Destination: Italy (14th Century)

Book: Waterfall, the River of Time triology by by Lisa T. Bergren (Young Adult)

By Jennifer Close

Imagine finding a portal that takes you back to 14th century Italy where you are immediately immersed in a battle between gallant knights and their fierce enemies. This is exactly what happened to modern day teenager, Gabriella, when she and her sister were exploring where they weren’t supposed to be in Waterfall , the first book of the River of Time trilogy by Lisa T. Bergren

Awhile back, I was at home sick and trying to find something new to put on my eReader when I saw the first book of the series was on special and free for download. After teaching high school for years, I love Young Adult fiction so of course I downloaded it. I was hooked after the first chapter and finished the book in less than a day.

Gabriella realizes that she did in fact travel back in time and she also realizes that she lost her sister in the process. She embarks on a journey to locate her sister but at the same time discovers not only a little bit more of herself but she also finds love. What I liked most about Gabriella was that she is a strong female character. She has all the typical characteristics of a teenage girl swooning over a boy (a mighty fine looking one at that!) but at the same time she is confident, strong-willed, and resourceful when it comes to finding her way around an Italy of the past. She can appreciate a beautiful gown one minute and can wield a sword the next. Every once in awhile, I felt like it was a little far-fetched that Gabi, for the most part, fit in to the 14th century so quickly and easily but it is a book about time travel after all!

Italy has never really been high on the list of countries that I want to visit even though some of my favorite books are set there. A few years ago, we went to Germany and Austria to see as many Christmas Markets as we could during a two week period…ok, as many Christmas Markets as I could see! We were based in Garmisch, Germany just a few hours north of Italy so we had planned a quick day trip over the Italian border but had to cancel it due to weather. It didn’t really bother me too much. But after reading about Gabi’s adventures, I think I am ready to plan a trip to Italy now and learn more about the history of the country.

Siena Italy Fountain of Gaia with fence

“But the Fonte Gaia of Siena, a simple rectangle, ornately carved of marble, did not demand undue attention. It allowed the public square itself to sing, like a box seat in the best part of a stadium,” says Gabi. After reading this description of the Gaia Fountain, I hopped online to see pictures of it. What an interesting fountain it is! The Gaia Fountain, or Fountain of Joy, is a rectangular shaped basin that has three sides adorned with reliefs and is surrounded by an iron fence. I can only imagine what Gaia Fountain looked like to Gabi as she looked at it shortly after its construction without that fence surrounding it.

Siena Italy Fountain of Gaia

This series does fall under the Christian fiction category as Gabi struggles with her faith and her responsibilities to her family. It is subtle so if you are not used to reading Christian fiction it isn’t in your face. As a mother and former teacher who would share this book with teenagers, I liked that it was a good clean romance with nothing too racy.  This book may also get your teenager thinking about the possibility of travel to Italy.

For me, the worst part about this book was when it ended. It was a fun young adult read that left me wanting more and I enjoyed the second two books, Cascade and Torrent, just as much as the first. I can only hope that Ms. Bergren decides to continue Gabi’s story.

Disclaimers:  It is the policy of A Traveler’s Library to disclose affiliate links. All links to the book titles in this post are links through A Traveler’s Library affiliation with Amazon. If you buy something through those links, you will be helping A Traveler’s Library pay the billls. THANKS!  All photos used here are from Flickr with a Creative Commons license. Please click on the photos to learn more. 

Jennifer and family

Jennifer Close is a regular conributor to A Traveler’s Library, writing once a month about Family Travel.  You can find her on other days at Two Kids and a Map where she talks about her own family’s travels.

Now it is the Reader’s turn: If you have teens in the family–do you think that books about foreign places might persuade them to travel? When you were younger what books influenced your wanderlust?

And perhaps most important of all, what can we say to persuade Jennifer that she MUST go to Italy??

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Destinations: Milan, New York City and Brittany in France

Book: P.O. Box Love: A Novel of Letters (originally 2009, but NEW in English– February 2012) by Paola Calvetti

I reviewed this delicious new romance in e-book format, and as I read P.O. Box Love, I used the bookmark function on my Sony reader to mark favorite passages (there were so many!) and to make a list of people for whom I want to buy the book (there were so many!) If you get the impression that I am recommending this gem to lovers of travel and lovers of literature, you have guessed correctly

The Belle Ile Love Nest

If you have ever been tempted to look up an old girlfriend or boyfriend, you will sympathize with Frederico. If you have doubts about revealing yourself to someone from your past, you’ll understand Emma. Did you ever have the urge to open a bookstore? You’ll love Dreams & Desires, Emma’s bookstore in Milan that specializes in romance. Paola Calvetti, the Italian author, agreed to answer some questions for readers of A Traveler’s Library, and in my first question, I get at one of the reasons this book stands apart. P.O. Box Love blows apart the assumption that romance ends at 35 or so.

