The Winton Automobile, Smithsonian

Destination: San Francisco to New York

Film: Horatio’s Drive, America’s First Road Trip, a Ken Burns PBS Special (2003)

In 1903 the world changed. The Wright Brothers took their first flight, the President of the United States sent a message to the King of England over wireless, a cable was strung across the Pacific Ocean for communication, and Horatio Nelson Jackson and his mechanic, drove  from coast to coast across America.

If you have a member of your family who gets grumpy when you start planning a road trip, find the travel film, Horatio’s Drive, and make them watch it. On the other hand, if you or someone you know is obsessed with automobiles, check out this blog about automobiles and American life.

Most rational people in 1903 thought the automobile was at best a nice toy for the wealthy, and and worst, a menace to horses. Horatio, insanely optimistic and obsessed with automobiles, begged to differ. He believed that people would use the automobile for long distance travel, and he made a little bet–$50–that he could drive across the country in less than 90 days. At that point nobody had made the trip across the country, and with very good reason.

You did not just add gasoline and take off. You carried spare parts enough to build a second car. You made friends with blacksmiths along the route. And you hoped that your car would not sink into desert sands or mud pits, seeing as how there was not a paved highway to be found. Not to mention no maps, no road signs and no motels.

Every day Horace Nelson “Nel” wrote reassuringly to his wife little notes that said things like “We had to set up the winch and tow the car 18 times” or “took the wrong road and had to backtrack 50 miles,” and ended with “but from now on everything will be fine.”

Fortunately for us, he took photographs along the way. With those photos, letters to his wife, and a lot of new footage shot on back country roads that resemble the ones “Nel” was on, Burns has made a remarkable recreation of this fantastic adventure.

Tell your family nervous Nelly, that if these guys could do it in 1903, and in only 63 days, 12 hours and 30 minutes, then you can make a road trip to a National Park that is 200 miles away.

I really loved this video, partly for the production values (narration by Keith David , Tom Hanks, Adam Arkin, and Eli Wallach, among others.) But I also loved the personalities involved, and the picture of a nation trying to come to terms with a gigantic change in daily life. It makes me think of today’s struggle to reconcile the age of print with the age of pixel.

When Horatio Nelson Jackson got back to his home in Vermont, he fixed up his car (a cherry red Winton that set him back $3,000, a real fortune in those days) and kept on driving.  A few months after his return, he got picked up and fined for driving faster than six miles per hour. Somebody should have told him that those red cars are traffic cop magnets.

I got the DVD from Netflix, but you can also find [amazonify]037541536X::text:::: a book by Dayton Duncan and Ken Burns [/amazonify] that was published to accompany the TV show. National Geographic carried an article in 2003 about a trip retracing Horatio’s wheel tracks.

The Winton picture comes from the Smithsonian Institution, and you can click on the landscape picture to see more about the photographer. Picture used by Creative Commons license through Flickr.com

Have you had to overcome arguments against a road trip? What are the worst obstacles we face in the 21st century to taking to the road? (Tune in Wednesday as the Great American Road Trip reaches West Virginia.)

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City of Buffalo, NY

Destination: Buffalo, New York

Book: City on the Edge by Mark Goldman

My great aunt Maude Bartlett lived in Buffalo with her husband, dearCarlos.  She always referred to him as though his name had three syllables. I never visited Aunt Maude in Buffalo, and Carlos died before I was born.  He was a lawyer for the railroads, back when the railroads were very prosperous, so they lived a solid upper middle class life and Maude belonged to Women’s clubs and Shakespeare societies and hosted teas. DearCarlos died when he was only 42 years old, but Maude continued to live a comfortable life in Buffalo.

She finally moved back to the small town in Ohio where she grew up, and where my Grandmother Vera lived all her life.  Maude and Vera fought constantly. Two sisters were never so different. Apparently great-grandmother had shown  great favoritism to Maude, the older sister, the refined one, the one who played the piano and knew all the best brands of silver and china. But they called each other every day.

When my family moved back to the same town, I sometimes visited her, and as her eyesight failed, she wanted my brother and me to read to her. I dutifully spent summer afternoons one summer reading a book about Alaska to her, but I didn’t like doing it and soon got out of it.

I have always regretted that my self-centered teenage self didn’t have the sense to ask about Buffalo, and what her life was like in that city on Lake Erie. Because of these memories, for our road trip stop in western New York state, I chose to read [amazonify]1591024579::text::::City on the Edge[/amazonify] a history and analysis of Buffalo by Mark Goldman.

