Book Giveaway: 100 Places in Italy Every Woman Should Go
Last post, I tried to explain a bit about why I might possibly want to live in Italy–and by the way, thank you all *so* much for all the wonderful, kind, and supportive comments and insights!
Now as good timing would have it, today we have a guest post from Susan Van Allen, author of 100 Places in Italy Every Woman Should Go, entitled:
Thoughts on Why Women Love Italy…
Before we get to the post, though, a contest just in time for the holidays!
Comment on this post on the blog (NOT on Facebook, Twitter, etc.) before midnight EST on Sunday, December 13, 2009 to be eligible to win one copy of Susan Van Allen’s 100 Places in Italy Every Woman Should Go.
Now, here’s Susan:
I heard a story about a Manhattan shrink that intrigues me. His prescription for female patients who are depressed or suffering from low self esteem is this:
Take one Italian Vacation and call me when you come home…if you come home!
Smart shrink! From my experience, the test results are in: Every woman I’ve ever met (me included) who takes an Italian vacation comes back rejuvenated, strengthened, and often cured of whatever had been plaguing her.
So what is the secret ingredient that Italy has to turn our lives around?
I delved into this question while writing 100 Places In Italy Every Woman Should Go, talking to over a hundred women about their Italian travel experience and remembering my own, that began in 1976. I kept asking: “Why do you love Italy?” Inevitably this answer came: “It feels like Home”.
I understand “It feels like home” coming from someone like me, an Italian-American, who grew up with grandparents, aunts, and uncles who emigrated from southern Italy. I fell in love with Italy at my grandparents’ dining room table in Newark, New Jersey: a loving, abundant, and delicious place. Ever since my first trip there, over 30 years ago, that beautiful childhood feeling from that New Jersey dining room table rushes back at me each time I touch down in Italy.
But what about all those women without a drop of Italian blood who answered, “It feels like home.”
Obviously, we’re talking “Home” in that beautiful sweeping sense—Home meaning “a place that understands us, a place that feeds our soul.”
We feel it as soon as we land in Italy: a deluge of sensual pleasures: We see masterpieces, gorgeous sunsets, fountains, gardens, we smell the ragu, taste the wine and gelato, hear church bells, the lilting Italian language. We feel the Mediterranean sun on our shoulders. It’s such an overload of sensual pleasures, we lose our minds and our hearts melt open.
And then Italy embraces us.
It’s this embrace, I believe, that leads to the answer to my question. Yes, Italy is probably one of the world’s most welcoming country to everyone, but it seems to be especially custom made to welcome women.
Why do Women Love Italy? Because Italy Loves Women.
Women are adored here, from baby principessas to nonnas. And who doesn’t adore being adored?
On the surface, the adoration comes from those handsome Italian men, who in the great tradition of Casanova, have mastered the art of flirting. But in Italy, the adoration of women goes even deeper than that. It’s rooted in this culture that’s worshipped women as divine beings ever since the earth was cooling.
Could this be the secret ingredient? Italy’s long tradition of female worship? You’re surrounded by it everywhere you turn. It comes on most strongly through two deities who reign supreme, side-by-side: Venus, that Vixen Goddess of Love and Beauty, and the Madonna, the Mother of Abundance and Compassion. We come face to face with these females in sculptures and paintings in museums, temples, and churches. Their essence floats in the Italian air, buoying us. Together, Venus and the Madonna embody the complete woman: The Venus side of us that’s the whimsical, adventurous beauty who revels in sensual pleasures and the Madonna side of us—the nurturing, compassionate soul whose generosity is boundless.
Stand back and take a look at an Italian woman striding down the via—she knows those divine Venus-Madonna sparks live inside her. For the rest of us, a trip to Italy fans those sparks. It reawakens us and takes us back to our true divine nature, to our souls. Effortlessly, it takes us home.
So you could spend years on a psychiatrist’s couch. Or, as that Manhattan shrink suggests, you could take a trip to Italy. I say, Go! Buy that ticket. Enjoy every moment. Revel in coming home.
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LOVE this, Susan. Thanks so much!
Remember to comment for your chance to win a copy of Susan’s book by Sunday at midnight!