A Traveler’s Library:  How did the protagonists’ age change your task as a romance writer? 

Menhir Jean, Belle Ile, Brittany

PC: The way I found Belle Île was really strange and… tied to the destiny of the book. I was in Concarneau; it was a cloudy afternoon and I was visiting its historical monuments, having a cup of tea and wandering in the alleyways. I happened to enter an ancient bookstore run by an old bookseller selling second-hand books. I asked him “do you have any books about Breton legends or rather a love legend?” “Of course”, he answered, the great story of Jean and Jeanne!”

There are literary quotations in abundance throughout P.O. Box Love. Emma ironically quotes Virginia Woolf,” how very little natural gift words have for being useful.” A sign on the wall of the store says “The only advice you can give someone about reading is not to accept any advice…” But we asked advice anyhow– for books that inspire travel.   Paola echoed the beliefs of A Traveler’s Library.

Indeed the book is a love poem to the United States, particularly since Frederico is an Italian temporarily living in New York City during September 2001 and the book deals with the shock and horror of 9-11-01. Frederico (and the author) love the Morgan Library in New York and we are treated to the history of Morgan and the architectural challenges of adapting an historic building.

A love story told in letters sounds as though it would be a simple affair, but P.O. Box Love is enriched with  literature,  architecture, the beauty of three countries, the interplay of interesting characters, including a mother and her teenage son, and the invasion of the Internet into previously hidebound practices of publishing. All these factors contribute to a winner of a book. I welcomed Frederico and Emma into my life and was sorry to say goodbye.

Follow Paola on Facebook.

Disclaimer: Links to the book on Amazon are affiliate links, meaning that anything you buy when you use the link will help support A Traveler’s Library, and we thank you very much.  The photographs here are all the property of Paola Calvetti and should not be reused without express permission.

Today’s prize, the LAST January birthday present, a copy of P.O. Box Love, goes to one person who comments, subscribes, tweets (using @pen4hire) or mentions Vera Marie Badertscher on Google+ (You can comment on this post or on an earlier post. Just do it before Wednesday, February 1, 3:00 a.m. MST. This is your last chance, also, to enter for the Grand Prize drawing.  

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Destination: Sicily

Book: The Honoured Society: The Sicilian Mafia Observed, by Norman Lewis (Original-1964 with postscript added in 1984; reviewed edition 2003.)

If you were playing word-association, Sicily-Mafia might be your first reaction.  The Honoured Society  seems to me to be a perfect addition to a library of travel literature– if you read it along with Seeking Sicily– to understand that region of Italy. You will find many of the same themes in the two books.

Norman Lewis is best known as an outstanding travel writer. (See my review of Naples ’44). But his first wife was Swiss-Sicilian, and her father, an exile from Sicily, belonged to the Mafia. Thus began Lewis’ interest in the honoured society. His book benefits from personal experience and meticulous research in addition to Lewis’ skills as a wordsmith. Think how much he enhances the following paragraph, which could have been a dry list of facts.

“In this world one occasionally stumbles upon a place which, in the physical presence, and the atmosphere it distills, manages somehow to match its reputation for sinister happenings.  Such a town is Corleone.  A Total of 153 murders took place between 1944 and 1948 alone.” (This in a town of 18,000.)

Like John Keahey, in Seeking Sicily, Lewis traces the characteristics of Sicilian history back through its many conquerors.

Like Keahey, Lewis says, “Sicily is not Italy.”  He goes on, “nor–with the exception of the spas, the palms, and the mimosas of its eastern seaboard–is it even recognizably a Mediterranean country.”

Although the Mafia’s first appearance may not be clearly marked in a timeline of history, there is no question that the Spanish Inquisition, while Sicily sat under the thumb of Spain, played a large part. Since the Inquisition not only punished, but confiscated property, the aristocrats enthusiastically joined the Inquisition, both to enrich themselves and to protect their property. For 300 years, in the 15th-18th centuries, property was taken in this way.  The Mafia became the protector of the poor by the only avenue open to them–vendetta.

Part of the delight of reading Lewis lies in his ability to make amazing and detailed connections. He traces the fatalism and vendettas of the Sicilian culture back to African tribal rituals and to the desert tribes of Arab lands. Remember the horse’s head at the beginning of  The Godfather? African tribal rituals included depositing of a beheaded dog or sheep on an enemies doorstep.