I gobbled up the first few chapters about Buffalo’s peak days, when they idolized industry, glorying in giving away lakefront to shipping and manufacturing companies and allowing railroads to split the city. Frederick Law Olmstead, designer of Central Park, was invited to lay out boulevards and parks for Buffalo. Frank Lloyd Wright designed houses for the wealthy. But  industry eventually toppled from its pedestal and crushed the economy of the city along with other rustbelt cities in the northern tier of Midwest states.

Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo

Despite a decade by decade retelling of grim mistakes and economic disaster,the book points out a rich cultural life.  The Albright Art Gallery, later to become the Albright-Knox, starting early in the 20th century, built what is still one of the best modern art collections in the country.  And in music,  Buffalo became known for supporting avant-garde music, and the Buffalo Philharmonic, founded in 1935, performs in a historic hall designed by Eliel and Eero Saarinen. Buffalo also boasts the 2nd oldest Chamber Music Society in the U.S.

It would have been wonderful to see the beautiful elm trees that crowded the edges of Buffalo streets before the Dutch Elm disease thinned out those trees. Today, Goldman says, volunteers are replanting trees and restoring the plazas and parks designed by Olmstead.

Blizzard

Yes, I wish I had asked Aunt Maude more about her life in Buffalo, which was at its hey-day when she lived there. But is this a book for road trip travelers? Is Buffalo even a city for travelers? The Buffalo-Niagara Falls web site proclaims “Be Surprised.” And the Albright-Knox Gallery site says “Experience the Unexpected.” As in, ‘you weren’t expecting anything, so whatever you find is going to be better than what you were expecting’?  Warning: unless you really love blizzards, do not visit in the winter.

As for this book,  the danger in writing history is the temptation to use every fact you uncover and City on the Edge is crammed with facts. I also got the feeling that Goldman, a investor and restaurateur when he’s not writing history, also used some of the book to settle some political scores. Let me suggest that you might use it as a reference, if you are going to stop in Buffalo. For more information on Buffalo, Goldman suggests Buffalo Rising, an on-line newspaper.

Music Road tells about three western New York songwriters for our road music to go with the road trip to Buffalo.

Photos by M.H.Baker from Flickr, used under Creative Commons license. Click on a photo to see more of this Buffalo photographer’s work.

So, have you stopped in Buffalo when you were on a road trip to Niagara Falls?  I shared the high culture, but what about the strictly fun stuff?

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Book: Weird World: The Strangest Stories and Oddest Images from around the World from Bradt Books and Wanderlust Magazine. Publication October, 2009

FLASH! See my guest post about hiking the trails of Siphnos Greece at My Itchy Travel Feet.

We now return to our regularly scheduled programming.

Do you have a ten-year-old boy on your Christmas list? You might consider the travel book, [amazonify]1841623180::text::::Weird World[/amazonify], as a holiday gift. I know he would appreciate the displays of icky foods and disgusting photos of amazing things that people do to their bodies.

Of course, the book is not a children’s book, and if you WERE giving it to a ten-year-old, you might want to monitor some of the more adult pictures–not that there is much that is adult about this book.

I was once the mother of three boys–now men–and you would think I would be inured to yucky stuff mistaken for entertainment. Despite my experience, I spent most of the time when I was leafing through this book, saying “eeeeew!” and screwing my face into the kind of expression that would make my grandmother say “Your face is going to freeze that way!”

According to a cover blurb by Tony Hawks, the author of Round Ireland with a Fridge, “Weird World is sure to inspire the most stubborn of couch potatoes to get out there and discover the world’s wackiest travel adventures.”

I find this statement, and the book in general at puzzling odds with a quote from travel writer Bill Bryson about Wanderlust magazine, “There simply isn’t a better magazine for the serious traveler.”

What were those people at Wanderlust thinking when they co-published  this book with Bradt ( a publisher of esteemed travel guides)?

Serious travelers want to see people lacerate their faces with swords?–or even a chair? Serious travelers like to seek out butcher’s shops that display camel heads or iguana bodies? Sorry, but I thought serious travel was about learning about cultures, not ridiculing them. Circus sideshows have gone out of favor because we no longer think that sideshow freaks are an object of fun. So why is this book supposed to be entertaining? Oh, yes, I forgot to mention, it is made up of photos submitted by readers. So THIS is what happens when you leave professional writers behind, and rely on contributor-content.

Frankly, I think these people have been watching too much You Tube. (And I don’t mean the cute cat videos.)

