“A vivid memoir” of a time spent in Supino, Italy “quickly transports readers into the charm and richness of village life . . . a story of love and family.” (Publishers Weekly) Every summer Maria and her husband, Bob, went to their little house in the Italian village of Supino, and every year it was a new adventure. Only in Supino would you find a pizzeria in a sheep pasture, a seafood restaurant hidden in the woods, or an electrical cord draped from one balcony to the next so neighbours could share power. In Supino, they celebrate the first figs of the season; host watermelon, azalea, and artichoke festivals; and take pleasure in the magical view of the stars in the summer sky. Written with humour and heart, Summers in Supino is Maria Coletta McLean’s memoir of these summers with Bob, as she becomes accustomed to the town her father grew up in and the peculiarities of the people who live there. Cousin Guido argues with their neighbour over who can plant a grapevine and therefore reap the harvest. Villagers debate whether one neighbour can trade the installation of some terra cotta tiles and the use of a pizza oven (he has yet to build) for the land beneath Bob and Maria’s patio. And as Maria comes to understand her connection to this wonderful place, Bob proposes they open a coffee bar on the piazza. Full of wonderfully vivid stories of Italy, Summers in Supino also explores loss, grief, and the restorative power of community.

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An Italian Canadian woman recounts her annual summer trips with her husband to her ancestral village of Supino, Italy, in this heartwarming hybrid of travel guide and memoir. Written with humor and heart, it describes her process of adjusting to life in her father’s hometown, as well as the eccentricities of its people. Supino’s colorful landscapes and citizens make for vivid stories, from pizzerias in sheep pastures and fish restaurants hidden in the woods to village-wide celebrations of figs, watermelon, azaleas, and artichokes. The book goes on to explain how with every trip, the budding Italian gains a deeper understanding of her connection to Supino and comes to more fully embrace her cultural heritage. Filled with brilliant stories about a fascinating land, this engaging narrative explores notions of identity and the restorative power of community.

"At the newspaper office, Bianca stumbles into a job meant for someone else and a new advice column, "Ask Minerva," is born. Soon everyone is engaged in trying to discover the mystery columnist's identity as well as the identity of her correspondents. Seven years have passed since Rosa's husband's disappearance and now he's been declared legally dead. And her secret lover (that all the villagers know about) wants to marry her. Bravo! Except Rosa is uncertain and when she's uncertain she tends to run away. That's why she's taken her son Carlito to Venice for a week. As Rosa's relationship unravels, Carlito does some unraveling of his own and inches closer to uncovering the mystery of his father's identity. Back in the village, Rosa's best friend Assunta is lonely. Perhaps that's why Assunta falls so quickly and naively for Enzo, the smooth-talking bottlecap salesman. Every villager, from the hairdresser to the barman and each one in between, has an opinion on Bianca's column, "Ask Minerva!" The young hairdresser's assistant has trouble with her marriage to a man with a wandering eye and at the Kennedy Bar, the men gather to laugh over the columnist's advice until they begin to realize that it's their wives who are requesting the advice."--

After 64 years, Mezzabotte Coletta, a retired truck driver for a Toronto macaroni factory, is returning to his native Italia. In a village called Supino said to take its name from the crossroads where Christ rested, supine, en route from Rome to Naples, is a rundown villa bought sight unseen by Mezzabotte's daughter Maria-an olive branch after years of family struggle. While she and her husband Bob breathe in the chatter of local tradesmen, the fragrant offerings of well-wishing neighbours and the aroma of fine wine, her father awaits in Canada anticipating the day he will again touch Italian soil. Hoping to avoid the wounds of his difficult marriage and the onset of senility, father and daughter retrace footsteps that yield from the Saint of Special Favours a miraculous recovery.

Literary tourism is a nascent field in tourism studies, yet tourists often travel in the footsteps of well-known authors and stories. Providing a wide-ranging cornucopia of literary tourism topics, this book fully explores the interconnections between the written word and travel. It includes tourism stories using guidebooks, films, television and electronic media, and recognises that stories, texts and narratives, even if they cannot be classified as traditional travel writing, can become journeys in themselves and take us on imaginary voyages. Appealing to a wide audience of different disciplines, it encompasses subjects such as business literary writing, historical journeys and the poetry of Dylan Thomas. The use of these different perspectives demonstrates how heavily and widely literature influences travel, tourists and tourism, making it an important read for researchers and students of tourism, social science and literature.