“Without realizing it, they have killed each other as far back as anybody can remember, and still kill each other, not so much out of bloodthirsty sentiment, but from economic necessity.  There has never been enough to go around, so the vendetta becomes a device for keeping down the population.”

The Mafia’s survival has depended upon an agility in adapting to economic circumstances.  In the early days, serious money could be made in manufacturing phony religious relics and selling the seats in church and devotional candles. But land was the real base of operations.Feudal systems survived in Sicily long after the Middle Ages died in the rest of Europe. The land-holding aristocracy utilized the Mafia as protectors of the land and enforcers and later to ensure votes for conservative politicians. A rupture developed when the land-holders decide it is in their best interest to support Mussolini who set out to destroy the Mafia.

New allies popped up with World War II. Because the Mafia were anti-Mussolini, the United States army enlisted them to help defeat the Italians. Imported American gangster Lucky Luciano was given authority, and the brotherhood’s business practices turned to controlling the black market  (with American support) and, after the war, to Luciano’s favorite business–heroin. The traditional Mafia leaders in Italy would not support his other business–prostitution. That was not honourable in their eyes.

I was amazed to learn that after the war when Sicily struggled with the question of their relationship to a newly independent Italy, the Mafia leaders favored becoming the 49th state of the United States. (Hawaii and Alaska had not yet joined the U. S.)

The Mafia power through alliances that had lasted for centuries began to crack in the 1960′s and the postscripts to the book describe the rather pessimistic scene in the early 1980′s.  Today, according to John Keahey, in Seeking Sicily,  the Mafia has been reduced from a powerful organization that dominates Sicily to more or less independent outlaws, no longer supported by church, state and journalists. However, a website called Mafia Today recently ran an article stating that the Sicilian Mafia is the most successful business in Italy today in the face of economic disaster for  legitimate business. It seems it will never end. At least the Mafia wars no longer threaten travelers and it is once more safe to book your travel to Sicily.

I hope you’ve enjoyed our week in Sicily.  If you’d like to read some contemporary travel experiences on the island, check Hecktic Travels blog for their series on Sicily; Travel Solo for top things to do in Sicily and Joe’s Trippin’ about Southern Sicily.

More reading on Sicily:

 I Siciliana by Adrian Cole–travels with the Mafia in Sicily.

The same author writes about Norman Lewis in Italy and Spain in Tender Beginner: A Twentieth Century Witness. He says of Lewis’ relationship to Sicily:

“…a life-long attachment to the island, its people and its problems, and in the tradition of the greatest of writers, what is left after the descriptions and the anecdotes and the details is a sense not just of place, but more importantly of the human relationships which underwrite the whole endeavor of being a traveler, and dependent on the generosity of strangers. “

Is Mafia the first thing YOU think of when you hear Sicily? Would it concern you enough that you might not travel to Sicily?

Disclaimers: The links to Amazon make it easier for you to purchase books, however because A Traveler’s Library is an affiliate of Amazon, we earn a few cents for every purchase–even though it does not cost you any more.  All Pictures here come from Flickr with Creative Commons license. Click on picture to learn more.

CONTEST OVER! The Giveaway prize today goes to one person who comments, subscribes, tweets or mentions us on Google+. It is a copy of On the Road to Babadag: Travels in the Other Europe by Andzej Stasiuk, a stylish travel book about middle Europe.  (You can comment on this post or on an earlier post. Just do it before Monday, January 30, 3:00 a.m. MST. This is your next to last chance to win. See complete rules here.)

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Window View, Venice

In the city of Venice, where so much is hidden behind doors and glimpses at life inside a window seem a stolen pleasure, I caught this woman enjoying her view of  the neighborhood Piazza.

Other photos simply capture the peeling plaster, streaked paint and rusting metal caused by centuries of rising and falling water. Doorways in Venice can be Moorish, modern, Baroque, Renaissance, Victorian or any style man has dreamed up–but somehow they form a coherent whole that is unmistakably Venice.  I end with perhaps the most famous doorway in Venice.

Windows and doors along a Venice canal.

Venice, Ghetto, weather-beaten door

Window in Venice Ghetto

Venice- Graceful Decay

Window in Venice, Canareggio

A little girl watches other children playing outside her building. Venice

Door to San Marcos Cathedral, Venice

These photos are my contribution to Travel Photo Thursday.  To see more travel photos from around the world, go to Budget Traveler’s Sandbox.

