Tim ParksItalian Ways: On and Off the Rails from Milan to Palermo

I am not even finished reading Parks' book about seeing and experiencing Italy by train: I confess though, about 75% completed. This is one of those "I could not put it down" titles---something I would rarely venture to say about a work of non-fiction. Many times I was wiping the tears of laughter from my eyes . My non-Italian partner would look at me as though I had finally cracked up and 'gone over to the other side.' Perhaps because I am a second generation Italian American who was fortunate to have older family members around when I was younger, those born/raised in Italy, some as early as 1878, and being raised in a now long gone "Little Italy' in Chicago, this book had me howling with laughter, understanding and repeatedly saying, "si, si, e vero!" (yes, yes, all true!) Having been to Italy to see relatives several times over 40 years, Parks captures the essence of Italianismo---which can occasionally drive Americans, Brits and Germans 'pazzo' (nuts).The Brits, have had a love affair with sunny and warm Italy from the 19th century Romantic poets on forward. However, they are always "English" no matter how long they reside in Italy, no matter how fluently they speak textbook Italian, minus regional dialect. The Italians are not precise Anglo-Saxons. This Parks understands and respects, even though as a resident foreigner who teaches in University, his Anglo-Saxon frustration with Italian 'bella figura' of putting on a proper appearance, a 'good face' even under the most obscure and negative circumstances, is vital to understanding Italian culture and the importance of 'respect'.His descriptions of the evolution of train travel, far from being tedious or boring, is fascinating at times as well as comically hysterical. I suppose because I understand elementary Italian, I found myself laughing to tears at the folly and non sequiturs of Italian laws and "regulations" regarding train tickets and travel. Nevertheless one does not need to know Italian at all to appreciate this good 'outsider/insider' non-Italian analysis of the train system as it reflects Italian society: maddeningly slow and illogical at times, yet superbly sleek, modern and fast. From a fat, mortadella reeking passenger chomping into a huge sandwich and who belches and loves to hear himself complain theatrically about how 'miserable' the train station personnel made his life, to young Italian college students who enjoy the 'Gotcha!" moment at which the Brit outfoxes the imperious and self-important train conductor, this perspective of Italy from trains is a welcome departure from the usual geographic reveries about the joys and frustrations of Italian life: from business-centered high fashion Milano to the sing-song patter of Palermo merchants in Sicily, I give Parks' creative approach to Italy five thumbs up and a resounding "Bravissimo!"

After finishing Tim Park's Italian Ways I'm eager to both visit Italy and travel by train again. The book is a travelogue of sorts, cataloging the different experiences he's had living in Italy and utilizing their complicated train system to travel around the country. He discusses topics ranging from the types of trains and their histories, as well as various passengers, mix-ups, stations, and differences between standard trains and high-speed ones. His narrative intermixes anecdotes, historical research, and general musings.It took my quite a long time to read this book- it's a bit hard to read in huge chunks. Sections of the book are interesting, while the rest are just on the cusp of being so; Parks has a pleasant narrative voice that sometimes soothed me straight to sleep. The quality of the text and the style were consistent throughout, and the movement of the story in terms of geographical locations made sense.The experience of reading the books was much like a train ride; I often wanted it to be over, but there was also something romantic and nostalgic present that I couldn't shake. There's no wild twists and turns- it's a steady ride.Do I recommend this? It's definitely not for the average reader; if you have a particular interest in Italy or trains you will probably enjoy this, but be warned, you may be rolling through it for awhile (bada-da-da!)

The above line sums it up. This is a carefully written book, but after fifty or so pages, this reader was lost ( or felt like lost) in the complex world of Italian trains. A nice read, if you can obtain it from the local library, but the author tells more about the Italian rail system than one really wants to know.

