Songbirds, Truffles, and Wolves: An American Naturalist in Italy

by Gary Paul Nabhan

After two decades in the Southwest studying plant use and cultivation by the native hunter-gatherers and first farmers of the New World, Gary Nabhan, one of America's finest naturalists and nature writers, turns his attention to the Old World, walking the Franciscan Way, nearly two hundred miles from Florence to Assisi. Accompanied by a friend, Nabhan enters the heart of the Tuscan and Umbrian countryside in order to read the landscape as one reads a sacred book, slowly and with growing delight. He talks with peasant farmers, truffle sellers, cooks, and bakers, all eager to share their plants, seeds, cooking methods, and cultural insights with the American pilgrims.

Saint Francis has come to be a model for what it means to be human in the natural world, and Nabhan takes him as a guide. This journey becomes a spiritual quest as well as an ethnobotanical field trip. Together with Nabhan we discover what is useful in the old ways, what remains wild in the civilized world, and what in ancient science has survived to make its way into contemporary culture.

Genres: Nonfiction, Travel, Italy, Nature, Food, Natural History, Memoir

256 pages, Paperback

First published July 13, 1993

About the author

Gary Paul Nabhan is an internationally-celebrated nature writer, seed saver, conservation biologist and sustainable agriculture activist who has been called "the father of the local food movement" by Utne Reader, Mother Earth News, Carleton College and Unity College. Gary is also an orchard-keeper, wild forager and Ecumenical Franciscan brother in his hometown of Patagonia, Arizona near the Mexican border. For his writing and collaborative conservation work, he has been honored with a MacArthur "genius" award, a Southwest Book Award, the John Burroughs Medal for nature writing, the Vavilov Medal, and lifetime achievement awards from the Quivira Coalition and Society for Ethnobiology.

--from the author's website

Reviews

[Mitch]

As opposed to the majority of people who have read this book, I found it repulsive.

It chronicles the author's self-styled two weeks' long pilgrimage to the final resting place of Saint Francis of Assisi.

The least problem I have with this book is that it's dull. You may find it otherwise if the history of chestnut trees, the origin of maize and the properties of truffles fascinate you.

But let us rouse ourselves and move on.

Mr. Nabhan is a man with an enormous capacity to look at an pretty much anything and cast his own meaning onto it. Here is an example:

""Forty years!" I moaned to myself the first time I heard this story, stretching my soul up into the bark of the fungus-infested chestnut. "Will it take forty years to overcome my sores? How long it takes us poor mortals to heal!"

After reading this, I moaned to myself as well.

Yes, he literally hugs trees. Is it any surprise that he feels disconnected with people?

Widening that disconnect is his world view. As a romanticizing and ranting ecologist, he casts a disapproving eye toward practically everyone he even thinks about. He is critical of the Franciscan brotherhood, animal activists, the local peasantry (although he likes them better than most) people who work to preserve forests, fellow pilgrims, etc.

I wonder if he'd approve of the lifestyles of his readers. Do you, personally live up to his standards? I can't think of anyone who does.

He gets along with Saint Francis though. This is possible because St. Francis is dead and the author can project his own meaning on him after carefully excising God from the picture. I'm sure his version of St. Francis wouldn't mind.

Here is a final word for you, Mr. Nabhan. Trees died to make your mass-produced book. Hug that.

[Susan]

A 200-mile walk from Florence to Assisi follows in the footsteps of St Francis and serves as the framework for observations on Italian ecology and agriculture, St Francis, and the author’s life. I thoroughly enjoyed the informative and well researched sections on local fruits and vegetables, cultivation of truffles, use of chestnuts and effect of the chestnut blight in Italy, and how plants from the Americas were adopted in Italy with varying success. I could empathize with the author’s disappointment on not encountering anywhere on his walk the wilderness of St Francis’s day; however, the sections on St Francis (and the author’s life) were less developed and not as strong as the rest of the book.

[Judy]

Nabhan comes across as a nice guy, ... but the book ... not so good. It has potential, but it needed a good editor. (All attempts at conversational statements should have been omitted.) There's too much going on, which gives rise to a vague story. Maybe this should have been titled "Homage to St Francis," or "Searching for the Wild in Italy," or "My Search for Self."

This is Nabhan's journey in search of direction. I was hoping for more about the natural history of Italy, but instead I got an odd collection of info -- a little about St. Francis, several pages about the truffle market and an intro to the hunting of songbirds in Italy. Mixed in was a history of maize (and polenta) in Italy.