Staying with the theme of Italy–if not Sicily–our pictures today were from Venice and our prize represents Tuscany.  D. H. Lawrence’s Etruscan Places: Travels Through Forgotten Italy, was one of my favorites which I reviewed here. Today’s prize goes to one person who comments, subscribes, tweets or mentions us on Google+ (You can comment on this post or on an earlier post. Just do it before Friday, January 27, 3:00 a.m. MST. If you already subscribe by e-mail and want an extra entry every day as a subscriber, be sure to tell me that in the comments. See complete rules here.)

For Christmas, I received a digital slide converter, which means that I have access to many of my photos that previously were hidden in boxes.  Are you tired of windows? Want a change of subject? or do you want some more doors and windows?

All photos are my property. Please respect my copyright and do not copy without express permission.

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The Governor's Palace, Palermo, Sicily

Movie: The Leopard (1963), Starring Bert Lancaster, Claudia Cardinale and Alain Delon

John Keahey,the author of Seeking Sicily, calls the book, The Leopard, (not to be confused with Jo Nesbo’s latest mystery by the same name) a blockbuster and essential reading to understand Sicily. Although I’d like to read the book (1956) some day, I cheated and watched the movie, made in 1963.

You see, I’ll watch just about any movie with Burt Lancaster  (1913-1994). I love the way he moves. I love his sense of power and the feeling you get that he has a secret. From his sexy days on the beach with Deborah Kerr in From Here to Eternity, to his  dramatic role in Come Back Little Sheba , to his old man role on the boardwalk of Atlantic City , he was a gem of a movie star. This article lists the incredible Lancaster films, in case you’ve missed them. And, getting back to the subject at hand–Lancaster plays the Prince who represents the sinking aristocrat based on the book author’s own grandfather.

I also ordered up The Leopard  from Netflix because of Keahey’s recommendation of The Leopard and because I love movies that convey the history of a place I want to visit. I love movies with beautiful scenery and an authentic portrayal of a culture. And from what I read, it appears that the movie is fairly true to the book. The book relates the story of the mid-1800′s in Sicily, a time of upheaval for the aristocracy, who had been loyal to the Bourbon royalty. However, the movement for a united Italy headed by Garibaldi appealed to them until they decided they would be better off under an Italian King than a democratic Italy, and went with the first King of a United Italy.

The settings are grand–palaces on ancestral estates in Southwest Sicily. And the narrow hilly streets of the towns are appealing, but I could not help feeling that movie was almost too true to the original New York Times travel article, I realized just how good a guide to Sicily the movie actually is.

I could not help feeling that the movie stuck too close to the book. Most of the film moves along at a stately pace, but the last 40 minutes takes place at a ball where all is character development, and nothing moves the plot forward. My feeling is not shared by a lot of eminent critics and you can read what Roger Ebert had to say about The Leopard in 2003.

The political tugs and pulls on the Prince and the buffoonish Mayor (although not made clear in the movie, he’s a Mafia member, and a fairly typical one according to the author we discuss on Friday) definitely are fascinating. You will come away from this book, or the movie understanding a good deal more about the historic politics of Sicily than you knew before.

In the conversation most representative of the Sicilian character, the Prince is asked to run for the Senate in the newly unified Italy. He refuses, explaining that

“Too many things have been done without Sicilians being consulted for you to be able now–to ask a member of the old governing class to help develop things and carry them through...” Sicilians, he says, only want to sleep.  “…they will always hate anyone who tries to wake them, even in order to bring the most wonderful gifts; and I must say, between ourselves, I have  strong doubts whether the new Kingdom will have many gifts for us in its luggage.”

Yes, despite the fact that it may seem a bit slow for the modern audience, the film is still gorgeous and enticing to the traveler to Sicily. I’d say add it to your traveler’s library, unless you’d rather read the book.

Have you been to Sicily?  Did you get a feeling of the complexity of their history?

The Giveaway prize today goes to one person who comments, subscribes, tweets or mentions us on Google+. It is a copy of Lights, Camera, Travel, a Lonely Planet collection of essays by people in the movie industry about places where they filmed. It is an interesting and varied collection. The “varied” is why I have not reviewed it. I prefer books all about one destination. (You can comment on this post or on an earlier post. Just do it before Thursday Jan.26, 3:00 a.m. MST. If you already subscribe by e-mail and want an extra entry as a subscriber, be sure to tell me that in the comments. See complete rules here.)

Disclaimer: The photo at the top comes from Flickr and is used under Creative Commons license. Please click on the photo to learn more about the photographer. The movie trailer comes from You Tube.

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Castle of Erice, Sicily, Photograph by John Keahey

Sicily Week at A Traveler’s Library

Destination: Sicily

Book: Seeking Sicily (NEW November 2011) by John Keahey

John Keahey‘s effort to understand Sicily starts with a book, (But of course!) and continues with repeated travels and extended stays in Sicily. His wander lust, he tells us, was born even earlier, in a Carnegie Library. Clearly we are going to like this guy!

