- I finally got around to finishing this rather long novel after being pressured by friends and family. I first started to read it eighteen months ago when it was published, but bailed after 80 pages because of the very chummy, rather claustrophobic and tiresome English village character of it. It was full of homey detail and dialogue.
- But over Christmas this year I returned to it, and I'm sooo glad I did. I realised it was a critical portrait of English coldness and assumed superiority, in stark contrast to the warmth and rich heritage of Italian culture, art, and wisdom.
- A small group of friends and family, young and old, move to Florence after Ulysses Temper, a former soldier in the second world war who was stationed there, inherits a mansion in the heart of the city. They convert it into a pensione for visitors.
- Winman relishes introducing her characters and readers to the magnificent food and wine, streets, architecture, history, cafes, bars, trattorias, sculptures and paintings, and of course the Italian locals of the community. We're taken on a journey into the heart and soul of Italy. As a lover of all things Italian (I lived there for four years) I was totally sucked in.
- The visitors, old and young, become enamoured of the Italian lifestyle, some falling in love with each other. In many ways the novel is a celebration of gay relationships in all their passion and intimacy. It's a sympathetic portrayal of tenderness and warmth.
- Winman introduces us to a full range of characters, mostly English and American, including a young man E.M. Forster and his conservative and controlling mother who stay at the pensione for a few weeks. It's a lovely chapter.
- The flooding of Florence in 1968 is described in detail. The city was totally under water for weeks and thousands of precious artworks and buildings were destroyed, and lives lost. It was the biggest flood in 600 years. Winman's narration here is just superb. She brings the drama of it fully alive.
- So read this book over the holiday period if you can. It will lift your spirits.
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