A Small Place In Italy

Product Description

This book is a lush & beautiful memoir of a very special house & a superb recreation of a bygone era. In 1967, veteran travel writer Eric Newby & his heroic wife Wanda fulfiled their dream of a return to life in the Italian hills where they first met during World War II. But this fulfilment would not come easy. The dream materialised in the form of I Castagni (` The Chestnuts`), a small, decrepit farmhouse with no roof, an abandoned septic tank & its own indigenous wildlife reluctant to give up their home. But in the foothills of the Apuan Alps on the border of Liguria & Northern Tuscany, this ramshackle house would soon become a hub of love, friendship & activity. Whether recounting dangerous expeditions through Afghanistan or everyday life in a country house, Newby`s talent shines through as one of the foremost writers of the comic travel genre. Full of Newby`s sharp wit & good humour, `A Small Place` in Italy returns, twenty years later, to the life of Newby`s much-cherished classic, Love & War in the Apennines. It lovingly recounts the quickly disappearing lifestyle of the idiosyncratic locals, & the enduring friendships they forge, whether sharing in growing their first wine harvest as novices or frying poisonous mushrooms for a feast.