Mezza Italiana

Mezza Italiana: an Enchanting Story About Love, Family, La Dolce Vita and Finding Your Place in the World
Author: Zoe Boccabella
ISBN13: 9780733329548
ISBN 10: 0733329543
Pub Date: 15 April 2011
Publisher: HarperCollins
Category: Autobiography: General
Reading Age – All Ages
Price (NZ RRP): $ 36.99

Link to Harper Collins HERE

Zoë Boccabella grew up in Brisbane in the 1970s and 80s. Back then, it was mostly an Anglo-Australian town – if you wanted to fit in, you did not bottle tomatoes, have plastic on the hallway carpet or a Glory Box of Italian linen tablecloths.

As a teenager, Zoë wanted to be like everyone else. She refused to call her grandmother Nonna, resisted learning Italian, and even dyed her dark hair blonde. But she could not shake the unsettling sense of feeling ‘half-and-half’ – half Australian, mezza Italiana – unable to fit fully into either culture.
Then Zoë travels to Italy to stay in the house that has belonged to her family for several centuries. It sits high in the mountains in the village of Fossa in Abruzzo, an hour and a half north-east of Rome. The Abruzzo region is the stuff of fairytales – castles, dark forests, serpent charmers and witches (Zoë’s great grandmother was the village witch). Family stories come to life and as Fossa casts its spell, Zoë begins to understand the courage of those who migrated and the preciousness of holding onto her ancestral culture. Then the earthquake hits, and in the wake of the devastation Zoë discovers the importance of endurance – in people, in places and in traditions.
Beautifully written, sprinkled with recipes and laced with love, Mezza Italiana is a heart-warming journey into the soul of Italy, and into a family you’ll never forget.

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Review
Zoe, who obviously has a romantic outlook on life, has written about Italy as if it’s another world… one in which I will briefly return to while attempting a couple of her recipes which are scattered through the pages. Yum, yum!

A delicious read about the good things in life, wine – food – and traveling. Not having had the overwhelming desire to travel myself, I can confidently say that those who have not traveled will still appreciate this easy and warm read.

“I look up at the dusty, deserted street and can almost conjure the hazy figures of mother and daughter walking hand in hand on Nanna Fancesca’s first day of school. I wonder what has happened to possessions that were so important that they wore them in a rarely taken portrait photograph – a little girl’s string of faux pearls, a religious cross, a hair ribbon … Possessions lost in time, much like the people who once treasured them.”

Although not a book which is hard to put down, I did look forward to snuggling up in the evening with the cat to enjoy.