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War in Val d'Orcia: An Italian War Diary 1943-1944
At the height of the Second World War, Italy was being torn apart by German armies, civil war, and the eventual Allied invasion. In a corner of Tuscany, one woman - born in England, married to an Italian - kept a record of daily life in a country at war. Iris Origo's compellingly powerful diary, War in Val d'Orcia, is the spare and vivid account of what happened when a peaceful farming valley became a battleground.
At great personal risk, the Origos gave food and shelter to partisans, deserters and refugees. They took in evacuees, and as the front drew closer they faced the knowledge that the lives of thirty-two small children depended on them. Origo writes with sensitivity and generosity, and a story emerges of human acts of heroism and compassion, and the devastation that war can bring.
With a new introduction by writer and social historian Virginia Nicholson, and stunning rediscovered photographs.
Iris Origo (1902-1988) was a British-born biographer and writer. She lived in Italy and devoted much of her life to the improvement of the Tuscan estate at La Foce, which she purchased with her husband in the 1920s. During the Second World War, she sheltered refugee children and assisted many escaped Allied prisoners of war and partisans in defiance of Italy's fascist regime and Nazi occupation forces. Pushkin Press also publishes her memoir, Images and Shadows, as well as two of her biographies, A Study in Solitude: The Life of Leopardi - Poet, Romantic and Radical and The Last Attachment: The Story of Byron and Teresa Guiccioli.
321 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1947
About the author
Iris Origo
20 books33 followersIris Origo was a British-born biographer and writer. She lived in Italy and devoted much of her life to the improvement of the Tuscan estate at La Foce, which she purchased with her husband in the 1920s. During the Second World War, she sheltered refugee children and assisted many escaped Allied prisoners of war and partisans in defiance of Italy’s fascist regime and Nazi occupied forces. She is the author of Images and Shadows; A Chill in the Air: An Italian War Diary, 1939–1940 (NYRB Classics); Leopardi: A Study in Solitude; and The Merchant of Prato, among others.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 194 reviews
May 23, 2019
After settling in Florence with her mother in 1910, British-American writer Iris Origo would go on to marry Antonio Origo, an aristocratic Italian landowner. During WW2 she was something of a legendary wartime figure around Tuscany, during the German military occupation of Italy, and as a humanitarian, her estate was used as a place of refuge for children, peasant families, partisans, escaped Allied airmen and pretty much anyone else who begged for help. Origo kept a diary, and recorded the day-to-day events between 1943 and up to when the Allies liberated her homeland in 1944. One thing that I found striking about her diary entries, considering battles were raging around her farmlands, is that she somehow managed to keep up the pretense of normalcy and decency while war rained down closeby.
It begins as support for Mussolini was wavering, Italy's future was in the balance, and Iris was expecting a baby. The domestic life of La Foce, their Tuscan estate, had to be maintained for the sake of family and large numbers of dependents who stayed there. As Italy changed sides and the country found itself effectively at war on every front - bombed by the Allies, pillaged by the now-enemy Germans and driven apart by warring Italian factions - Iris and Antonio's helpless concern at the wider picture had to be set aside as they continually dealt with the more immediate problems at hand. Along with her own involvement, the wider events throughout Italy are also noted down, from radio broadcasts, and news from friends, partisan contacts and passing soldiers.
Although I didn't find this quite as hard-hitting as other WW2 books I have read, it does contains some truly terrible incidental details - the vindictiveness of local fascists, two-way reprisals between the opposing Italian factions, rapes of women and children by German and Moroccan soldiers, the shooting of partisans and of the innocent. It is a disturbing world being exposed. Despite the dark times though, the overriding impression that Origo puts across is of goodwill. Through quiet heroism, practical courage, and of people helping each other to survive by any means possible, so many lives were saved. It was also interesting to discover that many of the local German soldiers were far too relaxed and didn't follow Hitler's orders fully, allowing Italian civilians to go about their daily lives, which involved aiding Allied prisoners and their eventual escape.
Elegantly written, this was a powerful and fascinating memoir that captured both the ferocity and the kindness of humanity.
June 5, 2017
This is a very interesting diary, written during the years 1943 and 1944 by Iris Cutting, a British woman who married Marchese Antonio Origo and lived with him in Southern Tuscany. The couple has a daughter, Benedetta, born 1940, and another baby, Donata, born in 1943. Sadly, their son, Gianni had died in 1933, before the war, aged only seven. The couple lived in a large, isolated house, surrounded by fifty seven farms; of which theirs was the central one.
