La Passione

March 1, 2019

Hales (La Bella Lingua) brings the sights and sounds of Italy to life with beautifully told stories of the passion that has permeated the country from its earliest recorded history to the present. By passion, Hales means a deep-seated emotion that influences one's thoughts and actions. The author explains her own passion in terms of her 30-year love affair with all things Italian, from a serendipitous decision to change trains in Switzerland and visit Italy for the first time to subsequent visits over the decades. These stories provide context to the many familiar and lesser-known contributions Italy has made to mythology, art, architecture, cuisine, archaeology, agriculture, literature, music, film, crafts, fashion, and automobiles. Hales successfully captures what it means to experience Italy and to be Italian, regardless of one's background. In the process, readers meet passionate souls, past and present. Hales states that "la passione italiana flows from shops and kitchens into fields, groves, and vineyards." VERDICT Italophiles will relish the depth and breadth of this delightful book.--Elizabeth Connor, Daniel Lib., The Citadel, Military Coll. of South Carolina, Charleston

Copyright 2019 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 1, 2019
The continuation of an author's love affair with Italy."Italy chose me," writes Hales (Mona Lisa: A Life Discovered, 2014, etc.) at the beginning of her latest book about the country she loves. Thirty years ago, after she gave a talk in Gstaad, Switzerland, "I impetuously switched trains and headed south to a sun-kissed country I'd never visited." It's been love through rose-colored glasses ever since. This installment is not so much a travelogue as a survey course of the great achievements that have precipitated what Hales calls "una passione italiana," a passion that can "take you beyond yourself and outlast you." Although she mentions some of the places she has seen--e.g., a trip to "the last traditional textile maker in Venice," a visit to Piedmont vineyards--most of the book consists of capsule histories of the warriors, literary figures, painters (including the Renaissance's "two blinding supernovas," da Vinci and Michelangelo), foods, wines, films, and more that have helped this "scrawny peninsula smaller than California...leave such an outsize imprint on Western culture." The author's tone can be breathless. When she alights at a train station, "I longed for more eyes to see, more ears to listen, more neurons to process the sensations bombarding me." When she eats handmade chocolates, delectable flavors "cascade into my mouth. Every taste bud thrills to attention. Waves of delight ripple along my tongue." Italy's greatest achievements are indeed extraordinary, but one wonders what some readers will think of the contention that Italian food is "arguably everybody's favorite" or the author's unsubstantiated claim that Italian cucina "has dethroned haughty French cuisine." Nonetheless, the narrative is an enjoyable read with memorable passages, as when Hales calls thrice-married Ovid "a prototypical advice columnist" whose "urbane manual for seduction, Ars amatoria," offered advice on such topics as how ladies could enhance their flat breasts and fake their orgasms.A pleasant if highly selective tour led by a genial guide.

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March 1, 2019
It's on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, in an opera's soaring aria, and in the guttural roar of a Ferrari. Passion has burned in Italy for thousands of years?for life and love?creating lasting cultural legacies that have made the world richer and a more delicious place in which to live. It's fair to say that Hales, the author of previous books about the beauties of the Italian language and about that famous portrait of Mona Lisa, is besotted with this beautiful land. Her own love affair with Italy shines through as she recounts the histories of colorful characters who made their names through war, art, food, wine, music, and more. She brings the reader with her to experience the country's long-lasting traditions and the people whose dedication keeps that legacy alive today, from the Good Friday procession of massive altars through the streets of Sicily to the massive hall of a cheese-processing plant in Parma. Frothy as a cappuccino and rich as tiramisu, La Passione is a delightful excursion into the heart of Italian culture.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)