He says in Seeking Sicily, that he wanted to read native Sicilian writers, and started with Giovanni Vergas’ Cavalleria Rusticana and Other Stories, which descries rural life in 19th century Sicily. Luigi Pirandello, writing in the 19th and 20th century, added more understanding.

Photo by John Keahey

Then came the most important Sicilian writer, Leonardo Sciascia (1921-1989). The main base of Keahey’s operations and home of his favorite literary key to Sicily is Racalmuto.  This small town was birthplace and home base for Sciascia. Like many western Sicilians, Sciascia had Arab root. He once told a journalist that his family name was originally XaXa, “an Arab word meaning a soft material or netting.” Keahey visits the Fondazione Leonardo Sciascia, Sciascia’s grave, and his country home.

Keahey thinks Sciascia was a cynic until Sciascia scholar (and the author’s grand daughter) corrects him. “Oh, no, no, no,” she says with finality. “He was skeptical! Cynical has another meaning in Italian. To say someone is cynical is to say he has no principles!”

Sciascia, who frequently went against the popular trends of the day, says in one of his books, “Skepticism isn’t an acceptance of defeat,” but a margin of safety, of elasticity.”

And what does this have to do with Sicily? Plenty, it turns out. I helps explain the rise of the Mafia, the resistance to thinking of themselves as Italian, the surprising influence of the Arabs and why Sicily is painted as “irrational.”

Keahey explains the sculpture on the street of Racalmuto (pictured above) by saying,  ”Sciascia, in bronze, ‘walking’ along Racalmuto’s main street, a regular practice of his. He always had a cigarette in his right hand, but the sculptor removed it ‘to protect the eyes of young children who may bump into it.’

From his reading and his travels, Keahey provides us with important clues to Sicilian personality and culture.

1. Sicily has almost never experienced self-rule, being the target of Carthagenians, Greeks, Romans, Arabs, Spainards, French, and Italians.
2. As residents of a perpetual colony, the people turned inward, trusting only family–not authority.
3. Sicilians are not Italians. The author says, “Sicilians might be viewed in America and elsewhere as ‘Italians,’ but in their hearts and souls they are Sicilians.”
4. The people of Sicily perceive their location as north of Africa rather than south of Italy.
5. The original power of the Mafia grew out of close association with the authorities, and their more recent power came most notably from the Americans after the Allied invasion of World War II. (And we’ll be talking more about the Mafia this coming Friday. Their story is told by a famous travel writer.)

Seeking Sicily starts in Palermo at the ruins of  Palazzo Lampedusa, palatial home of  yet another author, Guiseppi di Lampedusa (1897- ). Travel note: the palazzo was bombed in World War II and after standing in ruins for many years, is currently under partial restoration. Lampedusa’s novel The Leopard is characterized as “a must read for anyone who wants insight into Sicilians and how they became who they are, separate both culturally and emotionally from the rest of Italy.”  (Stay tuned. On Wednesday this week we’ll talk about the 196 3 movie, The Leopard, starring Bert Lancaster.)

Painted Cart, Photo by John Keahey

But fear not, this book is not all academic analysis and literary review.As we accompany the author of Seeking Sicily, he experiences the grinding heat of summer, the joys of natural landscape and ancient ruins, and the rought-edged gray look of Palermo (suggesting a Norman heritage rather than a Roman one).  He meets one of the few remaining cart painters, who decorates two-wheeled carts with vividly colored scenes, as seen above. Of this picture, he says, “A chance encounter with the real thing, on a Sunday morning drive, in the area of Partinico along SS113, perhaps 20 kilometers southwest of Palermo.”

Keahey even devotes a chapter to food and recipes.

In each place we learn more about Sicilian culture. In addition to the books and authors mentioned in the text, the author provides a lengthy biography and a detailed index, making it easy to find everything in you want to know about Sicily.

Perhaps I’m an easy sell, because I’ve always been fascinated by Sicily–particularly by the outstanding Greek ruins–but this book has me definitely yearning to book passage sooner rather than later.

Although I have never been to Sicily, I did go to Italy. If you’re looking for reading other than Sicily, I listed these suggestions for Italian reading a while back. The Browser.com interviewed one of “my ” Italian authors, Tim Parks, who picks Italian novels, one of which is Sicilian.

