Songbirds, Truffles, and Wolves: An American Naturalist in Italy

by Gary Paul Nabhan

Release Date: December, 1994

Edition: Paperback

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Loved all but the ending

Mr Nabhan took us on an extrardinary journey through St Francis county. Entertaining and educating on each page. Then the big let down in the epilogue, as he rejects everything St Francis stood for. St Francis loved nature and the animals, but only because they are God's creation. St Francis's every moment was spent glorifing God. He loved all animals as an extension of his love for Jesus, nothing more, nothing less. Mr Nabhan totally misread St Francis.

HUMAN DISCOVERIES

If, one week ago, someone told me that I'd be reading & loving a book subtitled "An American Naturalist in Italy," I'd have laughed.

This is a witty and charming book (a very quick read) which will get to you even if you are NOT a naturalist---even if, like I, you hardly know what a naturalist is or does!

Nabhan, with a friend, hiked through the Tuscan and Umbrian countryside, interviewing natives and chronicling his discoveries and stories: an old farmer shares wine and his knowledge of how to find truffles simply because Nabhan was walking to Assisi and the farmer was named after Saint Francis; an elderly couple waltzes in a town square and becomes, in Nabhan's words, "the dance, itself;" another man explains to the author why grapes need to be trellised & how beautiful they are when alternated with maples; a woman explains how a she-wolf was tamed and fed by town residents. The tales are all about the land and the people who have lived there for centuries. And they are all fascinating.....simple, true stories that will help one believe, again, in the human race.

This book is a perfect companion to that other fine book of Italian (i.e. human) discovery: "Under The Tuscan Sun" by Frances Mayes.