Saturday, May 12, 2007

My Favourite Blogs - David Anderson's View Italy


Photo: Agriturismo Casa Caponetti – Wine, Olive Oil, Cooking School in Northern Lazio

What's the point in having a blog if you cannot shamelessly promote your friends?

Seriously, though, David Anderson's View Italy remains one of my favourite blogs because of the way it brings out the texture of Italian life.

One of the features of Italy remains the provincial differences across the country, differences deeply rooted in history and geography. This sense of difference, of history, remains one of Italy's enduring attractions.

Unlike Australia where too many of our regions want to measure themselves in some way against perceived national norms and therefore blur their differences, Italians seem to take continuing pride in their unique regional features. We can see the attraction of this in the way that my wife's own Sydney family has been effectively captured by Tuscany.

David brings these differences out. I especially like the way he sometimes features areas that I know nothing about, areas outside the immediate tourist net.

If I had a suggestion, I would like to see (and this reflects my own biases) a little more history in the posts to help set a context. But this is a minor point. View Italy is simply a great blog.

Return to list of favourite blogs

2 comments:

Travel Italy said...

Jim - I also think the history of an area is very important. I try to give the cultural base on the foods, recipes and wines but it gets a bit too time consuming for the local destinations! However I will try to be more thorough.

thank you for the shout out.

Jim Belshaw said...

Don't go too overboard, David! I know that you do add history. I would just like a little more!