Extra Virgin: A Young Woman Discovers the Italian Riviera, Where Every Month Is Enchanted

Like many European travel memoirs, Hawes's work hinges on making the locals appear charming and eccentric, making the food seem sacred and making the countryside's beauty look dazzling yet unappreciated by those who live there. But unlike other journals, Hawes's focuses on an area as yet untouched by the masses of travel writers. The Italian Riviera is not quite Tuscany or Provence, but Hawes's book could contribute to the area's eventual popularity as a tourist destination. She describes the place with wonder, illumination and wit. Seventeen years ago, she and her sister Lucy left drafty England to take jobs as rose grafters (something they knew nothing about) in Diano San Pietro, a village in Liguria, on the Italian coast. What began as a 10-week jaunt became a permanent move to a vibrant, rich lifestyle revolving around food and the land. While she never covers the rose-grafting job in depth, Hawes does give a full account of how the pale-skinned, decidedly un-Italian sisters carved their niche among olive farmers and card-playing locals. Cuisine is a major part of the tale, and Hawes integrates it into her writing as a key cultural and social aspect of Ligurian life. The sisters are constantly chided for such grave sins as eating their salad before the main course and drinking two cups of morning espresso. Stalwart and open-minded, they take Italian criticisms of their bizarre British ways with a grain of salt. This blithe account will have gastronomes and travelers drooling. (Jan.)