Mediterranean Passion – Reading

SOME READING TO ENJOY BEFORE YOU GO:

SICILY

• A HOUSE IN SICILY – Daphne Phelps ( a classic memoire over 4 decades in Taormina, restoring a home – Casa Cuseni – left to her by her eccentric uncle).
• MIDNIGHT IN ITALY – Peter Robb ( a wonderful insightful commentary of recent times in Sicily – focussing on crime, food and travel )
• THE LEOPARD – Giuseppe Tommasi di Lampedusa ( a historical classic covering the years before and after unification of Italy ). Also a sweeping movie starring Burt Lancaster. Does exist with dubbed English. 
• THE DAY OF THE OWL – Leonardo Sciascia ( an Italian classic ). Also a movie – only in Italian & Sicilian. ( Il giorno della civetta )
• IN SICILY – Norman Lewis ( another classic commentary on Sicily – spanning wartime and the 90s. From the writer of Naples ’44)
• THE HONOURED SOCIETY – Norman Lewis ( fascinating account, written in 1964, covering the emergence of the Mafia and the role the USA had in this, post-war )
• SWEET HONEY, BITTER LEMONS – Matthew Fort ( a rollicking return to Sicily after 30 years as he travels by Vespa. Full of great food and travel anecdotes )
• FINDING NINO – Marc Llewellyn ( Sydney journalist and his wife move to the island of Lipari, among the volcanic islands off the North Coast )
• THE STONE BOUDOIR – Theresa Maggio ( in search of the most remote and authentic mountain towns of Sicily )
• SICILIAN SUMMER- Brian Johnton (an insightful travelogue by well-known Australian travel writer and editor )
• SICILY, A CAPTIVE LAND by Mary Rose Liverani
• SICILY, AN ISLAND AT THE CROSSROADS OF HISTORY by John Julius Norwich
  ** and a movie ‘In guerra per amore’ ( At war, for love ) – a recent release and can be found with English subtitles. A mostly light-hearted take on the mafia involvement in the streamlined American-led liberation of Sicily’s ‘western side’.  The consequences were to last decades, of course.
  NAPLES
• SEE NAPLES AND DIE – Australian journalist, Penelope Green moves to Rome then to Naples. 
• NAPLES ’44 – A wartime classic describing the chaos of liberated Naples – Norman Lewis  
  
  

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