Vanilla Beans and Brodo: Real Life in the Hills of Tuscany (Paperback)

It is clear from the start of this book that Isabella Dusi - who was born in Scotland and lived almost all her life in Australia - now considers the Tuscan hill-town of Montalcino her home. It is also painfully obvious that she wishes to become a perfect Italian.

I do not blame her in the slightest for this.

Over the last few years, I have spent a total of several weeks wandering around the countryside and the sort of village that Signora Dusi describes. Having read Vanilla Beans and Brodo, I believe I have a better understanding of the country and some of the people. However, it is inevitable that Signora Dusi's desire to be accepted by her neighbours has had some effect on the story she tells.

It seems that many of the people she considers friends have extremely limited horizons. For example, one says with pride that he has not been to another of the four districts of the tiny hill-town since the Second World War. I believe I understand why Ms Dusi might find such intense attachment to a tiny area of land laudable. However, I wonder if she would feel quite so positive about someone who had lived their entire life on a couple streets in Kalgoorlie, Western Australia, on a few blocks in Muncie, Indiana or on in a tiny area of Sheffield, England.

It is, perhaps, all too easy for wishful thinking and the romance of a place like Montalcino to seduce a cosmopolitan outsider into seeing profound connections to a place and its people when all that really exists is the usual bigotry, pettiness and lumpen incuriousity that one can find in some of the residents of any village anywhere.

Some of the people to whom Signora Dusi is most close will probably seem very familiar to many people with an elderly and slightly fussy relative. While it would be very easy to mock their formality and their fixation on doing things only as dictated by ancient tradition, Signora Dusi seems concerned only with learning the subtle rules they wish to impose on her and complying with them perfectly.

Again, I can understand this, but I must question whether the people she describes are in any way typical of Italians in general or even of the people living in Montalcino.

I must mention one passage that so jarred me that I questioned the veracity of all that I had read. Indeed, I actually considered for a moment whether the whole work might not be utterly deadpan irony with the true meaning of every statement being its exact opposite.

At one point, a minor crime is committed and Signora Dusi states that the Carabinieri (the paramilitary Italian national police force) are universally held in the highest regard. Further, that everyone is in awe of their fantastic crime detection powers.

My understanding is that this is definitely not the case. Rather, the Carabinieri are the butt of many jokes, most relating to how stupid and incompetent they are. This is due partly to the generally sceptical view Italians have about the government and the law, but also because the majority of Carabinieri come from the south of the country. Many Italians from north of Rome maintain that everyone from the south is either a Mafiosi or a stupid peasant.

The prose does not sparkle, but it is competent. There is little dramatic tension, but this is not really a criticism since the main point of the book is to convey the flavour of life in a Tuscan hill-town. In this, Signora Dusi succeeds. She also manages to slip in some political and social history that might be surprising and perhaps a little shocking to anyone who believes that Tuscany is, and always has been, some sort of rural idyll.

If you are planning a visit to Tuscany and its towns, this book will probably make it a richer and much more interesting experience.

I was lucky enough to visit Montalcino shortly after finishing the book. With a sense of deja vu I wandered the beautiful streets recognising the various shops and restautants that had been described so vividly - and yes, the food really is as good as it sounds! During our visit we joined in a festa which was as fun and awe inspiring as the book promised it would be.

Dusi does a fabulous job of drawing the reader in, I was hooked from the off and didn't want it to end - the sign of an excellent read! I can't wait for the next book and my next visit!