Extra Virgin: A Young Woman Discovers the Italian Riviera, Where Every Month Is Enchanted

• Paperback - 02 April, 2002 - Harper Paperbacks
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• By: Annie Hawes
• ISBN: 0060958111

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About this book

Fed up with cold, foggy London and the high cost of real estate, Annie Hawes is persuaded by her sister Lucy to travel to Italy and graft roses for the winter. The sisters arrive in rural Liguria with some formal Italian, no knowledge of rose grafting, and visions of Mediterranean men and sun. What they find is a town full of hard-working, wary olive growers smack in the middle of an olive oil depression who think these two young Englishwomen are nuts. Extra Virgin tells the story of the sisters' acclimation--theirs to Liguria and Liguria to them--and how they fell in love with a crumbling farmhouse in the hills.

Annie quickly finds that though they are only two miles from the Italian Riviera, it might as well be a hundred. Liguria is an old town full of time-honored peculiarities, especially in regard to espresso consumption (never, ever, after lunch; it will close your stomach) and swimming before summertime officially starts. "Seawater at the wrong time of year is even worse for your health than coffee at the wrong time of day, and the beach is only deserted because, as far as the citizens are concerned, if you put so much as a toe into the water before June you are certain to die within the week from exposure or pneumonia or both," says Hawes. Eventually, the sisters are accepted by the townsfolk, though they find the idea of the women buying the farmhouse and running it themselves (there are 50 olive trees on the land) fantastical.

Extra Virgin draws you in to the heart of Liguria and its inhabitants. Hawes has a knack for drawing characters and especially for describing the luscious meals that they are served--and eventually learn to cook. "Lucy and I are kindly allowed to make the tomato-and-basil salad," Hawes says, "and do our best not to be offended by being complemented on how like a proper tomato-and-basil salad it is." Pour yourself an espresso (as long as it's before lunch) or a grappa (aids the digestion), and then sit down to enjoy Extra Virgin. --Dana Van Nest

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Reviews by readers

Much more than a travel memoir

I stumbled across Extra Virgin 3 years ago. I have now bought at least 9 copies and given away 8 as well as recommending it to all and sundry. And sent away to the UK for the sequel.

Ms. Hawes pulls up the timeless Italy that has - and probably will - outlast all change and fads and fashion. My parents spent their early married years stationed on the other coast of Italy, yet when my mother read Extra Virgin, she said she laughed to the point of tears, because it brought back so many memories - right down to Ms. Hawes' dissertation on the various methods of tying a hankie into a headcovering.

But, most importantly, she also avoids the standard "aren't the peasants so quaint" mode - the book is much more about discovering how much smarter those peasant ways are than breakneck modern city life, tasteless tomatoes and rushed meals.

Anyone who can read this and NOT have at least one fantasy about living in an old stone house 2 kilometers along the mule track just past the third hairpin bend - well, they have no adventure, no romance, no idealism in their soul.

My favourite expat memoir

It's difficult to stand out in such a crowded milieu, that of the British expat finding paradise in a foreign land and writing a book about it. This book is head and shoulders above the rest of the crowd. Annie Hawes is at the same time self-deprecating, respectful and most of all insightful. The descriptions of the food are mouthwatering, and the characters and anecdotes both funny and moving.

Good read with a bit of a twist on a familiar story

I have read a whole slew of books on living in northern Italy. I have enjoyed them all (well, all except for A Summer in Tuscany by Sandra Swanson). This one is a bit different from the rest, and not for a single reason or two. First off, the book is based on the Riviera, not in Tuscany. Second, it starts with a story of how they are working in Italy for a season, but then becomes a story of living there. Third, there is a more complex attitude toward Italy revealed here by the writer, not a blind love, not cynicism, but a realistic combination of those approaches, and one that I think changes slightly over the course of the book. Fourth, a single woman living with her sister seems to lead to different experiences and therefore make the book a bit different from the others about couples. The authors have some opportunities to interact with the locals but are also given a bit wider berth as might be the case with bringing a single person to a party consisting entirely of married couples. Either because of or in spite of these differences the book succeeds. It was a much slower read than the other were, but also very enjoyable. I recommend it, though the ending does seems a bit rushed and compressed.

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