You have four chances to win a copy of Seeking Sicily (which was given to me by the publisher). Be sure to check the rules, and remember that if you already have a subscription, you need to tell me in the comments that you want that extra entry every day for your reward. You have from now until 3:00 a.m. MST Wednesday, January 25 to enter today’s contest.

Disclaimers: the links to book titles are a convenient way for you to shop at Amazon. Just know that if you use them, even though they don’t cost extra, A Traveler’s Library will earn a few cents on each purchase, and we thank you! The video book trailer is the publisher’s creation and comes from You Tube. All photos used here are used with the consent of John Keahey. They are his property.

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Guarding a Venice Flower Shop

Destination: Venice

Movie: Summertime (1955), Director David Lean

Kate Hepburn chewed the scenery. Rossano Brazzi looked soulful. The Kid stole the show. Venice is the star.

Summertime  is one of those movies that makes you want to travel–but definitely turn off your brain.  The saving grace of the movie  is Venice, the real star of the picture–not Katherine Hepburn or Rossano Brazzi–although they are both scenic, also. Venice (and some wonderful cinematography) saves the day in  all its color and light.  Light reflects on the water, gleams off murals, brings bridges into full relief. You may remember Three Coins in a Fountain, filmed around the same time. I raved about the Italian scenery in that movie, but the filming does not hold a candle to Summertime. As in Three Coins, a woman takes a chance on a love affair that breaks the mid-fifties norm.

Not only is the plot lame, but this is the first movie I ever saw with Katherine Hepburn where I disliked her acting. (The Academy disagreed. She was nominated. But did not win.) Such emoting, such moping around telegraphing her feelings. Such a high-class New England accent for a supposed secretary from Akron Ohio, Jane Hudson. “Oh dear”–or should that be “Oh, deah”–suffice it to say that Venice played her role SO much better than Kate played hers.

The script is based on a romantic comedy–a bit of fluff that played on Broadway, Time of the Cuckoo. Trivia: In Britain the title of the movie was Summer Madness, which is certainly a more appropriate title.  I’m still thinking of the comparison to another scenically beautiful movie set in a place you want to travel to, the similarly named, Summer Lovers, probably the worst movie I ever saw in the most beautiful place, Santorini.

Briefly,Jane Hudson has saved up money as a secretary to take the trip of a lifetime, and she carries her home movie camera with her to record it. She is, in the parlance of the day, a spinster. She is longing for love–because this was before Gloria Steinham told women that “a woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle.” So poor Kate mopes around the piazza of her pensione, sighs over couples holding hands, and sinks into gloom over a cappuchino at Florian’s on Piazza St. Mark. She changes clothes before going to St. Marks. She changes clothes every five minutes, and my feet simply ached at the thought of all those high heels.

People today dress more casually than the white-gloved heroine of Summertime, at Cafe Florian, St. Mark's Square, Venice

There she meets Rossano Brazzi after previous encounters with the cliché gauche American couple and the sophisticated Italian woman who runs the pensione. Ah, yes, she also meets the cutest cast member, the street urchin on the make who saves her bacon several times. At first she flees from Brazzi and her feelings. When she finally succumbs to his “You’re in Italy, live a little” seduction, they cross a bridge (get it?) to his apartment and fireworks explode over Venice. (get it?) I’m not making this up.

Meanwhile, the sophisticated landlady beds the married artist, played by Darren McGavin. The other American couple go sightseeing and he returns to report that the museum had art “all done by hand.” (Not a bad line!)

Spoiler Alert:   After the fireworks, Hepburn’s character sobers  up and decides to leave, despite Rossano Brazzi, the married cad, begging her to stay.  The girl from Akron, Ohio, demonstrated real gumption in embarking on this affair, but even more in saying goodbye to the delicious leading man.

I loved following the characters as they strolled around Venice.  I’m almost sure this well was in a scene with the young boy.

Venetian Plaza, with kids sitting around a well.

Of course St. Marks and bridges over small canals show up numerous times.

St. Mark's Square

Venice Shopping Street

You may want to make Venice travel plans immediately, but, alas, you cannot stay in the Pensione Fiorini, where our heroine and the American couples stayed. According to the web site A Lover of Venice, the pensione is a Hollywood creation.  The writer has tracked down many scenes in the movie, which makes for a fascinating read.  He/she says that the front door of the pensione in the movie opens to Rio dei Bareteri in San Maro in the heart of Merceria. However, “the balcony of Miss Hudson’s room is way up on Rio de la Salute in Dorsoduro, overlooking the churches of La Salute and San Georgio Maggiore and the captivating terrace on the Grand Canal was in fact a set built in Campo San Vio, also in the siestre of Dorsoduro.