Iris writes the diary and she states that she resisted the urge to edit it. This helps the immediacy, although much of the book is so full of rumour, false news and confusion that you do feel how difficult it was for those in the Val D’Orcia to really know what was going on. The diary opens with the arrival of refugee children and, news of political upheaval. It is obvious to Iris that the war is lost and that it is just a matter of time before the Allies arrive. Before this happens, though, there is the arrival of English POW’s and this could be difficult for the locals to accept with bombs falling in Italy. Still, cordial relations are soon established and the prisoners welcomed. This is one of the most heart warming parts of the diary – the fact that, despite all the hardships, the local people open their hearts, and homes, to everyone who passes through. An elderly woman is asked whether she has seen an escaped American by soldiers searching for him. No, she replies, and when Iris tells her how dangerous this could have been, she tells her that she has an escaped English prisoner of war in her house, not an American one…
We read of the fall of Mussolini, Italy becoming a battlefield and the locals either ‘half-hearted participants or passive spectators,’ who just want the war to finish. Certainly, German martial law, which arrives before the Allies, is not welcomed and it is obvious that Italians generally feel betrayed by the Germans. As we get to the end of 1943 Jewish refugees join those traipsing through the Italian countryside, with Jews being rounded up in the cities. Throughout this book there are endless guests – some welcome, others less so – partisans, deserters, German soldiers and British ones. Some, like the British, stay for a while and become part of the fabric of the local society – helping on the farms, and in the local houses. Others need food, medical help or supplies before trudging on. The locals are determined to help those who need it and there is no complaining about the demands made on people who are struggling to feed themselves, let alone others. This is a moving read about a less documented part of the war and I am glad I read it.
Iris writes the diary and she states that she resisted the urge to edit it. This helps the immediacy, although much of the book is so full of rumour, false news and confusion that you do feel how difficult it was for those in the Val D’Orcia to really know what was going on. The diary opens with the arrival of refugee children and, news of political upheaval. It is obvious to Iris that the war is lost and that it is just a matter of time before the Allies arrive. Before this happens, though, there is the arrival of English POW’s and this could be difficult for the locals to accept with bombs falling in Italy. Still, cordial relations are soon established and the prisoners welcomed. This is one of the most heart warming parts of the diary – the fact that, despite all the hardships, the local people open their hearts, and homes, to everyone who passes through. An elderly woman is asked whether she has seen an escaped American by soldiers searching for him. No, she replies, and when Iris tells her how dangerous this could have been, she tells her that she has an escaped English prisoner of war in her house, not an American one…
We read of the fall of Mussolini, Italy becoming a battlefield and the locals either ‘half-hearted participants or passive spectators,’ who just want the war to finish. Certainly, German martial law, which arrives before the Allies, is not welcomed and it is obvious that Italians generally feel betrayed by the Germans. As we get to the end of 1943 Jewish refugees join those traipsing through the Italian countryside, with Jews being rounded up in the cities. Throughout this book there are endless guests – some welcome, others less so – partisans, deserters, German soldiers and British ones. Some, like the British, stay for a while and become part of the fabric of the local society – helping on the farms, and in the local houses. Others need food, medical help or supplies before trudging on. The locals are determined to help those who need it and there is no complaining about the demands made on people who are struggling to feed themselves, let alone others. This is a moving read about a less documented part of the war and I am glad I read it.
August 26, 2011
When it comes to things like World War II, I prefer to read about the daily life of hoi polloi rather than battles won and lost and the big doings of world leaders. If you want a clear and unflinching picture of life for the Italian people late in the war, this book will serve better than any novel or formal history book.
Iris Origo was an English woman who married an Italian. She kept a diary of her life in Tuscany during a time of constant uncertainty, privation, and senseless violence; but also great cooperation, selflessness, and unbelievable fortitude. The things these people witnessed and endured would be enough to give them post-traumatic stress symptoms for the rest of their lives. Just the noise from the shelling and bombs and war planes would have driven me to madness.
This diary is a cure for self-pity. No matter how bad your life is, I'd be willing to bet as much as you're willing to lose that it's pretty cushy compared to what these people went through. And their suffering went on and on and on, while they waited to be liberated by the Allies who were moving toward them at a snail's pace.
There is a lot of brutality, but she's not graphic about it. She seems to have been the stiff-upper-lip type, and ends it on a hopeful note I don't think I could have mustered if I'd been through what she had. I think the people were just so grateful that the misery was finally over that they couldn't help but be hopeful.
Thank you, Marchesa Origo, for having the presence of mind and dedication to continue making your diary entries when the world was crashing in around you.
Iris Origo was an English woman who married an Italian. She kept a diary of her life in Tuscany during a time of constant uncertainty, privation, and senseless violence; but also great cooperation, selflessness, and unbelievable fortitude. The things these people witnessed and endured would be enough to give them post-traumatic stress symptoms for the rest of their lives. Just the noise from the shelling and bombs and war planes would have driven me to madness.
