An Italian Journey: A Harvest of Revelations in the Olive Groves of Tuscany: A Pretty Girl, Seven Tuscan Farmers, and a Roberto Rossellini Film: Bella Scoperta (Italian Journeys Book 1)

The author provides lots of introspection about his experiences with the people he meets during his time in Italy and how those interactions have changed his life.

The book is an excellent read and I recommend it to anyone who wants to read about one person's love of Italy and its people. Mr. Shaw comes across as a genuine human being who gives the reader an honest account of his amazing 7 week adventure in Tuscany. Clearly, it took a lot of courage for someone residing in America with his family to prepare for and actually travel through Tuscany alone by bike, with "grace" and his GPS as his only guide. However, the most important aspect of this book is not the factual account of his story or his personal insight as to what he loves about Italy and the Italian people. The most important part, in my opinion, is the fact that Mr. Shaw, in the last part of his book, has even more courage to express his opinion about what he believes lies at the foundation of the spiritual beauty of Italy and the Italian culture. It should come as no surprise to the reader, who has significant experience with the Italian culture, as to the material in which this foundation was made and has been maintained for centuries. Several shortsighted reviewers of Mr. Shaw's book ignore the last part of the book or are put-off by Mr. Shaw's opinions therein. Really? Read the whole book with an open eye and discover the self-evident truth about the Italians. If you don't believe it, that's alright; you're entitled to your own opinion, but don't criticize his book because you simply disagree without any semblance of thoughtful examination or you lack the ability to even consider someone else's opinions. Travel to Italy and really live (not in a hotel room) with its people for an extended period of time. Although Italy has its share of big problems like practically every other place in this world, the Italian people (in general and for the most part), are spiritually remarkable and they live according to that Spirit. That Spirit is reflected in Mr. Shaw's book and is everwhere in Italy if you only have the courage to truly examine what you see there. That Spirit was also evident in the late 1800s and early to mid 1900s when millions of honest, skilled and hard working Italian immigrants came to America and helped build America into a great nation. La dolce vita!

Rather than rock stars and movie stars, the objects of my adoration are public broadcasting’s Rick Steves and Joseph Rosendo and others of their ilk, people who chronicle their worldwide travels for listeners and viewers. Such public information shows are godsends to people like me who, due to restrictions on their health, are unable to travel to far-off places. One of the charms of these short travel documentaries is that they make of their hosts ‘temporary locals,’ to borrow a phrase from Steves, by having them hobnob with local people and indulge in cultural activities distinct not only to the major destinations, but also to cozy villages and other hidden-away corners of the world. This philosophy of becoming a ‘temporary local’ is the chief appeal of author James Ernest Shaw’s delightful book entitled An Italian Journey. Adding to its appeal is that it is a book of non-fiction that reads like an intriguing novel.I didn’t make it to Italy before I developed a chronic illness that up to this point in my life limits me to domestic travels. Immersing myself for a time in Tuscany was one of my fondest dreams…and now I have realized that dream, although vicariously, through James Ernest Shaw and his adventures journaled in his brilliant An Italian Journey. Like a gladiator on two wheels, for seven glorious weeks in Tuscany he bicycled sizzling as well as foggy mountainous hairpins and held his ground against speeding trucks and leisurely foot-peddlers. He climbed trees older than the modern world and picked olives, built stone walls, sat at table and ate pasta and drank wine, talked politics and religion and farming with real people of the area, and through the experience was transformed. And I think he found the key to why Italy and Italians are special among all the people of the world.Shaw had inspired me to find my own way to Italy, somehow, and more importantly, to begin anew a journey I began and abandoned many decades ago, and that is to become a Roman Catholic. Thank you, James Ernest Shaw. –Author and artist Linda Lee Greene

This is an amazing story of one man's journey to Italy to find out why he was so attracted to Italian people. I am a decendent of two Italian families who James so brilliantly understands. In St.Louis, where I grew up, is an ethnic Italian area famously and lovingly known as The Hill. On The Hill is unique community of families connected to St. Ambrose Catholic Church. The parish is committed to preserving the very attributes that the early Italian Immigrants brought to this part of America in the early 1900's. James would be overwhelmed if he visited The Hill today. My parents and all the Italians still residing in this most blessed community are continue to share their lives in such unselfish, caring ways especially the talented Italuan chefs who own many restaurants, the corner bakeries, pubs, other merchants, clubs of every kind, a Catholic school and an outstanding Catholic Day Care Center supporting the young working parents. The neighbors look out for each other, they value their modest homes and beautiful manicured lawns and gardens. There is a Bocce Club that many go to for socializing. All this and more because of what James call their commitment to hospitality and their love of cooking for others and serving their church. Ciao is their mantra....what can I do to serve you. James perceived the essence of what makes an Italian, an Italian. Travel through Italy and go eat with the families and farmers and mingle with the locals. Learn to appreciate the little miracles of life through the eyes of these most grateful stewards.

I enjoyed reading about James's adventures in the olive groves of Italy, I particularly liked his description of his experiences on the farms he visited and the people he worked with. I liked his depictions of all the people he met along the way, I think he has a real talent for imparting what he sees, I felt I knew all the people he met along the way. I would love to know what happened to Aurora and Pietro, I hope James gets to go back and help Aurora on her new farm. I held back from giving this a five star which it very nearly deserved purely because it lost me towards the end with James's own personal experience of religion which is a theme throughout the book, one I enjoyed but a chapter or so devoted to it was too much for me. I hope James is going to go to Tuscany again and update us on how these olive farms are faring in today's volatile markets.

I'm a cyclist....I'm the same age as James Shaw.....I felt as if I was there with him. I spent some time in Tuscany between 1965 and 1968. Visited and dined several times with a farming family (i contadini) in the hills close to Arezzo. Tuscany and it's people seem to burn a mark into your soul. I never forgot those times and I returned this year after 45 years. That farmhouse now belongs to an English family and has been turned into a holiday home but in essence is still as I remember it. So reading this book brought so many memories back to me and just when I thought the book couldn't get any better, James goes into depth to explain to me why the Italians are the way they are, and why Italy, and Tuscany in particular, are so different to us. This is a question I have mulled over so much in the past years and I think James has at last 'nailed' it for me. Once you have experienced the place, you want to live the way they do. Read this book and find out why. Well done James and Thanks.

Yes the author definitely captured the feel of Italy and the Italians which I thoroughly enjoyed but it got to a point about 3/4 of the way through that I just wanted it to end and I have to say I did skip quite a bit of the last section because it was the authors take on religion which I couldn't deal with and it was like walking through treacle. Glad I got this as a free kindle book sometime ago and didn't pay good money for it!!!

I only finished reading this because I was in Italy at the time and running short of reading matter in English. I found two aspects of the book particularly concerning. First, the arrogant assumption that seven weeks in one region of Italy made the author an expert on the Italian psyche. It is as though I had spent the same amount of time in his Wisconsin and claimed to understand the United States and Americans. Italy is not just Tuscany - it is Milan, Bologna, Rome, Sicily, the Gargano Peninsula... All vastly different.Secondly, the persistent 'born again Christian' viewpoint was very irritating. I'm not sure the author is aware of how offensive this can be to some of us.

The book was very interesting and and the descriptions vivid. One could visualise Italian countryside. The insight into farming subsidies and the globalisation of farming again were interesting. However, I found the book too religious with the frequent references to God and the authors personal beliefs. This made sections very hard work for me to read. As religion is such a substantial park of the narrative it should be stated on the sleeve/back of the book.