Oh, well, there are still plenty of charming pensiones in Venice, even if they don’t have terraces on the Grand Canal. Take a look at Pensione Accademia, for instance. I tried to get in there but they were fully booked a couple of months in advance. One booking agent on line claims it is the locale of the movie’s pensione. Ha!

I have linked movie titles to Amazon DVDs in case you’d like to acquire one.  When you buy anything at all after following that link (Gift shopping yet?) I get a few cents to help pay the Library bills.  All photos here are my property. Please do not use without permission.  Thank you.

I hope that you have enjoyed our visit to Venice this week. We have now looked at Venice in the shadows and Venice in the light.  Which seems most real to you?

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Venice Parking Lot

This photograph is both a contribution to Travel Photo Thursday and a contribution to Venice week at A Traveler’s Library. A slightly different view of Venice craft. No parking meters for these parking places. Go to Budget Traveler’s Sandbox to see more Travel Photos.

The photo is the property of Vera Marie Badertscher. Please do not reproduce without express permission.

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Santa Maria della Salute

Destination: Venice, Italy

Book: The City of Falling Angels, by John Berendt (2005)

John Berendt is a superb story-teller, and Venice is overflowing with stories. That combination makes The City of Falling Angels a terrific read for travelers.

Berendt gained fame with Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, a similarly structured non-fiction portrait of a city. In both books, he takes what might be an extended magazine story–in the case of Venice, the fire that mostly destroyed The Fenice opera house, and intersperses the story of the aftermath and characters involved with side jaunts into other interesting characters and their stories. He visited just after the June, 1966 fire.

Since he writes for magazines like New Yorker and Esquire, many of the chapters have been published as articles previous to being gathered into the book, and my only complaint was that the structure became a bit too loose.   Although I loved all of those stories, which reveal the personality and culture of Venice, sometimes I wondered how we got where we were.

Palazzos on the Grand Canal

Some reviewers on Amazon complain that The City of Falling Angels concentrates on the wealthy, but the fact of the matter is that very few “ordinary” people live in Venice any more. About 60,000 people live in the city itself, half of the number before 1966 according to this article in The Guardian. On the other hand as many as 50,000 tourists arrive every day. Would you like to buy property in Venice? This article in last June’s New York Times, features a three-bedroom walk-up for nearly two million dollars.  The population has shrunk, the real estate prices soar, and the permanent population centers around those wealthy enough to own the famous Palazzos along the Grand Canal, and tucked away in narrow walkways.

I found it helpful to follow my Fodor’s guide and map as Berendt mentioned paths, canals and bridges, but if you just want atmosphere, here is an example that reminds me of the movie, Don’t Look Now.

I understood why so many stories set in Venice were mysteries. Sinister moods could be easily conjured by shadowy back canals and labyrinthine passageways, where even the initiated sometimes lost their way.  Reflections, mirrors, and masks suggested that things were not what they seemed. Hidden gardens, shuttered windows, and the unseen voices spoke of secrets and possibly the occult. 

Mask Shop

A writer taking on Venice is in good company–Henry James, Robert Browning, Lord Byron, Charles Dickens, Mary McCarthy have done it, to name a few.  But Berendt points out that all those portraits of the city have made it difficult to say something original.

In preparation for this undertaking, I reread the classic texts.  They were not at all encouraging.  Mary McCarthy put it bluntly in Venice Observed; “Nothing can be said [about Venice] (including this statement) that has not been said before.”  McCarthy’s parenthetical comment, “including this statement,” was an allusion to Henry James, who had written in “Venice” and 1882 essay, “there is nothing more to be said on the subject…It would be a sad day indeed when there should be something new to say…I am not sure there is not a certain impudence in pretending to add anything to it.”

Berendt reasons that he is on safe ground since he is going to write about the people of Venice rather than the city itself. Furthermore he will write about people who, for the most part, live in Venice rather than just passing through. The preface opens with a poetic quote from one of the residents.

“Everyone in Venice is acting,” Count Girolamo Marcello told me.  ”Everyone plays a role, and the role changes.  The key to understanding Venetians is rhythm–the rhythm of the lagoon, the rhythm of the water, the tides, the water…”

Some of the people that fascinated me most were in family spats–like an esteemed glassblower whose sons split the business and the wealthy 4th-generation half-American family who owned the historic Palazzo Barbaro and because they could not agree, had to sell the main floor.( The brother in the family runs a Extraterrestial headquarters from his own apartment!)

Skullduggery with the estate of Ezra Pound and his long-time mistress, which includes dishing about the executive director of the Peggy Guggenheim Museum gets very gossipy. The Guggenheim was one of my favorite sites in Venice, as a modern-art relief for the eyes from the Renaissance and Baroque.