This diary is a cure for self-pity. No matter how bad your life is, I'd be willing to bet as much as you're willing to lose that it's pretty cushy compared to what these people went through. And their suffering went on and on and on, while they waited to be liberated by the Allies who were moving toward them at a snail's pace.
There is a lot of brutality, but she's not graphic about it. She seems to have been the stiff-upper-lip type, and ends it on a hopeful note I don't think I could have mustered if I'd been through what she had. I think the people were just so grateful that the misery was finally over that they couldn't help but be hopeful.
Thank you, Marchesa Origo, for having the presence of mind and dedication to continue making your diary entries when the world was crashing in around you.
August 14, 2024
I took a drive yesterday to La Foce, the estate where Iris Origo lived deep in the most stereotypically beautiful part of the Tuscan countryside. So lush and peaceful is it (cypress trees, vineyards and rolling wheat fields) that it's hard to imagine, now, that this was the scene of the dramatic events she narrates in this amazing and dispassionate war diary, which covers the crucial years of 1943–44.
This was the period when Mussolini was ousted, the Germans marched in, and Italy became a shifting battleground between Allied and Axis powers. But while Origo follows these developments as best she can, from radio reports and official rumour (and, eventually, by looking out of the window), what this book really shows is the effect of these things for people on the ground: the daily struggles, the interpersonal strains, the anxieties, personal dangers and fluctuating emotions of living through a war.
Iris and her marchese husband were major landowners in the Val d'Orcia (their estate comprised fifty-seven different farms across an area of seven thousand acres); they had more resources than most for helping people through these times, and they used them to the utmost. Actually, what they achieved here is nothing short of heroic, though her account of it is undemonstrative and understated.
Escaped POWs were sheltered in her home; she fed bands of partisans hiding in the woods, and met them for secret councils; and all the time she was looking after some thirty refugee children from northern Italy, alongside her own one-year-old and newborn baby. And the fame of the Origos' estate spread: bedraggled South Africans and Canadians who had walked for weeks on foot across enemy lines would appear at their door, clutching a piece of paper on which was written only ‘La Foce’.
German officials, who are shooting such ‘subversives’ around the country, are increasingly suspicious of the Origos – although with individual soldiers it's a different story. Some are civilised and polite (including many who ‘refuse to talk war or politics: “No, we're not political blokes,” they say’), but others are officious and violent.
Such incidents lead her inexorably to the humanistic core of the diary, which she tries to spell out in the introduction, written on publication in 1947:
Origo writes wonderfully, with a clear eye for detail but no trace of melodrama – she is calm, precise, measured, and deeply sympathetic, somewhat in the mode of Vera Brittain. Like all the best testaments of war, its personal details add up to something hugely powerful about the perenniality of human values in times when they seem thin on the ground. Fascinating, beautiful, moving.
This was the period when Mussolini was ousted, the Germans marched in, and Italy became a shifting battleground between Allied and Axis powers. But while Origo follows these developments as best she can, from radio reports and official rumour (and, eventually, by looking out of the window), what this book really shows is the effect of these things for people on the ground: the daily struggles, the interpersonal strains, the anxieties, personal dangers and fluctuating emotions of living through a war.
Iris and her marchese husband were major landowners in the Val d'Orcia (their estate comprised fifty-seven different farms across an area of seven thousand acres); they had more resources than most for helping people through these times, and they used them to the utmost. Actually, what they achieved here is nothing short of heroic, though her account of it is undemonstrative and understated.
Escaped POWs were sheltered in her home; she fed bands of partisans hiding in the woods, and met them for secret councils; and all the time she was looking after some thirty refugee children from northern Italy, alongside her own one-year-old and newborn baby. And the fame of the Origos' estate spread: bedraggled South Africans and Canadians who had walked for weeks on foot across enemy lines would appear at their door, clutching a piece of paper on which was written only ‘La Foce’.
German officials, who are shooting such ‘subversives’ around the country, are increasingly suspicious of the Origos – although with individual soldiers it's a different story. Some are civilised and polite (including many who ‘refuse to talk war or politics: “No, we're not political blokes,” they say’), but others are officious and violent.
I hear a lorry drive up and some of these same German troops come tramping, fully armed, into the garden. They do not look attractive. I go up to them, not without some inner apprehension, and ask them what they want. But the answer is unexpected: ‘Please—wouldn't the children sing for us?’ The children sing O Tannenbaum and Stille Nacht (which they learned last Christmas)—and tears come into the men's eyes. ‘Die Heimat—it takes us back to die Heimat!’ So they climb into their lorry and drive away.
