Customer Reviews

Botticelli Blue Skies: An American in Florence

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

As some of the other reviewers mentioned, there's a lot of complaining at the beginning of this book. This almost put me off, but I was intrigued (perversely, I guess) by someone who did not consider a chance to spend a semester in Florence to be something to jump at. What was the matter with this woman?

When her husband tells her the university they both teach at is sending him to Florence for a semester to conduct a class, she just doesn't want to go. By being a reluctant traveler, Gerber is able to show how Florence managed to captivate her in spite of herself. Rather than going to Italy as an already-intoxicated tourist, she resists at first, but it is Florence, after all, and even she comes to love it. I found this an excellent antidote to the gushing let's-move-to-Italy (or France) travelogs.

And she isn't just taken with the usual Florentine charms of museums, churches, wine, and food. She discovers the thrift shops and grocery stores that most tourists would miss entirely. As a temporary resident, she has to deal with the landlady and the staff at the local Chinese restaurant.

I almost gave up on this one, but am very glad I kept going, and suspect that is what Gerber intended all along.

I'm sorry. I tried, but by the 7th chapter, I got so tired of the whining that I quit. Not only does she need to get out of her comfortable little life more often, but she needs to be more appreciative of the opportunities given to her.

A pretty pedestrian memoir by a woman who seems like she would be a very annoying travel companion. She's tired, she's hungry, she's unhappy, she's stressed. There must be better books about traveling to Florence than this.

Merrill Joan Gerber's book about Florence is less about Florence than it is about life itself -- and because it is about life, it sheds light all over Florence itself. Here is an honest woman experiencing a foreign country, missing her home and mother, and recording with candor what she sees, feels, and hears. Instead of glorifying another culture, we are invited to see her heart -- and her love for her husband. A welcome read for those who travel for reasons other than Wanderlust.

When Merrill Joan Gerber's husband is offered a semester's teaching in Florence, together with his full salary and a rent-free apartment -- she doesn't want to go. She agrees, but she doesn't like it and she doesn't want to like it.

The idea of the reluctant tourist is an interesting one, and I suppose I could be glad she tried it. But she comes across as being so negative and so abrasive that the humor gets lost, as does the reader's patience. She looks at the Forum in Rome and pronounces it a pit full of rubbish. She walks out of St. Peter's (her feet hurt, or something like that) and ends up missing an appearance by the Pope, which is probably a metaphor for her whole Italian experience: she's so busy fretting about buses and stairs and the things that inconvenience her that she misses out on just about everything. She's not impressed by the artwork that makes Florence famous (the rooms are too dark; she can't see; her feet hurt; there are too many stairs) although she does appropriate a papier-mache set of genitalia someone has attached to a wall. She refuses to even try to learn Italian; she takes pictures in places where photographs are prohibited. I don't know what she's like in person, but in this book she comes across as the sort of American other U.S. tourists don't want to be associated with. At the end, she expresses a pang about leaving Florence, but it's too little too late.

Having read the previous reviews on this book, it appears that it's sort of a "love it or hate it" proposition. I guess I'm weighing in on the "love it" side, and here's why.

Most people who read travel books love to travel. Therefore, when we travel-lovers read a travel book by someone who doesn't really like to travel, we get annoyed. I can see that reaction from some of the reviewers (e.g., "what's wrong with this woman?"). And yet, there ARE some people who don't enjoy travel for travel's sake. They like their creature comforts, their familiar surroundings, their loved ones close by. They don't like the frenetic rush-rush pace of travel, the disorienting feeling of being in a strange place with strange customs and a strange language, where the simplest transaction can be confusing and exhausting. This author was, I think, this type of person. And what's wrong with that? And what's wrong with someone like this writing a travel book? Her experiences and her opinions are just as valid as those of someone who throws themselves into a foreign culture with gusto and inexhaustible energy.

To me, the author was not so much complaining ("poor me"), as she was honest and forthright about her difficulties in adjusting to a foreign culture. Once we understand that, we can approach the book with different expectations. Why should we expect a middle-aged woman with a career and family obligations to learn a foreign language when she is only going to be in a country for three months? Why should we expect her to necessarily be enthusiastic about leaving her career and her caregiving responsibilities for her dying mother to spend three months in Florence? Why should we expect her to put on a happy face at all times? Why not accept that travelling in and adapting to a foreign culture can be a difficult proposition for anyone?

What I liked best about this book, I think, was the honesty of the author. She didn't gloss over the day-to-day trials of living in another country. And yet, all in all, I had the sense that if she had it to do over again, she would go back to Florence in a heartbeat. This tone of this book was NOT primarily negative and whining, in my opinion. That she didn't portray her life as all rosy and wonderful is a testament, I think, to the frankness of the author -- and I would rather read a book like this than one where all is sweetness and light, and where the author treats every problem as an opportunity for comic relief.

When the author's husband is offered an opportunity to teach for a semester in Italy, she doesn't know at first if she wants to join him. It would mean leaving her sick mother, her friends and her familiar, comfortable life in California. She eventually decides to go, of course, and the result is this wonderful book. I see that other reviewers have accused the author of being "whiny". Did she comment on the things that puzzled her about life in Florence? And were some of these things not to her liking? Sure. For example, she was not particularly interested in viewing the museums and churches that Florence is famous for. But there was just as much that she found charming about the City. She found the people (both men and women)to be beautiful. She noted that lovers could be found everywhere and that romance thrived. She shared friendships. She sampled and enjoyed the food and wine.

The thing I enjoyed the most about this book was the opportunity to tag along with the author on her daily jaunts. Rather than take the standard package tours, she opted instead for the luxury of traveling and exploring at her own pace. As a result, we are given an opportunity to experience the little, everyday things that make up life in a city - from a trip to the grocery store, to riding a bus, to finding an address in a city where street numbers are not necessarily sequential. We also get to escape with her on occasion to travel to the countryside. My favorite photograph in the book is one she took as she and her husband walked down a quiet road. It shows a nun, dressed all in white, standing in the shadows of the woods - looking like an apparition.

The fact that she is not a seasoned traveler is what makes this book stand out. Her experiences are fresh, and her reactions - whether you consider them whiny or otherwise - are always honest and human.

Merrill Joan Gerber has a wonderful talent for using humor and details to bring her story to life. I loved sharing her adventures and discoveries. Reading her book was like being back in Italy again. I looked forward to each new chapter, wondering where she would take me next. Some places were already familiar to me, and some were new and unexpected. It's her personal story, and she told it well.

I am finishing Mrs. Gerber's Botticelli Blue Skies and
have found it a joy to read. I've never been to Italy or at
the moment plan on going.

I found the booklighthearted and humorous yet serious
enough to feel I'm learning things I didn't know. The
very reasons I love to read.

A joyous read. Like the sound of the Italian language itself, this book has a gentle, endearing sound of its own. Author Gerber accompanies her husband a teacher, and a group of his students on an extended stay in Florence. Reluctant to go at first, recounting anxieties about traveling to a foreign country, she gradually accepts the frustrations, mishaps, and exhaustion (and does so with humor and laughter at her own foibles) -- that naturally accompany the pleasures and surprises of travel. Gerber is honest and genuine. She writes in first person and present tense, directly bringing us along with her on her many 'journeys', discovering not only the people, language, art, history, music. . . of Italy, but the self-discovery of how she comes to enjoy all aspects of travel, and the feeling of pride at the triumph in managing to deal with every day life far from home. (And this happens at an age that is not young and full of go-go-go energyÐ which I surely related to.) I greatly enjoyed the read, meeting the author, her husband, and all the individuals and places that she brings to life to me along the way.