How do others see us? What makes that question so interesting? Perhaps it's the fact that strangers are willing to take an objective look at the character flaws we tend to ignore on the theory that it's best to let well enough alone. When the stains build up to the point where it's time to take our national persona to the cleaner, along comes a book that does just that. Francesco Liberti's "An Italian in America (2001) did just that in a friendly, tongue in cheek way. Now Tim Parks, an Englishman who has lived the last 30 years of his life in Italy, has done much the same for that country. Call it a travel book, cultural anthropology, or memoir -- it's more than a little of each - "Italian Ways Off and On the Rails from Milan to Palermo" belongs on every first time traveler's to Italy reading list, particularly if the trip involves train travel. As one whose Italian travel came before "Italian Ways" was published, reading it, I often wished that I had had the benefit of it as we tried to find the right platform for the 4:10 to Verona, and similar puzzles in other stations.Parks, who has written other accounts of Italian ways, knows the country and its people as well as anyone from away could hope to. He brings all his experience to bear in this pleasantly readable, highly knowledgeable book. Structured as a before and after account, dealing both with the pre-modern train travel that endeared Parks to rail travel, and then the streamlined, far less personal, assigned seat version that replaced (most of) it beginning in the late 2000's, that found him wishing for the old days.The account is generously sprinkled with the ups and downs of his experiences on Trenitalia. He does not hesitate to tell stories on himself including "my last and greatest bust-up with a "capotreno" (conductor/ticket checker/ ultimate authority). As you might guess, it involved the fine print that pulled the rug out from under the validity of his internet-issued ticket. The outcome convinced him that such arguments weren't worth it. He explains: "this whole culture of ambiguous rules, then heated argument about them without any clear-cut result, seems to serve to draw you into a mind-set of vendetta and resentment that saps energy from every other area of life."Parks' epilogue sets forth his affectionate ode to Treinitalia and all the men and women who serve it and offers a bouquet to "any passenger with a book in his hand, any man or woman following the lines on a page, perhaps these very lines, as the wheels follow the rails across the landscape, hurrying forward through the world yet not quite part of it. What a beautiful respite a train journey is and a good book too, and best of all the book on the train, in life and out of it at the same time . . ."Epilogue. "Italian Ways" is very much in the tradition of "Village in the Vaucluse", the book by Harvard professor Laurence Wylie who took his wife and two small children to live in the small Provencal village of Roussillon (which he calls Peyrane) in 1950. The book about their experiences is haunting, sympathetic, and revelatory of a way of life that is all but gone, if not completely so. We owe Parks for making sure that there is a similarly fine and richly detailed account of an aspect of Italian life that now exists only at the edges.

This is a good journey of discovery on how the Italian rail system operates but also how Italian society operates. This is a good book for any English speaker wishing to stay a little while longer here in Italy.

The author exemplifies the history and way of life in Italy through his experiences made by travelling frequently by train. He mixes travel notes and astute and detailed observations with excursions into history and politics which make a capativating reading.

Eines der amüsantesten Bücher, das ich je - auf meinem Kindle, in der U-Bahn - gelesen habe.Abgesehen von der oft ironisch bis satirischen Perspektive des engl. Autors auf die italienische Mentalität...erfährt man auch echt viel über die italienische Eisenbahn....ihre "Begründung" durch Garibaldi bis zu ihrenheutigen Defiziten (vor allem den finanziellen).DB-Fahrer könnten wundervoll Vergleiche anstellen....Einfach ein schönes Buch!

Parks extrapolates cultural values from his train travel experiences. Having lived in Italy for 30 years, he writes with affectionate criticism. Parks is open about his own eccentricities. My only complaint is that while he often wrote about taking photographs, there were none in my edition. A very enjoyable summer read - for any season, in fact.

Apart from a rather silly typo at the start of the book which states that Parks travels from Verona to Milan via Genova Piazza Princpe, this is a delightful book and should arm anyone planning a trip in Italy using the trains. It will also provoke wry grins from those of us who are seasoned in the use of Trenitalia. As Parks explains the train system in Italy mirrors the Country itself: charming but also maddeningly bureaucratic and cussed in a way that drives those not familiar with it to distraction. You have to have you wits about you and be on your guard (and for heaven's sake make sure you stamp your ticket in the yellow box before you board the train) but at the same time the railway allows you to travel all over this wonderful country at a very reasonable (highly subsidised) cost: something that struck me as amazing on the first of my travels after putting up with the rip off fares in Britain. It also allows you to meet some wonderful people and this is something Parks also mention. Inter regional trains in Italy are made up of compartments of 6 seats and you can always bank on meeting some characters on the journey. Sure you can remain aloof if you don't want to talk but for me this is always part of the fun. Parks also describes the unique bustling atmosphere of Italian main train stations. Unlike the UK, they always give a sense of excitement of the journey for the journey ahead. You only have to go to Milan Cenrale or Roma Termini to get this vibe.This is a book that has me looking forward to further journeys in the year ahead and has given me even more insight into that which I already have. It also has some lovely observations, especially about the deep south of Italy which is shamefully abandoned and an area which I have yet to visit. All in all then this book ranks alongside Italian Neighbours, Italian Education and A Season with Verona as an insiders commentary from a man who has lived in the Country for 30 odd years and raised an Italian family there. It is a great read.