Such incidents lead her inexorably to the humanistic core of the diary, which she tries to spell out in the introduction, written on publication in 1947:
I have become chary of generalisations about countries and nations; I believe in individuals, and in the relationship of individuals to one another.
Origo writes wonderfully, with a clear eye for detail but no trace of melodrama – she is calm, precise, measured, and deeply sympathetic, somewhat in the mode of Vera Brittain. Like all the best testaments of war, its personal details add up to something hugely powerful about the perenniality of human values in times when they seem thin on the ground. Fascinating, beautiful, moving.
September 30, 2026
An excellent book of what it was like to be a British civilian married to an Italian during the heat of the war in Italy. Iris Origo's days were complicated by the fact that they cared for a large group of children whose families were in more heavily bombed towns in the area. During the course of War in Val d'Orcia: An Italian War Diary, 1943-1944 Iris and her husband Antonio dealt with Fascisti, Partisans, Deserters, and withdrawing Wehrmacht troops. Finally, the arrival of British and French Moroccan troops spelled the end of the war and the beginning of picking up the pieces.
Books about war are always more interesting when they deal with the civilian population, where the air is rife with false rumors. In the end, there is more action in a book such as this than in a purely military history, in which the suffering civilian population is downplayed.
Books about war are always more interesting when they deal with the civilian population, where the air is rife with false rumors. In the end, there is more action in a book such as this than in a purely military history, in which the suffering civilian population is downplayed.
January 8, 2014
A diary. True life detailed within 1943 and 1944 Tuscany, Italy. This does not have the character development of fiction or the luxury of literary sentiment in lyrical melody. Instead it is recorded life during a war the way it really happens. Questionable loyalty, civil war with 100's of characters coming in and out of the chaos. Continual shifting to do the "right thing" or for various survival or military movements. And they may all be different things to do. Iris speaks for herself. What she sees, what she hears, where she goes, how she is interrogated or implored. The introduction was appreciated as there are so many facts and movements that it helped with the complexity of what followed. This is real mapping to Italian cultural and political dichotomies, as well. Iris is Anglo-American married to a Italian land owner.
June 22, 2014
This was such an amazing read that I'm really surprised I had never heard of it before picking it up. It's the diary of an Englishwoman married to a wealthy Italian and their lives in Tuscany during World War II. It relates her daily activities and thoughts as she cares for her family, for dozens of refugee children, and her neighbors as fascism topples and the fighting approaches and then sweeps over them all. She communicates everything with tremendous empathy for everyone around her but without the slightest whiff of self-pity or self-aggrandizement. It was fascinating to learn more about the experiences of civilians trapped in the fighting and their morale during those difficult years. This book is just begging to be turned into a feature film--it's an incredible story and it's made me curious to seek out a biography of Origo as well as her other books. Highly recommend it!
January 10, 2026
Tense and frankly inspiring account of surviving the occupation of one's country by fascists. Can't imagine why this might feel relevant to me!!! But reading about all ways Origo, her husband, and her friends and neighbors resist, most without going so far as to join the partisans and shooting people, illustrate the varied types of resistance that are possible -- and effective. And in the end, they are freed.
(Please please please.)
(Please please please.)
June 9, 2015
This is my SECOND time to read this book (the first was while we were actually staying in Siena, not far away from Val d'Orcia). I love the day-to-day view of the advancing war front in 1940s Italy. I love her spirit. I love her writing style (this is a diary). I'm surprised at the number of books that have been based on her book including Chris Bohjalian's recent "Light in the Ruins" and "Restoration" by Olaf Olafsson (both good, by the way). If you want to get a different view of World War II, I recommend this book highly.
April 26, 2026
I read this book while we stayed at La Foce, and it could not have been better. I loved the view of her life in Tuscany, her bravery during the war, and the perspective she gave of the generosity and kindness of her adopted country of Italy.
January 21, 2011
That she can create such vivid,memorable scenes and people in journal entries written under duress, that she makes a restrained but powerful account of what war is like for the civilians, that she retains her sense of beauty and decency in the middle of horrors. But most of all, how she manages to focus matter of factly on what she can do and whom she can help.
October 6, 2017
Particularly interesting as it is a day by day account of the Second World War from the perspective of someone living in Tuscany and the effect it had on the author, her family and community. An always timely reminder that the victims of war are ordinary people. I also particularly liked how she pointed out how brave and generous the Italians were, risking their lives to help others.
April 26, 2023
Stunning, understated diary of a woman in Italy during Fascist rule and German occupation who took in children and prisoners and refugees and just tried to make sure as many made it through as possible. Both thrilling and tragic, highlighting the atrocities of war and the complexities of humanity.
May 8, 2026
Work book club.
