Product Description

Foreign writers living in Italy frequently treat the local people as an exotic species to provide amusing stories for their readers. Sipping cappuccino and supping pasta, rarely do they perceive what is going on around them, nor understand the complexity of life for today's Italians. Isabella Dusi came from Australia to settle in Montalcino, a Tuscan mountain eyrie famous for its wine. Her acceptance into this close-knit community was a hard-won thing. This text is her account of life there, offering a rare insight into the anxiety, joy, fun and pressure of inhabiting this medieval village. It also tells of the village's bloody history which has left its mark on the character traits of the Montalcinese. In this evocative story of the rivalry between village neighbourhoods, of football fever and festival pageantry, Isabella Dusi destroys the myth that Tuscan villages are tranquil places and instead reveals a life infinitely rich and full of dramas. This moving and often humorous journey changes the cliched image of Tuscany and brings real understanding of the fierce passion of today's Tuscans for their ancient village, their fertile land and their life in Montalcino.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #168830 in Books
• Published on: 2002-05-07
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 456 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Traditionally, foreign writers describing a country adopt the outsider's point of view and focus on the more quaint and amusing aspects of the locals' lives. This is particularly true of Italy, where the more exotic side of the country is maximised and the lives of people treated as being less important. Not so in Isabella Dusi's fascinating Vanilla Beans and Brodo which takes the radical (and fascinating) approach of dealing with the day-to-day lives of those who live in the beautiful Tuscan Hills. In fact, the book is subtitled Real Life in the Hills of Tuscany, and the author (who sold all she owned to travel halfway around the world and settle in the exquisite mountain eyrie of Montalcino) makes the descriptions of the seasons and countryside as evocative as one could wish, but her real subject is the people. Finding it initially difficult to be accepted into this close-knit wine community, she gradually wins their respect and friendship.

The experiences of the author in the village--as different from English life as could be imagined--are totally absorbing. But this is no mere pleasant pictorial--Isabella Dusi conjures genuine drama as summer approaches and wild storms threaten to destroy the grape harvest. We are given, en route, the bloody history of this medieval village, but what stays with the reader is the incident-packed lives of the inhabitants: a million miles away from most people's placid image of life in this most beautiful part of the world. If you want to live another life for a few hours, here's your chance. --Barry Forshaw

From the Publisher
At last, the real Tuscany is revealed.
Foreign writers living in Italy frequently treat the local people as an exotic species who provide amusing stories for their readers. In Vanilla Beans and Brodo Isabella Dusi writes about ‘real life’ in the medieval village of Montalcino, its history and what has made its inhabitants, the Montalcinese, the proud citizens that they are today.

Rather than just observing Isabella has become part of the community, she has listened to their stories, researched and partaken in their customs and more importantly been accepted by the Montalcinese as a true resident and friend – after five years Isobel and Lou have become Isabella and Luigi.

Isabella describes the rivalry between the village neighbourhoods, the passion for football and the local Brunello wine, destroying the myth that Tuscan villages are tranquil places and revealing a life rich and packed with drama. Vanilla Beans and Brodo will change forever the clichéd image of Tuscany and bring real understanding of daily Tuscan life in Montalcino.

Isabella Dusi gave up a successful career, sold everything and travelled from Australia to Italy with her husband Luigi to start a new life. This is not their story, it is the story of Montalcino and the Montalcinese - It has been beautifully written and like the Montalcinese, it is so full of colour and passion that you'll think you are in Tuscany.

About the Author
After many years working in Australia in interior design, Isabella Dusi decided to move to Italy with her husband Luigi. They now run a travel business based in Montalcino. This is her first book.

Customer Reviews

A sensitive and refreshing book about Life in Tuscany
Isabella Dusi's book works on very many different levels and she should be congratulated on this wonderful achievement.Vanilla Beans and Brodo is a deeply sensitive portrayal of the Tuscan way of life. As visitors we can only scratch the surface,but this book helps us to understand how Tuscany,and it's people have become what we see today. We get insights into many of the traditions of the past and indeed those that still carry on today. We get sketches of the landscape in every season of the year and we get stories of so many things that have happened in this close knit community. We become involved with the people of Montalcino and wish everyone success,well before the book is finished. Suddenly we realise that we have been taught a history lesson, in such a compelling way it leaves us hungry for more.I have read many books about Italy but this is THE one that I would recommend as "find the time to read before you leave home", it is richly rewarding and perhaps will set the scene for a new Genre of travel writing?

