This is a delightful tale of time spent in place and time near but far away from the stilish and popular Cotta Azura. I know this area well from time spent rebuilding the Italian Steel Industry in Cornigliano under the Marshall Plan. The author has a keen eye and ear for detail.

On a wet, cold, typically gloomy day in England in 1983, Annie Hawes (broke and out of work) and her sister Lucy (bored and lusting for adventure) decide that enough is enough. Clutching a job description offering ten weeks work grafting roses on the Italian Riviera, room and board included, Lucy assures Annie that they can lie their way into the job and fake their way through it. Off they go to San Pietro, Liguria, quaint, sun-kissed village on the Mediterranean to live among the hankie-heads (men's knotted at the corners, women's tied at the nape of the neck). Although the sky and sea are blue and beautiful, the hoped-for handsome, tanned young men and wild night life of the Riviera are non-existent. It seems that their village is undiscovered by tourists, and the inhabitants have very strict ideas about proper behavior for young women and the correct way to do just about everything--"Never drink cappuccino after twelve noon. Italian is only spoken by policemen and tax collectors. Women do not speak to men in a bar, even if they are close friends. Swimming in the ocean before July will make you ill--no matter how hot it is."

Unexpectedly, Annie and Lucy fall in love with the little town and all its peculiar, lovable inhabitants. They even find a delerict old farmhouse on a lovely hillside overlooking the ocean--a real fixer-upper with no toilet or running water. They could buy it for a couple of thousand dollars, but they have no permanent job or savings. How they manage to make a home for themselves in San Pietro is a delightful tale, full of laughter, local color, and amazing information about olive trees. And in case you are so enchanted that you think perhaps you will just move there yourself, the last chapter is a helpful recent update on San Pietro.

A wonderful book written by a woman who turned her fantasy into reality with humor, determination, and a few bald-faced lies.

by Carolyn Blankenship
for Story Circle Book Reviews
reviewing books by, for, and about women

I have read a number of Italy travelogues, from folks who are just traveling through to expats and those who choose to live there part time. The most enjoyable aspect of this book is that the author choses to focus on the people who live there. Most of the other books on this topic that I've read are rather ego-centric and reveal more on the topic of their authors than on the country or its people. But this book is centered on the stories of the Italians whose community she has joined and whose customs and conventions she is learning. Her delightfully dry wit and British sense of humor are a plus.

Annie Hawes has a wonderfully detailed and descriptive style of writing therefore this was not a story that could be breezed through but rather something to be read slowly and deliberately, savoring every word. She gave a realistic and honest view of life in the Italian countryside which this Italian-American found to be very enlighting!

Delightful voice, funny anecdotes, cleverly written. You will find yourself chuckling out loud more than once.

Delightful voice, funny anecdotes, cleverly written. You will find yourself chuckling out loud more than once.

A great read. Witty, engrossing account of Annie & sister's unplanned purchase of a rundown farmhouse in Liguria on the Italian Riviera, and their (mis)adventures and interactions with the locals. Very funny, affectionately sly observations of human nature and the idiosyncrasies and highlights of Italian village life, olives and the love of good food. And interesting information about local olive farming and wine making and food. I just loved it!

This is a delightful book. Ms. Hawes does a terrific job of bringing the reader into her experience of living in the rural Italian culture as a non-Italian--the confusion, the complications, the hard work, the education and the fun. The characters of her life are not romanticized, but portrayed with both honesty and affection adding an authentic feel often missing in memoirs such as these. Her sense of humor and tongue-in-cheek view of many situations are laugh out loud funny and enhance the pleasure of the read. The cultural misunderstandings between the Italian way and the English way are finely drawn and leave the reader feeling that differences are not only okay, but happy coexistence is all the more interesting because of them.

I loved this book and highly recommend it to others who enjoy Italy and maybe don't have the opportunity to get off the beaten track and really absorb it as they would like. Worth a first read, and a second, too.

I bought it on a whim, and I can't think of the last time I've been so entertained. I've laughed out loud at numerous points. I'm recommending it all over the place, but am unwilling to lend out my copy as I intend to read it again.

I bought it on a whim, and I can't think of the last time I've been so entertained. I've laughed out loud at numerous points. I'm recommending it all over the place, but am unwilling to lend out my copy as I intend to read it again.

I have read a whole slew of books on living in northern Italy. I have enjoyed them all (well, all except for A Summer in Tuscany by Sandra Swanson). This one is a bit different from the rest, and not for a single reason or two. First off, the book is based on the Riviera, not in Tuscany. Second, it starts with a story of how they are working in Italy for a season, but then becomes a story of living there. Third, there is a more complex attitude toward Italy revealed here by the writer, not a blind love, not cynicism, but a realistic combination of those approaches, and one that I think changes slightly over the course of the book. Fourth, a single woman living with her sister seems to lead to different experiences and therefore make the book a bit different from the others about couples. The authors have some opportunities to interact with the locals but are also given a bit wider berth as might be the case with bringing a single person to a party consisting entirely of married couples. Either because of or in spite of these differences the book succeeds. It was a much slower read than the other were, but also very enjoyable. I recommend it, though the ending does seems a bit rushed and compressed.