Book supplied to me by the publicist for Globe Pequot, the U.S. distributor. And he may be wishing he didn’t send it.

Readers: Am I just being too prissy? Do you get a huge laugh out of freaky stuff like this?

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Book: Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden

I have never been to Japan. The country has always mystified me. The elaborate rituals, the complex rules for gardens and for tea ceremonies. And mostly the tradition of Geishas. “What’s with that?” this feminist wondered, as I observed movie depictions of Geishas mincing around and bowing and serving.

Because Geishas are exotic creatures to Western eyes, we tend to see more of them than of other parts of Japanese society, historic or present. By that I mean they appear in books, musicals, movies and advertisements probably more than their numbers justify. Just as gunslingers and dancehall girls represent the early 19th century western United States to large parts of the world, although plain old farm families, hardworking ranchers and miners existed in larger numbers.

At any rate, I absolutely loved the book[amazonify]1400096898::text:::: Memoirs of a Geisha[/amazonify], for giving me the kind of meaningful detail of Japanese  culture that had been glossed over by other depictions. Besides, it tells a compelling story and makes you care deeply about the characters. The book is written with such detail that I felt I had already seen all the scenes, but the movie added a few more details of Japanese architecture and fashion that I could not create in my mind.

Combined, the novel and the movie might  make me want to travel to Japan—but not to become a Geisha. Did you see the movie and read the book? Which did you prefer? Would you like to be a Geisha?

For more about Japan, see this about children’s books or this about unusual experiences in Tokyo.

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South Africa Barbershop

Destination: South Africa

Book: Khayelitsha – uMlungu in a Township by Steven Otter

A Guest post by David Lee, Go Backpacking

(While the book David recommends is definitely not a travel book, it will add deeper understanding to your travels in South Africa as Steve Otter experiences the township life as few tourists ever will.)

In October 2008, my South African friend picked me up at the international airport outside of Cape Town, and drove me under cover of dark toward a popular downtown hostel.  As we sped down the highway leading from the airport to the city, he relayed an anecdote about how his car once broke down along a section sandwiched between two sides of a township we were passing through.  He didn’t wait around for help, he said, because it was too dangerous (for a white guy) to be alone in that area at night.

South Africa Capetown Poverty Area Bedroom

Townships are South Africa’s most poverty-stricken neighborhoods, better known as slums.  Khayelitsha, the biggest township outside Cape Town, is home to almost a million people.  And when journalism student Steven Otter took it upon himself to experience living in a black township as a white young man, he and his friends had real reason to fear for his safety.  Apartheid may have ended, however the disparity between the rich and the poor is still cause for high crime rates.

I bought[amazonify]0143025473::text:::: Khayelitsha – uMlungu in a Township[/amazonify] while in Cape Town on account of the cover and a quick glance at a few of the pages.  The cover photo shows the author seated and talking between two of his black friends – the beer bottles on the table an indication that they were in a shebeen (unlicensed bar).  Steven uses the experience of living amongst his country’s poorest people as a way to try and come to terms with his identity as a South African.

I quickly found it to be an engrossing story, offering unique insight into the cultural norms of the predominantly Xhosa community from the perspective of an outsider. While I would opt for a guided tour of the townships during my time in Cape Town, the experience was insulated, giving only superficial impressions of what day-to-day life must be like in those neighborhoods.  Reading Steven’s stories was like having a secret window into the living, breathing Khayelitsha. You come to know the guys he befriends, the women he pursues, and the tsotsis (thieves) he encounters.

Despite the terrible living conditions Steven details during his time in Khayelitsha, there was an enviable bond and sense of community amongst the residents which made life in the rich, well-guarded areas of the Cape look cold and unwelcoming.  His book greatly enriched my experience of traveling throughout South Africa, for every major destination, from the coastal resort towns like Knysna to the sprawling capital of Johannesburg, have townships where millions of people live like they do in Khayelitsha.
____________________

David Lee is an avid traveler who backpacked around the world from 2007 to 2009, visiting 22 countries along the way.  He runs several travel blogs, including GoBackpacking.

I am so grateful to David for writing this guest post about South Africa.  I am almost embarrassed to admit that there are two whole continents I have not touched–Africa and South America. So I always welcome contributions here from people who have experience and good travel reading for those parts of the world.  Thanks, David, for an entertaining and informative post. And, reader,  whether you are a backpacker or not, please take a look at David’s web site for its excellent information.