The finest example of the power of tonal restraint I’ve ever read aside from Ishiguro. Those Brits, huh. As I type I want to underline and add exclamation marks and even more hyperbole but that’s bc I’m no Iris Origo who maximizes the drama with her marked absence of emotion.
And still! What she produces is a vivid portrait of surviving war from a very unique perch, that of a wealthy and well-connected, morally righteous woman determined to help her neighbors and passersby survive a war too.
The scene of them running for the hills, babies in arms, pram stuffed with diapers, will stay with me for a long time. Of her crouched in a cornfield while shells rain down. Of the heroism and generosity and decency of everyday people!
The finest example of the power of tonal restraint I’ve ever read aside from Ishiguro. Those Brits, huh. As I type I want to underline and add exclamation marks and even more hyperbole but that’s bc I’m no Iris Origo who maximizes the drama with her marked absence of emotion.
And still! What she produces is a vivid portrait of surviving war from a very unique perch, that of a wealthy and well-connected, morally righteous woman determined to help her neighbors and passersby survive a war too.
The scene of them running for the hills, babies in arms, pram stuffed with diapers, will stay with me for a long time. Of her crouched in a cornfield while shells rain down. Of the heroism and generosity and decency of everyday people!
December 29, 2019
The second volume of Iris Origo's Tuscany diaries, written between 1943 and 1944, is longer and even better than the first. This one takes on a more apocalyptic atmosphere: the Germans occupy Italy, the Allies arrive in September 1943, and countless refugees- Italian soldiers who have walked all the way from France, Allied soldiers, women and children, Jews who "have been Catholics since 1913 but know very well that won't save them"- pass through the Val d'Orcia of Tuscany, where Origo and her Italian husband (as well as apparently numerous farmers, peasants, and landowners throughout the Italian countryside) provide them with food, clothing (it sounds like it gets colder in Tuscany in the winter than I would have guessed) and a look at a map, at great personal risk. For a while they put up some British soldiers, holding them "prisoner" and agreeing to let them know in advance if the Germans come. Some of the British soldiers end up staying in a nearby cave with books, cards and cigarettes (doesn't sound all that unpleasant, really), having gotten word that it's impossible to get through the German lines, just waiting...and waiting. Partisans gather in the woods, Origo and her husband (and assorted staff that they had- certain specifics of the realities of Italian countryside estate life escape me) take in a lot of children, and they all wait for the Allies, whose advance from the south feels agonizingly slow...although it probably felt differently to the Germans. Spielberg and Hollywood in general have made me cynical about courage and heroism, but they actually exist in the world, or at least they did in this case, among ordinary Italians- the truth is dramatic enough. But what really kept me reading was the vividness, social/political sophistication, and moral clarity of Origo's writing, not unlike George Orwell in those ways. Highly recommended to anyone who wants to know a bit more about what Italy was like during the war years.
September 17, 2016
We visited La Foce while travelling in Tuscany two months ago because we'd heard of the beautiful gardens, but at the time I had no idea about the estate's history or the important role the Origo family played during WW2.
During the tour of the house and gardens, the guide kept referring to this book and discussed some of the more notable events which had occurred at La Foce. Needless to say, I was curious to know more and the book did not disappoint.
On its face, it's a collection of diary entries documenting the last 2 years of the war from the perspective of the Italians living in Tuscany. But underneath the very simple and almost unemotional account of events is a story of people trapped between two foreign armies, trying to help as many individuals as they could regardless of their nationality or political ties while also trying not to become collateral damage themselves.
The selflessness, courage and humanity shown by the Origos and many others - even at the risk of their own lives - is so inspiring and encouraging. The real message in this book is that, despite our external differences, we are all members of the human race and this bond is something that can never be destroyed.
During the tour of the house and gardens, the guide kept referring to this book and discussed some of the more notable events which had occurred at La Foce. Needless to say, I was curious to know more and the book did not disappoint.
On its face, it's a collection of diary entries documenting the last 2 years of the war from the perspective of the Italians living in Tuscany. But underneath the very simple and almost unemotional account of events is a story of people trapped between two foreign armies, trying to help as many individuals as they could regardless of their nationality or political ties while also trying not to become collateral damage themselves.
The selflessness, courage and humanity shown by the Origos and many others - even at the risk of their own lives - is so inspiring and encouraging. The real message in this book is that, despite our external differences, we are all members of the human race and this bond is something that can never be destroyed.
January 9, 2014
My knowledge of Italian history during WWII was very limited, but after reading The Light in The Ruins, I decided to read a factual account of the chaotic events that followed the fall of Mussolini and the civil war that occurred as the Allies invaded and the Germans dug in with no real functioning government left in Italy. This is an amazing first hand account of a villa in rural Tuscany and what one family provided and endured as the war swept over their estate. It reads like fiction. Amazing book. Makes one wonder what you would really do if the world as you knew it disintegrated and you were left to find a moral path through brutal chaos.