Here are a couple of statements I marked while I was reading.

pp xix-xx: Third-order Franciscan lay brothers do not retreat to the cloister, take vows of celibacy, or necessarily give up their former profession; rather, they remain in the 'marketplace' and seek to enrich ordinary life through the inspiration of St Francis.
Nabhan was in a class of novices when he decided to journey to the birthplace of St Francis in order to resolve his "ambivalence."

On page 17, there's a quote from Aldo Leopold that I liked, One of the penalties of an ecological education is that one lives alone in a world of wounds. Much of the damage inflicted on land is quite invisible to laymen.

On p 97, I learned this about St Francis.
Perhaps Francis himself was a voluntary victim of hunger and herbal hallucination, for we know that he suffered as well from the oozing wounds of leprosy, the incessant pain of arthritis, and four dozen other maladies and degenerative diseases by the time he died.

And near the end of the book,
I had come to Italy looking for a fresh dynamic between culture and nature, between tradition and spontaneity, between civility and wildness. ... True culture needs wildness as a reference point.
Good thought.

[Sarah]

I would not give this book a high rating (so I did not rate it at all) primarily because what I got was not what I expected... and what I got did not work for me. Somehow I did not realize that the songbirds in the title would be his dinner as were the truffles (of course)... in fact the only thing he did not eat were the wolves and that is primarily because the parts of Italy he traveled through did not have wolves....

[Aviv Karasov-Olson]

Well written but not quite what I expected. I went into this book with expectations of a travelogue and nature story. Nahban's story focuses much more on edible local plants and their history than his journey walking to Assisi. While reading this book, I was distracted by the mismatch between expectation and the book itself. This is why I had to give the book 3 stars instead of 4. I would have liked to hear more about the landscape and the people he met along the way.

[Peter Corrigan]

Random read for me--different, and not uninteresting but fell short in some ways. An American naturalist takes a long walk on the Trail of St. Francis of Assisi through Tuscany and Umbria with a friend for a couple of reasons. To recover his own path in life post-divorce and to attempt to discover how nature has fared in this long densely populated and cultivated country. There are keen observations throughout on nature, and much centers around how much the 'Columbian Exchange' affected the West and Italy in particular. There are nuggets of fascinating information--maybe I knew the tomato did not originate in Italy but not that the name derives from the Nahuatl word 'tomatl' in that region of Central America were it did emerge from. That exemplar of Italian cooking only made to the peninsula around 1548! Lots of other interesting and generally discouraging information is delivered about the loss of plant and seed diversity, wildlife, birds and other aspects of natural destruction that seem to define the pathways of man. His spiritual ruminations were a little less convincing and his personal travails even less so. Which sounds kind of harsh, but it was more like he could not really decide what the book was to be about. It did make me want to learn more about St. Francis which is a good thing!

[Linda C]

I had mixed feelings about this book. The parts of the book I enjoyed were those concerning the impact of specific plants and animals on specific human cultures (eg. maize to Native Americans and to Italians; traditional uses of plants vs modern cultivation, wild plant/animal variation vs species extinction) and the histories of truffles, wolves and songbirds in Italy. What didn't work was the idea of the trek along the Franciscan Way. The whole Franciscan connection was rambling and convoluted. The actual 'saunter' was barely described; seemed just a hook to hang his thoughts on.

[Dianne Oliver]

Some interesting tidbits sprinkled within, but mostly this book bored me. I wanted to try it, to learn about the trail, and Francis mostly. I found the sections on diseases and truffles quite interesting, which was a surprise, but the overall feeling for the saint was not positive for me. Perhaps if you are more of a science person than I am, you might find the species and history of, say, corn fascinating. I just find myself trying to shake the info out of my brain.

[Talea]

I enjoyed it when he talked about St. Francis. I enjoyed the trips into ecology, seeds, and life. I enjoyed being reminded of the Italian countryside I knew as a kid. I even enjoyed when he talked about the connection between fava beans and malaria. As a convert to Catholicism though I can't help but feel such a loss that in his focus on a man, a great man admittedly, but a man and such a focus on creation it'self and missing so much of the creator. It left me with a feeling of loss.

[bertha mason]

A delightful surprise! This book is a gem among science and travel literature. His insight into what it means to be connected to the earth and our culture through agriculture and food was so thought-provoking. Kind of a niche ecological read but worth the journey if you are interested in Italian culture or truffles or the history of polenta….

[Jennifer]

Not great writing, needed a new editor, but very interesting botanical info!

[K Hue]

Read this before my trip to Umbria. Excellent.