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Paris Movie Walks by Michael Schurmann

Destination: Paris

Book: Paris Movie Walks: Ten Guided Tours Through The City of Lights! Camera! Action!, by Michael Schurmann

I was going to say “You don’t have to be a movie fan to enjoy this book.”  But who among us is NOT a movie fan? And who has seen a movie set in Paris and NOT wanted to glide right over the Seine?

It might have been the breathtaking chases of the Bourne Identity. Or perhaps you swayed to Gene Kelly’s dancing in American in Paris.  Or romance, ahh, romance, with Jack Nicholson and Diane Keaton in Somethings Got to Give (2004) or Keven Kline and Meg Ryan in French Kiss (1995) And the camera made love to Audrey Hepburn in many Paris films and I not only wanted to BE Audrey Hepburn, but I wanted to be Audrey Hepburn IN PARIS.

I can not list all of the movies made in Paris, and even Michael Schurmann, himself an American in Paris, does not try to list every movie ever made in this popular location. There are too many.  But Schurmann’s book Paris Movie Walks give you ten ambles through neighborhoods, and each route crosses paths with several movies.

The tours cover much more than just ‘this chase scene took place on this street,’ or ‘this kiss on this bridge.’  Schurmann packs the book with value added.  Although he promises “there will be no endless lists of French monarchs and their annoying mistresses, no stories about poets and painters about whom you know little and care even less” the book does include some references to history and the usual ‘Hemingway slept here’ kind of information. Inclusion of plenty of information beyond movie sets makes the book useful to more people and makes it more useful to all readers.

The book includes

• Tips on dining in Paris without going bankrupt. (Maxims charges €35 for a mousse au chocolat.)
• How to adapt to French culture
• A list of movies with Eiffel Tower shots. (Every apartment in a movie set in Paris has a view of the Eiffel Tower, he says.)
• The evolution of the use of locations rather than studio sets, with an aside on American in Paris. (Did they or didn’t they?)
• The student riots of the 1960s.
• Movies with scenes in or outside the Louvre.
• The best view (and most photographed view in movies) in Paris.

I love this book.

1. I love the useful index that shows which of the walks show scenes from which movies.
2. I love that each walk starts and ends at a metro stop and a metro map is included.
3. I love the list of movies to see before you go.
4. I love the depth of research that went in to the book.

I would love it even more if the maps of each walk showed where the stops are, if the photographs had captions, and if there were not quite so many French language movies included which are unfamiliar to me. Sigh! I guess I’d better spend more time at the Loft Theater, Tucson’s foreign and indie film house.

But on balance, this is a valuable book for the movie lover traveling to Paris, or even the person who just wants to find interesting walks in the city of Lights! without the camera!action!

So I am off to put Amelie on my Netflix queue. I did see it when it came out, but have forgotten much about the Paris background.  And how about you?  Do you have a favorite Paris film? Please recommend it here.  And if you think others would like this book, please share with the share buttons below.

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Book: A Crowded Heart by Nicholas Papandreou

Temple of Hephaestus, Athens

Anyone who is tuned in to Greek politics in the past fifty years, has heard the name Papandreou.  Son Nicholas, who started as an economist, left the “family business” to become a writer and share his short stories and poetry with the world.  His novel, [amazonify]0312186851::text::::A Crowded Heart[/amazonify] (1996) tells the story of a family dominant in Greek politics, but it is, the book title assures us, A Novel.

Papandreou’s love for Greece and his mixed feelings about the family dynasty as portrayed here certainly make for “a crowded heart.” A small boy sees and observes much in the small details of life.

When he was only eight years old, he was assigned to go to a small village and become the godfather at a baptism, because hundreds of requests flew in Make a comment or from political supporters and his father could not fill all the requests himself. When the boy is expected to make a speech he recalls his beloved grandmother telling him a story about his grandfather.

“I’m jealous of you politicians,” a poet once told my grandfather, “because you meet so many people.”

“I’m jealous of you poets,” my grandfather replied, “because you meet so many uncontrollable passions.”

The writer in the Papandreou family, Nicholas, in his novel’s opening lines show the poetic touch that makes you want to travel to Greece.

“To describe Greece I would share with you a tomato on the sandy beaches of Skopellos, open a sea urchin with my penknife and serve you the scarlet eggs inside while the salt stetches the skin on our backs…I would dry you a starfish and hang it on your wall so you could smell the salty Aegean in your room, and ask you to breathe in the aroma of osier, broom and ginger root.”

Reading that makes images of Greece flood into my mind from my five visits there and roused the yearning I always have to go back again.