84 Beans of Wisdom to “Book Giveaway: 100 Places in Italy Every Woman Should Go”
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Sorry to be a downer, I know that spending a couple of weeks in Italy can be rejuvenating and you can enjoy the slower pace of life. I liked it so much I moved here myself! But “Italy loves women” makes me have to comment. There is a huge movement going on in Italy right now (written up in the New York Times here http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/27/opinion/27volpato.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=italy%20women&st=cse and other sources) based off of the backlash to this documentary: http://www.ilcorpodelledonne.net/ which shows (you don’t have to understand Italian to understand the images) the image of the Italian woman as portrayed on TV and also in politics here in Italy.
It’s a great place for a vacation, but I struggle to imagine the possibility of raising a daughter here. The Venus/Madonna dichotomy is definitely in play, that is a very true part of the post. That means you’re rarely seen as anything else!
Italy *is* therapeutic! I definitely feel healthier there, not to mention more feminine and attractive
Brava Susan!
Valerie´s last blog ..Italian Reading List – Part II
What a beautiful book! I am also innamorato with Italia & get there as much as possible. It is a country that needs to be experienced firsthand! Once my friends go they always come back and say NOW I KNOW why you love it so ; )
Hm, You either love italy or you hate it!! I am struggling between the two right now!
Susan says exactly what I feel – I feel alive in Italy! I love the colours there, the beauty, the food and the wine. I love the people and how I feel when I’m in Italy. It doesn’t happen in other places when I travel, so Susan explains it well when she says: “… we lose our minds and our hearts melt open….And then Italy embraces us.” I’ve been learning Italian so that, when I return once again, I can communicate better and feel more absorbed, more embraced, into life while I’m there.
I’m booking my trip and buying this book!
This book is on my TBR for 2010. it would be the perfect christmas gift to win! I’ve been to Italy twice, my family is from Sicily. Reading the book will motivate me to get my vacations plans going again and help me choose where to visit next. pick me please! thank you, Diana
Diana´s last blog ..Santa sighting
I get the question ‘Why do I love Italy so much?’ all the time. It is a difficult question to answer because the feeling resonates in my soul though I’ve spent many a time trying. I wonder if it’s because people can see and hear the love I have for a country that I have no blood-related tie to and they want to know how they can capture that feeling too. I agree with the shrink, every woman needs to go to Italy at least once, I recommend it be by themselves the first time; you experience so much more traveling alone then with others.
Would love to read about the 100 places a women needs to visit in Italy, I’m intrigued.
Linda @ Ice Tea For Me´s last blog ..swine flu paranoia…
Sign me up! Not just for the book but for the trip. I am going to Italy next May with my husband and 17 year old daughter. It will be our first trip there. We are extremely excited!
Sounds like an interesting book! I’ve lived here for awhile now and I don’t think I could give a short answer to why I love it here or why sometimes living here drives me nuts! I guess time will tell…
I’d love to read the book! I love to travel!
I fell in love with Bella Italia 8 years ago! In fact year is still there!
Deb R´s last blog ..Faaaabulous Friday!
i would love to visit italy – and the book sounds so interesting
Oh this post makes me so sad! Living in Italy has always been a dream of mine! Maybe one day, after I have a family and they are all grown up, my husband and I will move there!
This book looks very interesting!
Sounds like a wonderful book… I wonder if there’s one for men!:)
Wow, just 100? This book looks fabulous. The ultimate goal for my husband and I is moving to Florence for good. Can’t wait!
Precisely. I have no Italian blood of which I am aware, yet when I stepped off the plane in Rome I felt as though I had come home. I loved Italy – every city and town I visited. I want badly to go back and see the places I missed the first time, and I know I will not want to come home.
Hi, I’m adding my two beans to enter the contest and let you know I sent you a Christmas card to your address in Italy. You can have P open it if you want, the picture on the card does not need any translation.
Haha, will let him know
On my first trip in 1963 I realized that the men all look like movie stars…what a delight for the eyes! But now after 46 years and double that number in trips to Italy, another realization has dawned upon me….all those women in all those paintings in all those glorious museums look just like me…OVERWEIGHT!
Did ever a man sing in the middle of Rom’s historycal city for you Summertime? Did ever a man pealed a fig for you, so the “hair” on it’s skin doesn’t tickle your toung? Did ever a man cooked dinners for you singing and dancing with you? … that’s Italy. It happened many many years ago and I’m sure I’ll be back some day again… The journey begun with 14 on the first tournee with my dancing group and than several visits for exhibitions, friends, “matrimogno’s” of friends… my own honeymoon and next year some art hopefully!
“Why do women love Italy?… because Italy loves women!”
I love this quote.
great reading.
