"A Year In The World"

A Year In The World by Frances Mayes

This is a very well written travel book, one of the best I've read. It's a little different in that the author has taken her experiences from various trips to different places over several years and strung them together to produce a narrative describing a year's worth of travel. Usually I want a book to let me stay in one place longer than this one does, but the writing is so good it's impossible not to love it.

Mayes totally immerses herself in the places she visits and the reader reaps the happy results. Her travel stories can make you feel you've been there yourself. She must do a lot of research or maybe she just knows a ridiculous amount about everything, because the book is full of information on the history, politics, culture, art, and literature of every destination. She talks with ease about their poets, novelists,  musicians, and artists. And she is remarkably observant, noticing and sharing small details of local people, buildings, food, flowers, and landscapes that make each place and person come alive.

Frances Mayes will remind you how fascinating the world is if you've forgotten. I confess to being more than a little envious. To travel the world staying in the smaller cities and towns must be such a rich experience. The Londons and Romes and Barcelonas of the world have their attractions, but to stay in places where you see how the everyday people of a place live - how they spend their mornings, afternoons and evenings, how they work and socialize and interact with each other - must be incredibly satisfying. 

It's apparent from the first page that this is an intelligent, educated author. I admit I found her vocabulary a little intimidating, but I kept the dictionary handy for words like obsidian, anneal, quotidian, dithyrambic (which even Microsoft Word didn't recognize), marmoreal, peripatetic, sybaritic and aphoristic. I tend to read too quickly most of time, but not with this book. Mayes' erudite writing forced me to slow down to get maximum enjoyment from the reading. I loved it from the first word to the last. 

The chapters I enjoyed most were on Italy, France, Greece, Scotland and England, not necessarily in that order. I also enjoyed, but am less intrigued by, Portugal, Fez and Turkey. I was absolutely smitten with Capri. It sounds like a dream.   

There are some nice maps printed on the insides of the covers. I spend an inordinate amout of time reading maps, looking up settings from books or places in the news, needing to know where they fit into the world, what countries or oceans border them. I get a bit obessive aboout it, but I need to know. Having maps in this book gave me the opportunity to see where the authour was taking me and I referred to them often.

Another thing I like about Mayes' travel stories is that she and her husband do a lot of their exploring on foot. I've long been convinced you can't really experience a place until you've walked it. Driving through a town you get a general impression, but when you walk it you get the details - the textures, sounds and smells that make it real. That intense sense of place is something she is able to share with her readers and it's very satisfying.

At times the author is critical of other tourists, and I understand that when you travel you don't want to find yourself always surrounded by your own countrymen. Of course you go to experience other cultures and people, but it does seem a bit smug to hold yourself superior to "other" tourists, even if you are more knowledgable about the place. You may appreciate different things or have a different travel "style", but live and let live I say. Travel and let travel.  

It's a great book, one I recommend to anyone with a passion for travel, even of the armchair variety.