Cover of Italian Neighbors

Italian Neighbors

Italy and Italians seriesNext:An Italian Education(1996) →

In this deliciously seductive account of an Italian neighborhood with a statue of the Virgin at one end of the street, a derelict bottle factory at the other, and a wealth of exotic flora and fauna in between, acclaimed novelist Tim Parks celebrates ten years of living with his wife, Rita, in Verona, Italy. Via Colombre, the main street in a village just outside Verona, offers an exemplary hodgepodge of all that is new and old in the bel paese, a point of collision between invading suburbia and diehard peasant tradition in a sometimes madcap, sometimes romantic always mixed-up world of creeping vines, stuccoed walls, shotguns, security cameras, hypochondria, and expensive sports cars.

Read more

Tim Parks is anything but a gentleman in Verona. With an Italian-born wife, an Italian made family, and a whole Italian condominium bubbling around him, he collects a gallery full of splendid characters who initiate us into all the foibles and delights of life in provincial Italy.

More than a travel book, Italian Neighbors is a sparkling, witty, beautifully observed tale of how the most curious people and places gradually assume the familiarity of home. Italian Neighbors is a rare work that manages to be both a portrait and an invitation for everyone who has ever dreamed about Italy.

Themes
food
Audience
adult
Length
medium · 280 pages

Click a tag to see books like this one that share it.

Read it? Sign in to help tag it.

Liked Italian Neighbors? Here’s where I’d start.

These suit anyone who liked Italian Neighbors. Sign in and mark a few books for picks shaped around your own taste.

  1. Italian Days Shares Italy, travel, nonfiction
  2. A Valley in Italy Shares Italy, travel, nonfiction
  3. The Hills of Tuscany Shares Italy, travel, nonfiction
  4. Seasons in Basilicata: A Year in a Southern Italian Hill Village Shares Italy, travel, nonfiction

“People who read Italian Neighbors tend to reach for these next.”

  1. The Reluctant Tuscan: How I Discovered My Inner Italian
  2. Living in a Foreign Language: A Memoir of Food, Wine, and Love in Italy
  3. Extra Virgin
  4. Mediterranean Summer: A Season on France's Côte d'Azur and Italy's Costa Bella

“If you want more of the same (travel about food), start with these.”

  1. Italy, A Love Story: Women Write About the Italian Experience
  2. Pasquale's Nose: Idle Days in an Italian Town
  3. Vanilla Beans & Brodo: Real Life in the Hills of Tuscany
  4. In Maremma: Life and a House in Southern Tuscany

“If it was the Italy that hooked you, try one of these.”

  1. City of the Soul: A Walk in Rome
  2. A House in Sicily
  3. Too Much Tuscan Sun: Confessions of a Chianti Tour Guide
  4. Sicily, It's Not Quite Tuscany

“These start from a similar idea, even if they go somewhere else with it.”

  1. The Spice Islands Voyage: The Quest for the Man Who Shared Darwin's Discovery of Evolution
  2. American Gothic
  3. One Beetle Too Many: The Extraordinary Adventures of Charles Darwin
  4. NOT A BOOK: The Auction Deal