Italian Journeys

by Jonathan Keates

This personal travel book about Italy is written by the author of the prize-winning "Allegro Postillions" and "The Strangers' Gallery". The author's travels take him to an Italy of neglected grandeur, hidden beauty and preposterous paradox - where the past lies in wait for the present and where history is never far away. The book looks at a magician's cave in Piedmont, Chinese mummies in Umbria, Tuscan nightingales and bumps in the Venetian night.

Genres: Italy

312 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1991

About the author

Jonathan Keates, is an English writer, biographer, novelist and Chairman of the Venice in Peril Fund. Keates was educated at Bryanston School and went on to read for his undergraduate degree at Magdalen College, Oxford.

Reviews

[Victor Sonkin · Rating 4 out of 5]

A meandering, pompous, self-centered, pretentious, wonderful book. As travel writing goes, this is a prime example: unashamedly biased, often slipping into an autobiography of sorts, but so amiable and genuine that you wouldn't trade it for a shelf of more balanced treatises. Be warned: Keates employs a vocabulary that will send anyone for the OED (not just us English-as-a-second-languagers, most educated English speakers as well, I presume). Be warned-2: the book only covers Northern and Central Italy (with unavoidable sketchiness), leaving everything south of Rome (and Rome) a terra incognita. (Keates has a separate book just on Umbria, a different kind of book, almost a coffee-table one.)

Italy is so boundless, so shamelessly abundant in each square mile of its land, that some kind of friendly advice from other travelers is often necessary. If you need guidance, and if you do not belong to the reader demographic that would want to kill Mr. Keates on page 1 (my guess this is not an empty subset), then his advice is as good as any; actually, much better.

[Jeremy Walton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Entertaining and idiosyncratic
I found this in a second-hand bookshop a few years ago, and picked it up prior to a Roman holiday. I've re-read it a couple of times (most recently while in Venice a couple of weeks ago), and found it enjoyable and interesting. Throughout a variety of pieces set all over Northern Italy, the author confesses to being hopelessly in love with the country, the language, the people, the buildings and the food, so this is a pretty good book to read if you were unsure about whether visiting that country was a good idea. However, it's not a guidebook, but a series of personal impressions. Thus, a glance at the index reveals the geographical coverage to be wildly uneven (Venice gets three chapters to itself, while Rome is mentioned on two pages). This idiosyncrasy can be intriguing: for example, there's a lengthy attempt to set out the appeal of Modena, which - as the author admits - is a place that Italians never visit "if they can help it". I'm not sure if I'd ever end up visiting it either, but it's nice to read about it.

Originally reviewed 8 October 2008

[Pietro Crincoli · Rating 4 out of 5]

Viaggio in Italia di un inglese colto, fra arte, cultura, gastronomia e difetti degli italiani; Molte le osservazioni pungenti: ad esempio, nota che gli Italiani hanno orrore di stare da soli (direi che ha ragione, visto il numero dei bamboccioni e i viaggi in agenzia preferiti dagli italiani), e questo spiegherebbe la superficialità di molte conversazioni italiane.

[Judy Beyer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lovely content, great food, but oh my word – such long sentences! And I'm all grown now too.
Nevertheless, a fun read.

[Jan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ok - I confess! I skipped a few pages and still gave up a before the end. Life is too short to flog away at a book you really arent enjoying.

I thought this would be an entertaining book of travellers' tales from visiting Italy but no such luck. This book lacked the spontaneity and verve of Italy and the Italians. The writing style was very heavy, wordy and the kind of language used killed any flow there might have been.

Very disappointing and tedious.

[Maryanne]

Italian Journeys 08022012 by Jonathan Keats
Book from Bob. It was very good but a lot of words and history and Italian I did not understand.

[Jamie Wilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

My word, Mr. Keates can be pretentious! But a more insightful book on Italy you could scarcely read; a true Italophile.