A Good Read Italian Ways

[Neil]

Italian Ways, on and off the rails from Milan to Palermo looks at Italian life and the national psyche through the prism of rail travel. My apologies for the poncey summary, it really is an excellent read, it's just that it's difficult to describe concisely without lapsing into academic flourishes.



It's not a conventional travel book, the author, Tim Parks, has lived in Italy for many years and a good part of the content is taken up by his regular commute from Verona to Milan. He also focusses on station life before journeying south to Sicily and Calabria. The book is at it's best when describing the mundane; the observations on commuting and station life (which fortunately form the bulk of the book) are what made the book for me. The journey south felt a little like it was tacked on as an afterthought or because of some perceived need to provide a complete picture of the country. However it's still a fantastic read and an interesting insight into Italy.

From our perspective it poses interesting questions. Would a model of (in this case) Italy be better for having read this book, and does the success of a model depend solely on the accuracy of its physical reproduction of its subject, or is something else at play?

 

[adrian]

Thanks for the heads up on that - one I shall definitely purchase have purchased.

Many years ago we were on holiday in Levico Terme, just east of Trento. We decided to catch the train down to Venice for the day. That was as much fun as looking round Venice. We turned up at the station to find the ticket office/booking hall all closed up but there was a café on the platform and one of the helpful patrons pointed us in the direction of the tobacco stall at the end of the platform. Then there was fun of explaining where we wanted to go to, he then looked up the distance to Venice in kms in one book, then looked up the price in another as the tickets seemed to be worked out on distance travelled. The train seemed to be all compartment coaches so we ended up in one compartment with a couple of elderly ladies. After trundling through the Italian countryside for an hour we stopped at one station and this announcement came over the tannoy and everyone seemed to be getting off the train. It obviously wasn't Venice so we stayed put - eventually this guard came through the train and managed to explain that the line was closed ahead so everyone was being transferred to coaches and if we didn't hurry then we'd miss them. So a coach transfer and another train took us to Venice, and yes the same locals were still at the cafe when we got back in the evening! All appeared to be drinking small cups of coffee and liqueur laced sponge and chocolate cakes.

I look forward to reading it - many thanks.