La Bella Figura
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Review
'A keen observer of human nature, he watches his compatriots with amused insight... Laugh-out-loud funny.'
(International Herald and Tribune )'A luscious disquisition on the Italian national character'
(The Washington Post )
Product Description
'First of all, let's get one thing straight. Your Italy and out Italia are not the same thing. Italy is a soft drug peddled in predictable packages such as hills in the sunset, olive groves, white wine and raven haired girls. Italia, on the other hand, is a maze. It's alluring but complicated. In Italia you can go round and round in circles for years. Which of course, is great fun.'
Beppe Severgnini was The Economist's Italian correspondent for ten years. A huge Anglophile as well as an astute observer of his countrymen, he's the perfect companion for this hilarious tour of modern Italy that takes you behind the seductive face it puts on for visitors - la bella figura - and uncovers the far more complex, paradoxical true self. Alongside the historic cities and glorious countryside, there'll be stops at the places where the Italians reveal themselves in all their authentic, maddening glory: the airport, the motorway and the living room.
Ten days, thirty places. From north to south, from food to politics, from saintliness to sexuality. This witty and beguiling examination will help you understand why Italy, as Beppe says, 'can have you fuming and then purring in the space of a hundred metres or ten minutes.'
Beppe Severgnini was The Economist's Italian correspondent for ten years. A huge Anglophile as well as an astute observer of his countrymen, he's the perfect companion for this hilarious tour of modern Italy that takes you behind the seductive face it puts on for visitors - la bella figura - and uncovers the far more complex, paradoxical true self. Alongside the historic cities and glorious countryside, there'll be stops at the places where the Italians reveal themselves in all their authentic, maddening glory: the airport, the motorway and the living room.
Ten days, thirty places. From north to south, from food to politics, from saintliness to sexuality. This witty and beguiling examination will help you understand why Italy, as Beppe says, 'can have you fuming and then purring in the space of a hundred metres or ten minutes.'
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Beppe Severgnini is an author as comfortable in English as he is in his native Italian. This is a highly readable mini-travelogue , highlighting all of the places in Italy that a Briton would consider as a holiday destination and embellishing it with colourful stories of the locals, while selecting the best of civic traditions as well as those of the wider sense of "Italianess". The observations seek to bring out the best of the Italians and those that could be deemed to be " curious/eccentric" are treated with sympathy and humour, but above all they are tailored to an english speaking and in particular, a British audience.
Clearly, he has a fondness for his adoopted country (he lived in the UK for several years) and its citizens and you get the feeling that working on it was a labour of love. highly recommended
Clearly, he has a fondness for his adoopted country (he lived in the UK for several years) and its citizens and you get the feeling that working on it was a labour of love. highly recommended
9 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
La bella figura is an interesting book and severgnini a good writer. However, as many books of this type, it is outdated and does not reflect everyday life for a poor italian. As usual the view of the middle class is given. All the difficulties the elderly, disabled and even mums with prams are not shown and a rosy picture is painted
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Neither very enlightening nor very funny, this book does NOT do what it says on the tin. Yes, it's written in an easy and lightweight style, but it seemed to me to be empty of anything really revelatory or thought-provoking about its subject. Although it is framed as a 'journey' through Italy, it does little to evoke or describe the differences in temperament or landscape in the regions of the country. This book was full of the kinds of generalisation about Italy that I might have expected from a non-native, but seemed pretty unforgivable from an Italian writer. For anyone who wants to understand the complexities of Italy in a much more informed and nuanced way, I would recommend giving this little book a miss and trying Tobias Jones's "The Dark Heart of Italy".
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Average book!
Having read "the dark of Italy" this book is totally different. It doesn't go into depth about Italy's history but it gives you an insight into Italian way of life. Read more
Published 4 days ago by Paolo
Smug book to leave on the shelf at home when travelling in Italy
I bought this book as a fun read during my travels to Tuscany but ultimately gave up on it so that I could get on and enjoy my holiday in beautiful surroundings that bore little... Read more
Published 9 months ago by Jonathan Pex
LA BELLA FIGURA
AN INSIGHT TO THE ITALIAN PSYCHE, EXPLAINS MUCH ABOUT THE GAP BETWEEN NORTHERN EUROPEAN THINKING AND THE UNIQUE ITALIAN TAKE ON LIFE.EASILY READ BUT PROFOUND.
Published 10 months ago by Mr. Robert P. Green
Repetitive, poorly written, cutesy and arrogant, lacks insight
What we have here is a book that lacks discipline and a strong editor. There are some good points, but they are lost in a cacophony of words. Read more
Published 11 months ago by Sully
For non Italians
This is the perfect present for Italians that want to introduce foreigners to Italian culture. However the mannerism of the author for the Italian stereotypes makes this book... Read more
Published 13 months ago by coguar0
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