August 8, 2017
An interesting first-hand account of life in Italy from 1943-1944. Origo was Anglo-American and married to an Italian Count who lived in rural Tuscany below Siena. She was in a war zone dealing with a defeated Italy, a fascist puppet state, German occupiers, a flood of escaped POWS, partisans, and allied bombing, all while caring for 23 refugee children in addition to her own children. She was well-known as a person who assisted escaped POWs, a fact which probably led to her honors (Dame Commander) by the UK after the war. Recommended.
March 19, 2016
I read this book years ago, but then re-read it after reading that it inspired Chris Bojhalian to write The Light in the Ruins in 2013. The wartime diary of Iris Origo, The English wife of the Marchese Origo who took care of sixties orphans and, with her husband, kept their estate running through the tumult of the Second World War, is a riveting read - even the second time around.
March 18, 2020
The wolf criers and Chicken Littles of the world are always right eventually, even if they have to wait a hundred years for the beast to enter the village or the sky to fall. We’re not there yet with coronavirus, but we’re closer today than we were two weeks ago when I jested on my blog about Quarantine Reading. I don’t know what it’s like where you live, but here in Oregon our schools and libraries are closed, as are most restaurants and shops (including Powell’s); the shelves at the grocery stores are bare; those who can do so are working from home; the police no longer respond in person to anything but life-threatening situations; the governor has prohibited public gatherings of more than twenty-five people, and the archbishop has been forced to cancel all public Masses through (and beyond) Easter.
And yet I can’t help but think we’re a generation of pansies and fraidy-cats. The threat of coronavirus is real enough, I suppose, but the scope and quality of the social panic we’re witnessing (and giving in to) is dismaying. Did you see Sam Mendes’ 1917, the movie that should have won the Oscar for Best Picture? I saw it twice. And just now I finished reading Iris Origo’s War in Val d’Orcia. Origo’s diary covers two years of WWII from the fall of Mussolini’s regime to its reinstatement by the Nazis to the Allies’ liberation of the Tuscan hills. The paranoia, rumor-mongering, and scarcity of provisions she describes are oddly familiar, but they feel more justified. Sometimes, when I think of the generations that survived the twentieth century’s two big wars, I wonder if anyone born since has really deserved the Earth.
Iris Origo's book is understated in tone and style but all the more powerful for it, an important piece of historical writing and an important piece of literature. If War in Val d'Orcia moves you as much as it did me, make sure you read Eric Newby's memoir Love and War in the Apennines, which covers similar historical and geographical territory but from the perspective of an escaped POW living rough in the mountains of central Italy.
And yet I can’t help but think we’re a generation of pansies and fraidy-cats. The threat of coronavirus is real enough, I suppose, but the scope and quality of the social panic we’re witnessing (and giving in to) is dismaying. Did you see Sam Mendes’ 1917, the movie that should have won the Oscar for Best Picture? I saw it twice. And just now I finished reading Iris Origo’s War in Val d’Orcia. Origo’s diary covers two years of WWII from the fall of Mussolini’s regime to its reinstatement by the Nazis to the Allies’ liberation of the Tuscan hills. The paranoia, rumor-mongering, and scarcity of provisions she describes are oddly familiar, but they feel more justified. Sometimes, when I think of the generations that survived the twentieth century’s two big wars, I wonder if anyone born since has really deserved the Earth.
Iris Origo's book is understated in tone and style but all the more powerful for it, an important piece of historical writing and an important piece of literature. If War in Val d'Orcia moves you as much as it did me, make sure you read Eric Newby's memoir Love and War in the Apennines, which covers similar historical and geographical territory but from the perspective of an escaped POW living rough in the mountains of central Italy.
January 31, 2019
I've read novels and nonfiction set during WWII, but this book was significantly different. It describes everyday rural life during the last year of the war in Italy. It was a picture of living in crisis and chaos.
A couple of things I was immensely curious about and neither the book nor the internet provided answers. Yes, the author and her husband were very wealthy and privileged people. Antonio spoke fluent Italian, English, and German. Why wasn't he forced into the military? They remained in their villa throughout the war, and Iris was English/American. Antonio was constantly traveling to the surrounding cities, even to Florence. He met with the Italian Fascists. And the Germans. He was friends and influential with the non-fascist local mayor. When the allies finally arrived, he went from talking with a German officer to talking to a Scottish officer on the other side of his property: the German leaving, the Scot arriving. The forward mentioned that Antonio was a driving force: trusted by everyone, intelligent, with a strong, decisive personality. He was a leader. Yet Iris tells us almost nothing about him nor what he is doing during this time. He may well have been a major influence in Iris's daily actions. I'd love to know what he was doing when he frequently visited the city, and how his leadership shaped the local events and Iris.
