Douglas' language was for me the best thing about the book, as well as some interestign observations about saints and peasants. It seems Calabria was a 3rd world country back then. No menntion however of Bruzzano, where my great-grandfather came from.

This is not a particularly easy read. The book was published in 1915 and some of the language is not easy to follow. The author seems to enjoy obscure and unusual words. Some of them are perhaps of his own invention. Some of the chapters are a little tedious. He writes about trying to find a room ,

No eucalipti

You might mistake him in a photograph for a country vicar or dahlia fancier but he was no such creature. See him instead as a well-groomed satyr or an uncle of ill repute whose conduct shames the family but whose occasional letters, posted from exotic locales, you secretly cherish for the black glam

Norman Douglas was a despicable guy in all too many ways. The appeal to this English reprobate of the Mediterranean world was partly that he could practice his passion for little boys without too much concern for the law. I didn't know this when I first read him -- and of course not a hint appears i

This is a narrative of a Presbyterian Scotsman's journey, on foot, from the heel to the tip of the toe of Italy around the turn of the last century. Douglas is one of the best writers in English, ever. But lest you think this is some banal travel book you should remember the Mr. Douglas was not the