Author David Farley Talks about Books for Italy Travel

David Farley in Calcata, Italy

Destination: Italy

Author: David Farley

Books: An Irreverent Curiosity by David Farley

The Dark Heart of Italy by Tobias Jones

Pagan Holiday by Tony Perrottet

I talked with David Farley a couple of weeks ago about his book, An [amazonify]1592404545::text::::Irreverent Curiosity[/amazonify] which is released today. The book revolves around his time living in a small medieval village in Italy while he searches for the improbably relic, the foreskin of Christ. Here he reveals some interesting details and recommends two books for travelers to Italy, besides his own.

Have you been back to Calcata since you finished the book to see a reaction? His answer was “not exactly”, although he has yet to see the reaction to the book, because it had not been published when he was there, he did see the reaction to an article he wrote.

I wrote an article for the New York Times, and because they syndicate to other papers –millions of people read this article. I was there to see the reaction to that. You go to a place on assignment and you write the story and it takes a while to get it published. It was interesting (for a change) to be in a place and see the results.

With the locals it was mixed. Some people were upset that I didn’t include them.  Some people were upset they weren’t quoted. Some people were upset because their arch enemy was in the article and they were not.

(Did anyone in the village read the manuscript?)

No. In Calcata, gossip spreads so easily and gets morphed into different things, so I didn’t want gossip going around about the book before it was out.

(In the book you talk about a time when you became disillusioned with living in this charming medieval village that  you had seen as so ideal. Is it inevitable that travelers who stay for a while in one place will become disillusioned?)

Probably that is the case especially for such a small town. For me, in the winter it grows so desolate and quiet and dark because the days are short, it started to drive me crazy.  People speak of the negative energy that grows from the rock (under the town).  I started to wonder if the energy was controlling me as well. That’s when I figured I was going crazy.

(Does the library of the Vatican where you did research, look like it did in the movie, Angels and Demons? He had not seen it, so I described how modern and high tech it was in the movie)

No, it did not look like that. They could have portrayed the Vatican library any way they wanted to because access is so limited so only a very small number of scholars have been inside.

There are long high ceilings adorned with Renaissance frescoes—no images—just leaves and designs. They reminded me of Florence. The walls are flanked by huge book shelves and old dusty books. Their computers are from the Reagan area. They are definitely not very technological savvy

Other than finding the relic that is the subject of the book, what was your biggest challenge, in this, your first book?

—Learning Italian. At  end, I was doing interviews in Italian, so I overcame that. Oddly enough my vocabulary was filled with words relating to the Holy Foreskin. If we were talking about anything else I could not remember the words.

What was it like working without reliable Internet access?

When I wrote the book,(after the research period) I was there for 3 months and because of the slow Internet connections, I could not use the Internet very much. I wrote 2/3 of the book in a 3 month period in Calcata. When I went back home, it took me 6 months to write the final 1/3 of the book–trying to write and not be distracted by Facebook and Twitter and all those things we use as distractions.

What books about Italy might you recommend for the Traveler’s Library?

Tobias Jones’ [amazonify]0865477248::text::::The Dark Heart of Italy [/amazonify]. He is a Brit living in Parma. He doesn’t romanticize Italy. The book is pretty well balanced– captures the Italy that we know and love as well as the frustrating aspects—the political scene, the sometimes intolerance that goes on there that you don’t hear too much about.

[amazonify]0375756396::text::::Pagan Holiday[/amazonify] , about early Roman travelers. The author is Tony Perrottet. He travels through Italy and parts of the Mediterranean. It was a little bit of inspiration for me because he shuffles between his travels and the history of travelers 2000 years ago.

Thank you David Farley, and I hope the readers of A Traveler’s Library, will become readers of An Irreverent Curiosity.

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Tags: David Farley, Italy, New York Times, Travel, travel literature, writer