The big thing missing is how Iris felt during this time. We have a great view of what life was like, but not how it effected Iris. We rarely hear about her children, being cared for by a nanny. But we did learn that the older children grew accustomed to the airplanes and the runs to the basement and the trench. I'd have loved to know more about how all this effected the people. Still, the simple facts were fascinating, and painted a clear picture of living day to day while war goes on around you.
A couple of things I was immensely curious about and neither the book nor the internet provided answers. Yes, the author and her husband were very wealthy and privileged people. Antonio spoke fluent Italian, English, and German. Why wasn't he forced into the military? They remained in their villa throughout the war, and Iris was English/American. Antonio was constantly traveling to the surrounding cities, even to Florence. He met with the Italian Fascists. And the Germans. He was friends and influential with the non-fascist local mayor. When the allies finally arrived, he went from talking with a German officer to talking to a Scottish officer on the other side of his property: the German leaving, the Scot arriving. The forward mentioned that Antonio was a driving force: trusted by everyone, intelligent, with a strong, decisive personality. He was a leader. Yet Iris tells us almost nothing about him nor what he is doing during this time. He may well have been a major influence in Iris's daily actions. I'd love to know what he was doing when he frequently visited the city, and how his leadership shaped the local events and Iris.
The big thing missing is how Iris felt during this time. We have a great view of what life was like, but not how it effected Iris. We rarely hear about her children, being cared for by a nanny. But we did learn that the older children grew accustomed to the airplanes and the runs to the basement and the trench. I'd have loved to know more about how all this effected the people. Still, the simple facts were fascinating, and painted a clear picture of living day to day while war goes on around you.
August 31, 2017
Pretty interesting. An Englishwoman, married to an Italian, is stuck there during the war with her family, plus she has another child on the way. Her husband does speak German and frequently has to act as translator. They are pretty much responsible for the surrounding farms. This works much like tenant farming, except that the farmer and Antonio , the husband/landowner, split the profit.
Iris keeps her diary through the war and, I think, she tries to keep some objectivity in it. Although as 1944 heats up and the allies get closer and closer, this gets more difficult.
Through 1943, she is helping her British POWs figure when to escape, providing partisans with aid, helping take care of children from surrounding towns. She is part of the underground railroad and people are getting sent to her.
The Allies do some bombing and machinegun civilians. But even so they can't wait for the allies to get there. Whether this would be considered a war crime or not I don't know - I think it might depend on how high up they were. Possibly hard to tell the difference between civilians and military. Some of the stories reminded me of the George McGovern story about his bombing a farmhouse at dinnertime. He said he felt guilty for years, knowing what time farmers eat. Somehow he got hooked up with the family and found out that the family had some warning and were hiding in a ditch, much as Iris had intended to hide in a ditch. Only her ditch got muddy and they went back to the cellar.
I read this with a group and some of them were complaining that she didn't seem to be involved in what was going on. I don't think they had read about June 1944. They were always hiding things, hoping that the Germans wouldn't find things (Not entirely successfully). Never knew when they would have to run.
I found the last portion very exciting. This is written as it is happening.
Iris keeps her diary through the war and, I think, she tries to keep some objectivity in it. Although as 1944 heats up and the allies get closer and closer, this gets more difficult.
Through 1943, she is helping her British POWs figure when to escape, providing partisans with aid, helping take care of children from surrounding towns. She is part of the underground railroad and people are getting sent to her.
The Allies do some bombing and machinegun civilians. But even so they can't wait for the allies to get there. Whether this would be considered a war crime or not I don't know - I think it might depend on how high up they were. Possibly hard to tell the difference between civilians and military. Some of the stories reminded me of the George McGovern story about his bombing a farmhouse at dinnertime. He said he felt guilty for years, knowing what time farmers eat. Somehow he got hooked up with the family and found out that the family had some warning and were hiding in a ditch, much as Iris had intended to hide in a ditch. Only her ditch got muddy and they went back to the cellar.
I read this with a group and some of them were complaining that she didn't seem to be involved in what was going on. I don't think they had read about June 1944. They were always hiding things, hoping that the Germans wouldn't find things (Not entirely successfully). Never knew when they would have to run.
I found the last portion very exciting. This is written as it is happening.