The do-good organizations of Americans and the wealthy of other countries raises the question of why they raise money to restore Venice. Altruism or social climbing?

The title of this book carries a brilliant double meaning. It denotes the decay of Venice–the need to be cautious passing by a church lest a plaster angel fall on you. But it also connotes the double nature of people who live and operate in Venice.  As Count Marcello says, “Venetians never tell the truth.  We mean precisely the opposite of what we say.”

This book makes we want to read  Midnight In the Garden of Good and Evil  (or at least see the movie), but also leads me to review Mary McCarthy’s  Venice Observed, which I read some time ago, and dip into Henry James‘  The Wings of the Dove.

In case you have a hankering, as I do, to delve into more literature about Venice, I have included several links to Amazon along with the suggested book titles. You need to know that even though it costs you no more to buy through these links, I am an Amazon affiliate and will earn a few cents from each sale. THANKS for your support!

All photos used here are mine and I ask you not to reuse them without permission.

I have not always written favorably about Venice, as in this article at My Life Is a Trip where I talk about why I do not love Venice.  I am beginning to think Venice is easier to love at a distance.  The elusive “perfect place” like the elusive “perfect love.” What is your greatest impression of Venice?

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Window in Venice

Destination: Venice

Movie: Don’t Look Now (1973)

I think it is appropriate to segue from two weeks of scary things to a week of Venice  by talking about a scary Venice movie. Don’t you?

My friend Ruth Pennebaker, the marvelous writer of The Fabulous Geezer Sisters suggested I watch this movie. When Don’t Look Now arrived from Netflix, I realized I had seen it once before, but still enjoyed it and it still surprised me.

It seemed dated only because it starred Julie Christie and Donald Sutherland, and they are such icons of 70′s movies. Am I right, Jane Boursaw?

The film starts in a book-filled country home with the intellectual couple sitting by the fire reading. Suddenly a spilled glass causes a streak of red to run across a slide that Sutherland is viewing, and he intuitively knows his daughter is in trouble. Running for the outdoor pond, he discovers the little girl, dressed in a red mackintosh face down in the pond.  We skip a few years and his job consulting on restorations takes them to Venice, where events become curioser and curioser.

They meet a very strange pair of sisters–one blind, with second sight. We spend most of the movie puzzled by these two–innocents or devils?  And is Sutherland mad or also blessed with some kind of extra sensory perception? Is that his daughter he is seeing? Her ghost?

Evening on the Grand Canal, Venice

Having wandered a bit in the walkways of Venice after dark, I can believe how easy it is to imagine that you are being followed, or that someone just disappeared around the corner in front of you. There is something about being in a city that seems to float on water that makes you begin to drift away from solid reality and tend to believe in apparitions. So many corners to make strange shadows. Broken reflections from water all around. To add to the confusion, as you will see in a book I review this week, Venetians do not say what they mean–it is a Mad Hatter world.

The film presents quite a contrast to another Venice movie I’m going to talk about later this week. That one is all light and romance. This one is all shadows and gloom. I particularly liked the way that color played a major role in Don’t Look Now.

Venice Window

Night scenes prevail, so the effect is almost of a black and white movie.  Costumes are predominantly black and brown, with symbolic touches of red.  The person? ghost? doppleganger? that appears to Sutherland is always in red against the gray and black of nighttime Venice.

As in the movie The Third Man which is set in Vienna, Don’t Look Now does not provide a translation of the native language for English-speakers. Italians speak Italian.  So like the non-Italian-speaking Americans and English women characters in the movie, the audience is on edge not knowing what has been said. This non-understanding adds to the overall feeling of frustration and puzzlement. The mother and father (Christie and Sutherland) get lost in the streets of Venice in more than one sense.

The movie trailer below is longer than most, at 3 minutes and 18 sec. But it really demonstrates the darkness of this movie. I would say the movie is a must see for travelers to Venice. Despite it’s gloom and spookiness, it’s lush portrayal makes you think the movie could not possibly have happened anywhere else.

If you have visited Venice, did you find it rather eerie and other worldly at times? If you have seen this movie, did you foresee the ending? If so, you are far more prescient than I. The movie’s preview–longer than most–comes from You Tube. The other pictures here are my property. Please do not re-use without permission.

Movies that John Berendt mentions in The City of Falling Angels (which is next up in Venice week) as all being about people just “passing through” include:

Death in Venice
The Wings of the Dove
Aspern Papers
Don’t Look Now (reviewed here)
Summertime (stay tuned–review coming)
Across the River and Into the Trees
The Comfort of Strangers

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