A Small Place in Italy

By Eric Newby

Book Overview

UK This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0864426054
• ISBN13: 9780864426055
• Release Date: January 1
• Publisher: Lonely Planet Publications
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.0" x 0.5" x 5.3"

Customer Reviews

Meets a market need perfectly.

The urge to escape the comforts, routine and refinements of our living conditions to somewhere more challenging, primitive and raw is something that many of us feel - especially those who read books. The books we read can sometimes stimulate the urge, sometimes satisfy it. All I ask of such books is that the author can write well and that he is not boastful. Eric Newby, especially in "A Small Place in Italy", meets these requirements admirably. Indeed, he ranks for me as a travel writer of near genius. He was almost 50 years old when he and his Italian born wife Wanda took up permanent residence in a ruined farmhouse in northern Italy. His account of the trials and tribulations that followed, the neighbors and the locality, is told in this wonderfully witty, readable and valuable book. Part of the value rests in the sociological and historical dimensions it gives. Even while he lived there, the customs, the occupations and the life styles were fast disappearing. If you enjoy this genre, you'll want to give "A Small Place in Italy" a prominent place on your bookshelf.

Portrait of an era

This is one of my favourite Italy books! Italy during the 70's and 80's, when life in the country was so very different from now and neighbours were so much more part of one's daily life. Mr. Newby's way of describing all their beautiful (and in one case not so beautiful) characters is very moving.

My favourite Newby

The typical Newby humour is complimented by the deep emotions that Eric Newby associated with the place, the people and the way of life that like all else seems to eventually fade or disappear. I'm just glad that he chronicled it for me. Eric Newby brings a rare a worthy passion to life! Enjoy!

Newby beats mayes hands down

Eric newby, and his wife, Wanda acquire a small and ruined farmhouse in the foothills of the Alps. This book is about how they set about restoring that house, and their life in this rural area of Italy. Newby met Wanda when he was a POW on the run during WW2, a story recounted in 'Love and War In The Appenines'. This book reads as a much more 'authentic' experience than the current penomenally successful 'Under The Tuscan Sun', which it pre-dates by a couple of years.