Stolen Figs, and Other Adventures in Calabria

by Mark Rotella

Book Overview

Calabria is the toe of the boot that is Italy -- a rugged peninsula where grapevines and fig and olive trees cling to the mountainsides during scorching summers. Calabria is also a seedbed of... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0865476276
• ISBN13: 9780865476271
• Release Date: July 2003
• Publisher: North Point Press
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 1.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.3" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Explore Family Roots in Calabria: Taste and Feel Old Italy

Hear the sounds, taste the food, kiss the relatives, explore the terrain, climb the mountains, visit the castles, learn the history (Greeks, Bruttians, Romans, Visigoth conquests) ... experience the adventure of exploring one's family roots in a small village in southern Italy. The village, Gimigilano, is located in Calabria, the region that looks like the foot on a map of Italy, which everyone knows resembles a boot. The author, Mark Rotella, describes his *very* first visit to this village with his father and later subsequent visits either alone or with his wife, who is of English and Dutch heritage. He captivates the reader with descriptions of nostalgia and heart-felt longing when he emotionally connects to the traditions, customs and life of the village. He is befriended by Giuseppe, a photographer, who produces postcards that he sells to regional shops and businesses. Giuseppe becomes his personal driver and tour guide to Calabria ... The author intersperses memories of growing up, recalling how his grandfather made wine in New Jersey, which he traded with a Portuguese farmer, who raised pigs ... his grandfather slaughtered the pig in the old-fashion way and provided the family with the same cuts of meat that the author saw on his visit to the village. The author includes memories and discussions with his father. One of which is the family story when his grandfather returned to the village to find himself a suitable wife. He married her in the village and took his bride to live in America. Since his grandmother and grandfather practiced old world ways, the author was able to trace many of the family traditons back to the village and culture of the region. Favorite dishes, foods, spices and their preparation, Italian hospitality, the importance of family and the sense of belonging, are all aspects of the Italian culture of which the author is proud. The continuation of customs and traditions in Calabria persist ... kneading and baking bread in communal fashion, making wine, eating rabbit stew, tending an olive grove, stealing figs from a neighbor's tree. The author wished to be viewed and accepted as the "returning son of the village" ... even sought Italian citizenship. He was disappointed to discover he was seen as "the American visitor". He found out ...one had to be *born* in Calabria, to be viewed as Calabrese. While Calabria has a depressed economy compared to Rome, Venice and Naples, all northern cities ... it has a proud and resilient people who continue to live in the region helping the area to develop. This author recreates the feelings and lifestyle of the village and surrounding towns and cities so well that the reader wants to experience it first hand. The imagination of the reader is captured by the sights, sounds, tastes and smells of Calabria ... one feels and senses this part of Italy is unspoiled in its splendor and beauty. You want to go there before the modern world intrudes and destroys it. Erika Borsos (erikab93)

Evocative and moving

I found Rotella's account of his travels through Calabria to be evocative and very moving. For those seeking a travelogue - look elsewhere. This is one person's journey to discover his roots and family, and along the way discovering a beautiful unspoiled part of Italy, far from the tourists in the North. The descriptions of his relatives, the countryside, and the food made me truly envious. This is a lovely book.

A Gift for Italians and Non-Italians Alike

This book makes me wish I were Italian. Mark Rotella has successfully immersed a WASP into his beautifully written yet honest account of a people who have (refreshingly) not yet caught up with the rest of the too fast, too conflicted world. His observations make it effortless to join him on his journey, and I was pleasantly surprised at how easily I could identify with the people in a place of which I knew so little. This book is a gift to Italians and non-Italians alike.

perfect union of writer and subject

In a perfect union of writer and subject, Publisher's Weekly editor, Mark Rotella, returns to his grandparents' homeland of Calabria. "Spurred" by Gay Talese's book, "Unto the Sons", to explore his southern Italian heritage, the author, an unabashedly, and self-admitted "romantic", provides an excellent introduction to this often overlooked region, conveying his own passion for familiarizing himself with it in the process. Largely untouched by tourism, and writers, for that matter, Calabria is both financially depressed and culturally rich, with large emigrant populations in Niagara Falls, New York, Toronto, Canada, and Danbury, Connecticut (though Rotella grew up primarily in Saint Petersburg, Florida). Whether traveling solo, with his father, wife, or postcard salesman, Guiseppe, Rotella captures the unique personality of each village he visits, with a superb eye for atmosphere, setting, and aesthetically outstanding visuals. Political and historical background, including foreign influences on the region, and effects of the Mafia, provide a framework and understanding to current situations. Rotella intersperses snippets of other writers' experiences, local legends, folktales, proverbs, customs, and traditions, lending an uncommonly expansive insight to Calabria. Combining past and present also lends a certain fascination for the reader, and includes the author's reunions with relatives, relationships formed over his several trips there, his dad's poignant remininsces, a visit to the church his grandparents were married in, and the elaborate Easter celebrations he attended. Though not without a sense of humor, Rotella's writing is most impressive for its unaffected style. Descriptions of the rugged, yet beautiful landscape, and harsh geography have a cinematic quality, and his writing becomes completely poetic over the mouthwatering cuisine he abundantly partakes of. In the end, and seeming to mirror the author himself, what emerges is an enticing picture of a gracious, highly social, and charmingly "masculine" society. Woman reader from New York

Ready to Discover Calabria

I really enjoyed this book. It is a lovely, lyrical ode to a region that is unknown and unvisited by most Americans, but that certainly seems worthy of discovery. The author evokes so perfectly the feel of the place---the rugged landscape, the pace of life, the warmth of the Calabrese people, and of course, the incredible food---that I felt like I was a part of his journey. Very heartfelt and highly recommended!!!