being there (except that it makes you want to be there even more). I fell in love with it during the first sentence, and knew I had to buy it when I got to the part on page three where she has hand-to-hand combat with a duchess over an airport luggage cart. Warm, funny, real, and I can't put it down...

Thanks for the information. I'll look for it. <BR>

Thanks for the recommendation. I like to read non fiction books about people's travel adventures or rather when they move to the country for a while. Does anyone know of any books similar to that but on Paris or France or perhaps other European cities and countries?

Do a search on "reading list" & visit www.galleyslaves.com (a Dan Woodlief discovery, I think).

"A Paris Notebook" by C.W. Gusewelle is a great little book about the time period this newspaper columnist lived and worked in Paris. He writes for the Kansas City Star (Hemingway started out as a reporter for the Star) and you can read his columns on the newspapers web site www.kcstar.com. His books are readily available in Kansas City and you may be able to order them from the Star.

I just checked Amazon.com and "A Paris Notebook" is available there.

Hi Valerie: <BR> <BR>I would highly recommend a book called "French Dirt" by Richard Goodman. It's about an American who spends a year in a small French town and decides to plant a small garden. (It's available on the Amazon site). <BR> <BR>I liked it much more than "A Year In Provence" (although I was so green with envy reading A Year In Provence that it's possible I wasn't very objective!) <BR> <BR>Another book that sort of meets your criteria (it's non-fiction, about a French resident) is called "A Life of Her Own" by Emilie Carles. It's about a French peasant woman who was born in 1900. She lived the most amazing life - I strongly recommend it. (it's also on the Amazon site).

Another great book is Seasons of Rome by Paul Hoffman. The Author is a journalist who has lived in Italy for 40 yrs. Gives the reader insights to the real Rome.

Italian Neighbors by Tim Parks (haven't read his An Italian Education) is a rather nice, balanced antidote to the starry-eyed, Italy-is-so-idyllic school of expatriate literature. <BR> <BR>Also, I hope this isn't too far off-topic but, I'd like to put in a plug for getting these books from a local independent bookstore, rather than automatically reaching for Amazon or a mega-chain. If your local store doesn't <BR>have them, they'll probably order them. <BR>If you're like me and spend lots of time in your local shop browsing the travel books, you might want to help assure its continued existence. (No, I have no affiliation to any bookstore, other than as a customer.) <BR> <BR>

Desiring Italy is a wonderful book of essays written by women. It covers the entire country, not just the major cities. While not about Europe, the book The Kindness of Strangers, which tells the true story of a man hitchiking across America without a cent, will give all travelers faith in mankind again.

I found a really good book which is actually a collection of stories about people's worst trips. Don't get me wrong, I love hearing about great travel stories too, but some times the horror stories are so surprising and funny (they probably weren't funny at the time), that I just can't stop reading them. The book is called, "I should have stayed home: The worst Trips of Great Writers." edited by Roger Rapoport and Marguerita Castanera. Some of the writers include Isabel Allende, Rick Steves, and Jeff Greenwald. The inttroduction by Mary Morris describes well why we all are so interested in hearing these kind of stories: "But it is not our comforts we remember--or that anyone else cares to remember for that matter. What is memorable is misery. It is our dismay, our disbelief, and the fact that we made it through." She goes on to say, "Somehow the lack of running water, the fear of disease,and the misery of a straw mat bring us closer to the brink and hence let us feel we are alive."

I found a really good book which is actually a collection of stories about people's worst trips. Don't get me wrong, I love hearing about great travel stories too, but some times the horror stories are so surprising and funny (they probably weren't funny at the time), that I just can't stop reading them. The book is called, "I should have stayed home: The worst Trips of Great Writers." edited by Roger Rapoport and Marguerita Castanera. Some of the writers include Isabel Allende, Rick Steves, and Jeff Greenwald. The inttroduction by Mary Morris describes well why we all are so interested in hearing these kind of stories: "But it is not our comforts we remember--or that anyone else cares to remember for that matter. What is memorable is misery. It is our dismay, our disbelief, and the fact that we made it through." She goes on to say, "Somehow the lack of running water, the fear of disease,and the misery of a straw mat bring us closer to the brink and hence let us feel we are alive."

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