The idea of this book is great! I’m from Italy and I never thought about all this love for women. But you might be right. You always need to look at things from different point of views. Moreover as I’m a travel consultant I will use it to give suggestions to my clients.
I can only dream of the day when I go to Italy for the first time. (And I believe dreams come true!) Can’t wait!
Debbie´s last blog ..Tis The Season
I plan on going with Debbie for the first time and cannot wait !
I am also Italian American and dream of visiting Italy someday. I enjoyed the interview.
Only two beans? Italy IS home for me. I regale everyone and sundry that I felt at home there the minute I got off that smoking plane–right down to the cellular level. I felt my DNA was called to this place. Really. I am Italian-American. 2nd gen. Mother’s side from near Naples. Fathers’s side from Santa Severina in Calabria. I love small-town Italy. I loved being a part of everyday life there. I stayed in a convent (for a short bit) and became horribly sick while there. The nuns called the doc–a pediatrician and a man in his 70′s–who walked up the 6 flights of stairs to my room. When I tried to pay him he refused–he said, “In Italy we believe everyone should have health care.” My 2 prescriptions cost 15 euro. I felt so loved. The polizia came to my rescue when the aforementioned convent gave me some financial trouble. None of them spoke English, but they would grab the nearest local to translate–even going down the street to a restaurant for the waiter who would passionately plead my case as though I was his nearest and dearest relative. My new landlady would always check on us to see if we needed anything, bringing us lovely things “just because.” Everyone would say “buon giorno” as they passed. A young waiter in my favorite restaurant told me I was beautiful (I’m in my 50′s!) and would give us extra large portions of tiramisu. Yum. A big ol’ tub o’ love. The art in every church of every size–large or intimately small–so accessible. It is timeless. I suppose in that sense we become part of that timelessness. Yes, women are loved in Italy. In America I feel transparent. In Italy I am part of a panoply of goddesses. I am valued. I have worth. Yes, more of that please. I am so in love. With Italy. Its embrace is unforgettable. I am so buying this book! Thank you so much for re-igniting my passion for home. I love this blog–you are awesome!
I absolutely agree with Susan that Italy is made for women! She hits the nail on the head here and in her book– the best guide to Italy I’ve ever read. It cuts straight to its heart and is full of great stories and great vacation ideas. It works as a guidebook, but is that rarest of all things too, a great read. Sit back and enjoy, and drink in the flavor of Italy.
Italy is the kind of place where, once you have been there, it becomes a part of you and beckons your return… I love Italy, and I imagine that someday I may live there… It beckons like a beacon!
I d like to read this book as I’m already impressed by the beauty of Italy and italians attitude to women. Italy is the nicest country for holidays and it really can make you happy.
Enjoy!
I am one of those without a drop of Italian blood (that I know of!) but my best friend always tells people that I was Italian in a previous life. I am forever going on about Italy, reminiscing of past experiences, longing to return. I’ve only been there three times, but can’t wait to be there again. There truly is something amazingly welcoming about that beautiful country. I went alone to Florence for three weeks in Oct 2006, after a year of family illness and death that had left me drained in every possible way, mentally, physically, emotionally, spiritually. I was rejevunated, recharged, refreshed, renewed after my time in Italy. That journey did me far more good than talking with a therapist (although I don’t mean to disparage therapy, it too can work wonders, just wasn’t quite for me.)
Anyway, love what you have written about Italy, and how women are drawn to it. You’ve really captured our yearning, head-over-heels love affair perfectly with your descriptions!
Anne´s last blog ..Gratitude Friday…nature’s scenery
What a great reflection on the place of women in society. In September I hope to be oil painting in Tuscany, if I can get college credit and tuition reimbursement. Italy – what an exciting possibility for expressing passion and creativity. Susan – you’ve whetted my apetitite even more that it was. Thank you for your words.
Thanks for visiting Denise!
Since spending my summer of 2008 in Tuscany, not one single day has gone by that I do not daydream, remember, reminisce and especially scheme of ways that I can go back there to live. Two years later I still get emotional when I share my experiences or look at my pictures of places visited. I truly feel as if I have left part of my heart in Italy. The part that longs for a simple and geniune life full of homespun friendships and sharing family meals and, of course, the family wine. The innocence and warmth of the local carnivals with the traditional dances and old-fashioned games. Susan, your words have resonated with me as I continue to search and analyze why the heck I am so in love with Italy! Thank you!
Thanks for commenting, Susina!