January 18, 2020
If, in American high schools, "European History" led with a diary such as this, surely an entire generation would today have a much more sophisticated understanding of the messiness of political tides, of wars, of bellicose leaders. I traveled through this area of Tuscany recently and was drawn to the almost mythical awe of La Foce, the villa, gardens, and 7,000-acre estate Dame Iris Margaret Origo and her husband Antonio Origo bought in the 1920s, and lovingly restored thanks to their care and investment, and the efforts of thousands of employed farmers and their families. They built farms, schools, hospitals, and an entire economy.
This diary takes us through 1944 and 1945, at the crux of World War II, where struggles between the monarchists, the fascists, the German Nazis, the communist partisans, and the Allied forces converged over Italy, and their back yard. The Origo's sheltered refugee children and adults alike, aided escaped Allied soldiers and prisoners of war, dodged bombings, gunfire, and political intrigue, and literally scrapped together wool for soldiers' shoes and clothing.
Highly recommended.
This diary takes us through 1944 and 1945, at the crux of World War II, where struggles between the monarchists, the fascists, the German Nazis, the communist partisans, and the Allied forces converged over Italy, and their back yard. The Origo's sheltered refugee children and adults alike, aided escaped Allied soldiers and prisoners of war, dodged bombings, gunfire, and political intrigue, and literally scrapped together wool for soldiers' shoes and clothing.
Highly recommended.
April 22, 2020
Having finished up the first diary “A Chill In the Air” about the run up to Italy’s involvement with Hitler and the Second World War, I turned to this later, more known, diary set during the actual war years. The set of diaries coincided coincidentally with the run up to the Covid-19 pandemic and the subsequent shut down of schools, workplaces and transportation. All by way of reminding me that people have endured much in the past and got through with grace, generosity and grit. Some truisms: a) in real time, rumors run rampant; b) eventually the cruel, the selfish and power hungry are brought down but it takes longer than it should; c) good people die for no good reason; d) one’s world collapses and becomes very local very quickly; and e) when returning to destroyed homes after the nazis retreated, the first step in getting started again was finding pots and pans to start cooking and feeding everyone again.
May 13, 2019
I found this book interesting because I haven't read much about WWII from the perspective of an Italian civilian, (actually an English woman married to an Italian), caught between constantly changing governments and allegiances, hoping for the Allies to appear. The courage of her and her family, as well as the peasants in the surrounding farms, is astonishing and surprising. I will admit that the book was made even more interesting by our visit to Italy last summer, and the tour of La Foce by Origo's great granddaughter...
August 28, 2024
Le 5 stelline sono tutte per Iris Origo, una donna meravigliosa, inglese di nascita, valdorciana di adozione, che ha rinunciato agli agi che la sua casta avrebbe potuto offrirle( figlia di nobile inglese e moglie di un marchese italiano) e insieme al marito ha portato avanti un progetto di vita nella Val d’orcia degli anni 30/40/50 in cui ha bonificato una terra oggi patrimonio UNESCO, aiutato centinaia di contadini durante la guerra, salvato e protetto partigiani, dato istruzione e calore umano a bambini sfollati di tutto il centro Italia. Commovente in molti punti, soprattutto per me.
March 10, 2025
Someone needs to make a movie based on Iris Origo's Italian war diaries written from 1941-1944. Iris and Antonio Origo were incredibly brave people who sheltered, fed, and put themselves at risk for countless refugees, partisans, and escaped POWs passing through their Tuscan farm. The last few days before the Allies reach them were harrowing, as she describes how they fled their farm on foot, with 32 small children and babies, to escape the bombing as their farm was now literally on the front lines.
July 23, 2022
I read this book while traveling to the UK; on the flights, and in the evenings after long, fascinating excursions and site visits. These diary entries made me feel the anguish and heart wrenching anxiety, the pain and the suffering of the Italian civilians during the Second World War. Who was a fascist supporter, who was a partisan? One did not always know. Origo portrays the Allies and the Germans without romanticism or road brush hatred. She and her husband take in deserters, evacuees, refugees, and partisans, and live among the Germans as the front moves to the peaceful Tuscan valley of Orcia. Their survival is critical to the survival of many, including the lives of the 32 young children they had taken into their care.
This is not a novel, but diary accounts of the impact that war has on the daily lives of average “Everyman”.
This is not a novel, but diary accounts of the impact that war has on the daily lives of average “Everyman”.
November 25, 2019
What an amazing account of a family in Italy in WW2. The writer who was born in England but married to an Italian kept a diary each day from January 1943 to July 1st 1944; she recounted how the family and the surrounding farms helped escaped Allied POWs and so many people. I learnt so much about the situation for Italians at this time and would throughly recommend this book.
October 20, 2021
Loved it - or at least as much as one can “love” understanding what it must have been like to live through war for ordinary people. I wish I had read it BEFORE going to Val d’Orcia this past September - incredible to imagine all these things happening on those same hills, roads and farms.
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