The Stone Boudoir: Travels Through the Hidden Villages of Sicily

Slices of life that are beautiful and sometimes tough to read. I got this from the library (of course, because libraries rule), but may keep an eye out for a copy to have around to read as I please.

Made me both thankful my bisnonno* left Sicilia and also hella achey to go see it myself as an adult.

*And it makes me wonder what the word is in his dialect

Very evocative writing, simple and heart-rendered. You can tell the author has a deep and emotional connection to this place. She is not a casual tourist but someone who takes the time to entwine and bond with the places & people she visits. I love the descriptions of street food - octopus, spiny sea urchins cracked open on the spot and scooped out with crusty bread, raw oysters, steamed clams, mussels.

She also tells the dark side of the island — the devastating earthquakes, continual volcanic eruptions, the Mafia, the intrigue and gossip.

Perfect armchair travel reading!

Thoroughly average. While Maggio had moments in the book where she really brought the villages to life, overall the narrative fell flat and failed to do justice to what I’m sure is a beautiful and rapidly disappearing way of life. It was one of those books that was interesting enough to keep reading, but not so interesting as to make it hard to put the book down.

I suppose it’s for the best, as the book hasn’t dampened my desire to go to Sicily, but neither did it light a fire of “must plan a trip NOW” magnitude, which given current conditions might have proved more frustrating that reading a bland book.

This book makes me long to live in Sicily. Time seems to have stood still in the mountains of Sicily. Your taken back, in some respects, to feudal times. and the people are so diverse - friendly in some villages - alienating in others. The author moves to Sicily in order to capture the flavor of stories her mother and grandmother told her.

Loved this book - a woman's journey around some of the smaller villages of Sicily, uncovering some of the "women's business" of a culture and society so often seen from the male point of view.