Not wonderful, but informative and entertaining in parts
As an American who has lived in Scotland for almost 25 years, I think I have some understanding of expatriates. I also have very definite views on whether it would be possible for me to ever become a Scot and a clear appreciation of how any attempt by me to become such would be viewed by many of the natives of my adopted country.

It is clear from the start of this book that Isabella Dusi - who was born in Scotland and lived almost all her life in Australia - now considers the Tuscan hill-town of Montalcino her home. It is also painfully obvious that she wishes to become a perfect Italian.

I do not blame her in the slightest for this.

Over the last few years, I have spent a total of several weeks wandering around the countryside and the sort of village that Signora Dusi describes. Having read Vanilla Beans and Brodo, I believe I have a better understanding of the country and some of the people. However, it is inevitable that Signora Dusi's desire to be accepted by her neighbours has had some effect on the story she tells.

It seems that many of the people she considers friends have extremely limited horizons. For example, one says with pride that he has not been to another of the four districts of the tiny hill-town since the Second World War. I believe I understand why Ms Dusi might find such intense attachment to a tiny area of land laudable. However, I wonder if she would feel quite so positive about someone who had lived their entire life on a couple streets in Kalgoorlie, Western Australia, on a few blocks in Muncie, Indiana or on in a tiny area of Sheffield, England.

It is, perhaps, all too easy for wishful thinking and the romance of a place like Montalcino to seduce a cosmopolitan outsider into seeing profound connections to a place and its people when all that really exists is the usual bigotry, pettiness and lumpen incuriousity that one can find in some of the residents of any village anywhere.

Some of the people to whom Signora Dusi is most close will probably seem very familiar to many people with an elderly and slightly fussy relative. While it would be very easy to mock their formality and their fixation on doing things only as dictated by ancient tradition, Signora Dusi seems concerned only with learning the subtle rules they wish to impose on her and complying with them perfectly.

Again, I can understand this, but I must question whether the people she describes are in any way typical of Italians in general or even of the people living in Montalcino.

I must mention one passage that so jarred me that I questioned the veracity of all that I had read. Indeed, I actually considered for a moment whether the whole work might not be utterly deadpan irony with the true meaning of every statement being its exact opposite.

At one point, a minor crime is committed and Signora Dusi states that the Carabinieri (the paramilitary Italian national police force) are universally held in the highest regard. Further, that everyone is in awe of their fantastic crime detection powers.

My understanding is that this is definitely not the case. Rather, the Carabinieri are the butt of many jokes, most relating to how stupid and incompetent they are. This is due partly to the generally sceptical view Italians have about the government and the law, but also because the majority of Carabinieri come from the south of the country. Many Italians from north of Rome maintain that everyone from the south is either a Mafiosi or a stupid peasant.

The prose does not sparkle, but it is competent. There is little dramatic tension, but this is not really a criticism since the main point of the book is to convey the flavour of life in a Tuscan hill-town. In this, Signora Dusi succeeds. She also manages to slip in some political and social history that might be surprising and perhaps a little shocking to anyone who believes that Tuscany is, and always has been, some sort of rural idyll.

If you are planning a visit to Tuscany and its towns, this book will probably make it a richer and much more interesting experience.

This book welcomes you in with open arms
I thoroughly enjoyed this book from the very first page. Dusi clearly loves Montalcino and everything about the book leaves you in no doubt that it will be a beautiful place to visit - and it certainly is!

I was lucky enough to visit Montalcino shortly after finishing the book. With a sense of deja vu I wandered the beautiful streets recognising the various shops and restautants that had been described so vividly - and yes, the food really is as good as it sounds! During our visit we joined in a festa which was as fun and awe inspiring as the book promised it would be.

Dusi does a fabulous job of drawing the reader in, I was hooked from the off and didn't want it to end - the sign of an excellent read! I can't wait for the next book and my next visit!