His depiction of the devotion of the Greek people to their socialist heroes  in A Crowded Heart, and the loving relationship he has with his grandparents and sister make it very hard to believe this is a novel rather than a memoir. At any rate, this book, even if it is not strictly memoir, or strictly travel literature, paints a detailed, beautiful, and culturally educational portrait of modern Greece.

Does a novelist ever escape from being a memoirist on some level?

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Book: Driving Over Lemons, An Optimist in Spain(1998) and Almond Blossom Appreciation(2009) by Chris Stewart

Although I loved  Spanish Andalucia when we drove from Madrid to the Costa del Sol, up to Granada, down to Seville and the white villages of Malaga, [amazonify]0953522709::text::::Driving Over Lemons[/amazonify] has been sitting on a shelf in my travel library for a long time.  I knew it was about an Englishman settling in Spain.

I thought, “I  really have my fill of Englishmen and Americans going through the exercise in Italy or France (or Spain) of building/remodeling, mispronouncing words so that they became obscenities, blaming their lack of progress on a manana attitude, and then falling in love with the romance of it all.” ” Spare me,” I thought. To comment and

(Since 1998 when the first book came out, Chris Stewart has written two more, so I’m even further behind than I thought.)  Driving over Lemons (1998) is kind of that sort of book, and kind of not that sort of book.  Chris Stewart already spoke very good Spanish when he decided to buy a property in Spain. And he has experience as a farmer, so he understands what it takes to really work the land.  These two factors help with the third essential–he melds into the neighborhood.  And as anyone who has ever moved into a small town anywhere knows, that is no small feat.

Stewart neither romanticizes nor patronizes the peasants. He is one of them. He gives credit to a couple of good neighbors who give him tips about who to trust and who not to trust, although he goes on for far too long blindly trusting the man who sells him the land and then continues to live on it for months and months afterward. Finally, to his patient tutors’ relief, the Englishman admits that he might not have been such a good judge of character.

I liked the book because of its down to earth approach, and lack of romanticism.  Whenever Chris gets overly optimistic, his wife is there to pull him down to earth.

I also liked the book, because while Peter Mayles book singlehandly meant the overtouristing of Province and Frances Mayes can be held responsible for the cloud of diesel fuel from tour buses that hangs over Tuscany, there is less chance that tourist mobs have followed Chris Stewart up dirt roads in mountain gorges somewhere south of Granada. This is no quaint village, no Earthly Eden. It is a little pocket of hardscrabble farmers.

Thanks, Chris, for picking a place so resistant to tourists infiltration. And my blessings on those who want to hoof it in without spoiling what brought Chris to the place to begin with and to those who read such a book only to dream. More credit to Chris for showing would-be urban back-to-the-land-ers that having your own farm in a far-off land isn’t a piece of cake. He’s funny, but about that, he isn’t kidding.

If you want more, Stewart has two more books, Parrot in the Pepper Tree and [amazonify]0956003826::text::::The Almond Blossom Appreciation[/amazonify], just released last month.

And despite my curmudgeonly title, I will say that if you learn from these books about the natural beauty of Spain and the character of the Spanish people and some of the Moorish and Roman history, please do go to Spain. Just don’t trudge into these good farmer’s corner.
—-
Related posts: Don Quixote, the Alhambra
Readers: Are there places that you wish people just would NOT write about? Join the conversation. And remember, if you are going to poke around at Amazon, it helps if you get there from here.

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Wintry Icicles. Photo courtesy of A House Called Nut

Destination: Finland

Book: A Winter Book by Tove Jansson

Finnish Winter Retreat

Guest Author Michele Simeone

If you’re tired of hearing about summer, how does a good dose of Finnish winter sound?

It was during my second year in Finland that my friend surprised me with a copy of [amazonify]0954899520::text:::: A Winter Book [/amazonify]. With one bitterly cold winter under my belt, I was now less worried about basic survival and more concerned with keeping cabin fever at bay during the long, dark months ahead. No matter how many winter sports a person picks up, I’d discovered, the extremity of the Finnish winter means spending a lot of time indoors. Thank goodness for books, piles and piles of books.

Finland. Ice in Winter. Photograph courtesy of A House Called Nut

A Winter Book (2006) is the first collection of Tove Jansson’s short fiction for adults to appear in English translation in almost forty years. Jansson, probably Finland’s best-known queer figure, is so overwhelmingly famous for authoring the Moomintroll series, that her contributions as a visual artist and writer of adult fiction have frequently gone unmentioned. But the popular reception of her novel The Summer Book (originally published in 1972 and reprinted in English in 2003) sparked a renewed interest in Jansson’s adult prose.

