Where the Cypress Rises [Paperback]

Virginia Ryan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: 2000

Australian-born artist Virginia Ryan and her family came to regret the impulsive decision to purchase an abandoned olive mill in the hill-town of Trevi, Umbria, as they lived through the massive reconstruction of the building. In this intriguing personal memoir, she shares with great candour their experiences adapting to the customs and local traditions, making friendships with the townsfolk, and exploring the region - and herself. When huge earthquakes strike northern Italy, not only the roof of the basilica of St Francis in Assisi is fractured and collapses, but so do the lives and homes of the people Virginia has come to care for.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

VIRGINIA RYAN is an Australian artist who, since 1981, has worked in Italy, Egypt, Brazil, Yugoslavia and Scotland. She and her family now live in Trevi, Umbria, and she exhibits frequently in Italy and abroad. She is a registered member of the British Association of Art Therapists.

Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Lothian Books (2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0734401353
• ISBN-13: 978-0734401359
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,592,206 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Touching Umbrian Landscape, June 24, 2001

By 

"stefanicara" (Italy) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Where the Cypress Rises (Paperback)

The book reveals an intelligent and sensitive artist, who succeded, with a special talent, in matching, touchingly, life experience and inner feelings with Umbrian picturesque landscape, so calm and exciting, ancient and peasant. Her pages shed light on what can happen to a wanderer( the specially gifted female protagonist), going abroad and meeting what life arranges for her family and herself. This book informs our hearts about it and makes us to reread landscapes we suppose to know perfectly.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Paradoxes and pleasures, August 13, 2001

By 

Barbara C. (Sydney) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Where the Cypress Rises (Paperback)

It would be a mistake to place this book in the same category as that overworked genre - the foreigner who buys and does up a house in Italy or France. Virginia Ryan is married to an Italian, has represented Italy abroad as a diplomatic wife, has 2 Italian-Australian children. Her committment to the country, its history, customs and people show through on every page of this book. This is a year of her life that happens to be set in the hilltown of Trevi, Umbria as she sets out to make a new home and new friends, to begin to practice as an artist again, to help her children with yet another adaptation. She has an easy writing style; you feel you can trust her observations as she also admits her own shortcomings in settling into her new surroundings.

There's a lot of fun and joy of life in this book. And she KNOWS Italy and Italians, writing from within the culture, not about it.

Highly recommended for anyone who wants to dip deeper into the life and spirit of contemporary Italy, with all its paradoxes and pleasures.

5.0 out of 5 stars Where the Cypress Rises, July 23, 2001

By 

Rosa (Scotland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Where the Cypress Rises (Paperback)

This is an unusually perceptive and open first-hand account of an artist and her family's move to Umbria. Unsentimental descriptions of their everyday joys and frustrations are counter-pointed by the dramatic upheaval of major earthquakes. Ryan articulates connections between the natural and built environments and the adventure of the self; between ancient traditions and contemporary creativity. I found it highly engaging - a page-turner. I'll return to it.