[Maria Rovira]

Basura. Uni purposes. Bye

[June Hiza]

Peter Decker

[Francis Opila]

This is a travel story has 3 different themes going:
1) The natural history of some plants from the New World that were brought back to Italy. These include plants that are eaten, including tomatoes and pickly pear catci. The natural history and the stories around these plants and the Italian people are quite fascinating. Many Italians claim these to originate in their homeland.
2) A pilgrimage following the footsteps of St. Francis from Florence to Assisi. The author explores his relationship to Francis and to the Franciscan order in the US. Since I grew up Catholic and St. Francis of Assisi is my patron saint, I found Nabhan's journey quite interesting.
3) The author's introspection and his interactions with his travelling companion Ginger. This theme in the book does not work at all. Ginger, some years older than the author, seems quite didactic and not particularly real.
The transitions between these themes was a little choppy, but the natural history/food portions of this book are really amazing.

[Matthew]

Apparently there's quite a lot for an American naturalist to say about Italy, and Gary Paul Nabhan is the kind of author I'd follow on dozens of explorations of a similar nature. His pilgrimage to the shrine of St. Francis of Assisi allows him to explore the flora and fauna of Tuscany and Umbria and give us some interesting history lessons and insights on the Columbian exchange, the nutrition of the Italian peasant over the ages, interactions of food and culture, and a variety of equally intriguing topics. Maybe a little like Under the Tuscan Sun but with a a lot more anthropology and biology.

[Alice]

Such an odd little book. The theme of the book - that as we lose contact with the wild, we lose something personally and spiritually valuable - is thought-provoking and wonderful. But the writing is so labored. You can feel Nabhan straining to write about his feelings and experiences and you can feel how it is for him to be so personal. The interweaving of themes and facts about St. Francis are interesting - although did Frances really have 40 diseases when he died? Also lots of interesting stuff about truffle growing, the demise of songbirds and wolves in Italy. I so wanted it to be better than it is.

[Deigh]

I cannot recommend this book at all. The author came up with a cute title but beyond that the book is pointless. He totally looks at the world from a glass-half-empty perspective and spends a lot of time telling you about how miserable he is following his divorce and how awful the Italian countryside is. There are some interesting asides about food etc. but those could have been written in any publication and do not make up for the rest of the poor writing.

[Denise]

I like this writer's topics (he is quite prolific), but his writing style can be a bit dry. I have tried to read this title a couple of times and am finally close to finishing this time. A seed botanist, this is an account of travel in Italy to find out about St. Francis of Assisi, to study food/plant lore, and to recover from a divorce.

[Ann]

Nabhan comes across like quite the nerd but the book is a fast read full of interesting information. Perhaps not as romantic as the title suggests, as there were far more pages dedicated to tomatoes, maize, and beans than songbirds, truffles, and wolves. Definitely recommendable, for the right reader.

[Arthur]

An Arizonan naturalist trek in Northern Italy. Very interesting tidbits about the ecology and foods of the area and how Tuscany and Umbria differ in attitude and customs. Never realized that the Italians were avid hunters. Author gets into philosophizing, which slows down the read. Overall, worth while and educational.

[Mbarron]

I'm attracted to the idea of pilgrimages these days. In this book Nabhan walks from Florence to Assisi thinking about the changing Italian countryside and to what degree St. Francis can serve as a spiritual guide and eco-hero.

[Allen Steele]

a very informative book on central Italy. The history of Assisi and the surrounding area as told by locals. dry at times, written by someone with the use of the entire English language at his disposal, and lets us know it with huge and obscure words.

[Emily D]

I love the idea of a pilgrimage--and in Tuscany! I liked the information, the asides about this and that, but felt that he was writing with a bit of a sad veil over him. Very good read if you are interested in the values of Wendell Berry and the like, but otherwise I wouldn't recommend it.

[Kaye]

Travelling the path of St Francis of Assisi, reflections on the lost of nature and contact therewith. Enjoyed this less than The Desert Smiles Like Rain. A bit too self-absorbed for my taste.

[Chris]

While the book was not what I expected (much more focus on food than I anticipated), there were a few standout chapters. I really enjoyed the section on truffles and truffle hunting, as well as the connection to Saint Francis of Assisi.

[Stacey Mulvey]

Matthew and I read this book together...

[Valerie]

He's such a poetic soul. Even though he could not in any way be classified as a reluctant traveler, I still found this book engaging.

[Isaac Timm]

The book has some interesting parts about food and plant history. On his spiritual quest he left Italy with the same baggage he bought to Italy.

[Steve Cox]

Much too pleased with himself.