In addition to previously published stories and a selection of black and white photography, this latest compilation includes the piece “Correspondence,” appearing for the first time in English translation. This spare, poignant story is based on the actual letters exchanged by an elderly Jansson and a young Japanese fan. Tokyo resident Tamiko first writes to Jansson hoping to learn how to write stories, and a friendship soon buds. Tamiko’s letters reveal—we are not privy to Jansson’s side of the exchange—a great intimacy and understanding that defies cultural difference, age, and a vast geographic divide. In one letter, Tamiko writes:

How many lonely islands are there in Finland?

Can anyone live there who wants to?

I want to live on an island.

I love lonely islands and I love flowers and snow.

But I can’t write how they are.

Together, the stories collected in A Winter Book form a moving, but wholly unsentimental meditation on aging and youth. Unlike The Summer Book, not all the stories are confined to one season; here, winter takes on the more symbolic meaning of age. The first two parts of the collection are made up of stories told from the perspective of a child, while the third part takes an enormous leap into old age. Most of the pieces are semi-autobiographical and portray real people and events from Jansson’s life.

Tove Jansson’s success in making a family of plump, white trolls the symbol of a nation must be proof of her great mastery as a storyteller. Her adult fiction, though less known, is no exception. Whether you’re lying on the beach, or escaping the cold like I was, A Winter Book will transport you to Jansson’s universe—funny, sad, and always wise.

Michele says: I’m a freelance writer and award-winning literary translator. Since moving with my husband to our friend’s lakeside eco-cottage, I’ve written A House Called Nut about our pursuit of a simpler, greener life in the Finnish countryside.

Michele, thanks once again for sharing a look at Finland with A Traveler’s Library. Your blog, A House Called Nut is another wonderful virtual trip to Finland. What an interesting life you lead.

I am curious to know if anybody here has read those Moomin books? I read that they are the best selling book in America by a Finnish author, but I had never heard of them. Multi-talented author, huh? And in case you missed it, Michele discussed Tove’s Summer Book here earlier.

More reading on Scandinavia: Books, Movies and Plays about Sweden, A PBS Movie set in Sweden

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Calcata, Italy, picture by David Farley

Destination: Italy

Book: An Irreverent Curiosity by David Farley

I love launch days for new books. Particularly when they are written by friends. An Irreverent Curiosity by David Farley, launches officially tomorrow, July 9. I’ve known David as an on-line friend for some time through the Travel Writer’s hangout known as travelwriters.com, so I was very happy to have the opportunity to read a review copy of his new book.

You could not ask for a more evocative description of Italian small-town life than this book. Yes, An Irreverent Curiosity is about Farley’s quest for an alternate Holy Grail, but it is really more about an American learning how to navigate communications in Italy.

David Farley impressed me with his methodical quest to find one of the more bizarre relics of Christendom–the foreskin of the baby Jesus.  He uncovers a wagon load of legends, rumors, and gossip while he reads serious history everywhere he can find it, including the Vatican library.

I was intrigued with the organization of An Irreverent Curiosity.  Here’s what David said:

“It took a lot of planning. I had to juggle 3 different story lines—present times, living in Calcata searching for the relic and writing about the village itself; the history of the village; the history of the relic, which I tried to sprinkle throughout the book in a chronological way and balance that with the present in a way that made sense all together.” He adds, “Actually I was surprised at how well it worked out.”

The title refers not to an object that is a curiosity, but the feeling of curiosity that a person experiences when exposed to something different.  David’s curiosity about the physical object and its whereabouts is the very thing that sets the Papal teeth on edge. These relics are meant to stimulate reverence, not curiosity–idle or otherwise.

If this book were only about one of the thousands of bits and pieces of holy personages that populate Catholic churches (bones, skin, organs), particularly in Italy, I would lose interest fast.  But cleverly, Farley mixes religious history with present day culture, and even the clash of various national cultures together with a crystal clear picture of an idyllic medieval village in Italy.

Even though Calcata, the town he and his wife live in, is more international hippy-hangout than typical small-town Italian, he gets plenty of exposure to new cultures–including the culture of the Vatican and Catholic priests. This means An Irreverent Curiosity is definitely a book for travelers–whether they are looking for history, religious enlightenment, or mysterious energy from rocks.

Anybody out there been to Calcata?

For other posts about Italy, see the “By Country” page.

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