I have read a whole slew of books on living in northern Italy. I have enjoyed them all (well, all except for A Summer in Tuscany by Sandra Swanson). This one is a bit different from the rest, and not for a single reason or two. First off, the book is based on the Riviera, not in Tuscany. Second, it starts with a story of how they are working in Italy for a season, but then becomes a story of living there. Third, there is a more complex attitude toward Italy revealed here by the writer, not a blind love, not cynicism, but a realistic combination of those approaches, and one that I think changes slightly over the course of the book. Fourth, a single woman living with her sister seems to lead to different experiences and therefore make the book a bit different from the others about couples. The authors have some opportunities to interact with the locals but are also given a bit wider berth as might be the case with bringing a single person to a party consisting entirely of married couples. Either because of or in spite of these differences the book succeeds. It was a much slower read than the other were, but also very enjoyable. I recommend it, though the ending does seems a bit rushed and compressed.

It's difficult to stand out in such a crowded milieu, that of the British expat finding paradise in a foreign land and writing a book about it. This book is head and shoulders above the rest of the crowd. Annie Hawes is at the same time self-deprecating, respectful and most of all insightful. The descriptions of the food are mouthwatering, and the characters and anecdotes both funny and moving.

It's difficult to stand out in such a crowded milieu, that of the British expat finding paradise in a foreign land and writing a book about it. This book is head and shoulders above the rest of the crowd. Annie Hawes is at the same time self-deprecating, respectful and most of all insightful. The descriptions of the food are mouthwatering, and the characters and anecdotes both funny and moving.

I stumbled across Extra Virgin 3 years ago. I have now bought at least 9 copies and given away 8 as well as recommending it to all and sundry. And sent away to the UK for the sequel.

Ms. Hawes pulls up the timeless Italy that has - and probably will - outlast all change and fads and fashion. My parents spent their early married years stationed on the other coast of Italy, yet when my mother read Extra Virgin, she said she laughed to the point of tears, because it brought back so many memories - right down to Ms. Hawes' dissertation on the various methods of tying a hankie into a headcovering.

But, most importantly, she also avoids the standard "aren't the peasants so quaint" mode - the book is much more about discovering how much smarter those peasant ways are than breakneck modern city life, tasteless tomatoes and rushed meals.

Anyone who can read this and NOT have at least one fantasy about living in an old stone house 2 kilometers along the mule track just past the third hairpin bend - well, they have no adventure, no romance, no idealism in their soul.

This book-on-tape was so good until the final chapter, where it became so horrible that I could not even finish it. I can't believe the publisher allowed such a cheap-shot ending. Why would the author finish such a lovely read with a fast tragic ending. A terrible disappointment.

A real gem, interestingly written. I cannot wait to read the sequel, "Ripe For The Picking," unfortunately not on amazon in the US but from amazon.uk!

I'll be ordering three or four additional copies of "Extra Virgin" to fill stockings this Christmas. Terrific little book, very highly recommended. You will want to up and move to the village she describes no more than 100 pages into the book.

I bought this book with the hopes of enjoying it while sitting on the beach. Perhaps the genre wasn't exactly my idea of 'beach read' material -- I ended up trekking to the bookstore for another book. However, I did come back to Extra Virgin -- just couldn't get the characters and their adventures out of my mind. As a result, I'll buy the sequel. It just wasn't as much of a page turner as I had hoped.

The story doesn't pull you in and force you turn the page.

I read this book on a recommendation from a casual acquaintance and, despite the book's slow start, I'm glad I hung in there and gave it a chance.

The beginning of the book shows Annie Hawes and her sister being swept along by the customs of daily Ligurian life. They bumble around amiably, and before long, they find themselves buying a broken-down house.

The book starts to get interesting once the women are settled in the house and begin to cultivate relationships with the townspeople, Ligurian peasants who are charming and maddening by turns. Much is made of farming and food -- particularly the growing of olives and the process by which olive oil is made.

The sisters' house is up a treacherous pathway, and we're told stories of years' worth of struggle to find a decent car, build a staircase connecting the floors of the house, hook up running water. These stories are told not with "money pit"-like out-and-out humor, but with a lightheartedness and a unique respect for preserving the rustic condition and context of the sisters' home.

Even after the women have been living in Liguria for years, they are still regarded somewhat as _stranieri_, strangers, foreigners with odd ways. Yet they are trusted enough to be welcomed into homes all over the village. They learn the ways of the "hanky-headed" olive-farming men and get used to being mourned over for not having any husbands to work in the fields for them.

The book takes place over a long period of time and, in that expanse, we see the Ligurian village go from a backwater to a flourishing center of olive oil production. We see Italian politics change, though not easily. We see the womens' friends grow old, move on, pass away.

The dry English humor (I loved the Capital Letters that another reviewer found annoying) and heartfelt storytelling made me feel as though I had been welcomed into the village.

What an enjoyable book -- warm and not too condescending as can be Peter Mayle and others who write this genre.

Initially off to a slow start, I felt, once I was a chapter or two into it I was hooked, and toward the end I didn't want it to end. Now I'm off to the UK version of amazon (amazon.co.uk) to buy the followup by Annie Hawes called Ripe for the Picking, which apparently hasn't been published in the U.S. just yet.

FOLLOWUP: I've now read the sequel, Ripe for the Picking, and I'm happy to report the writing and good humor just gets better and better. Of all the books in this genre of "travel memoir" that I've read, I believe I've enjoyed Extra Virgin and Ripe for the Picking the most. Great humor, an affectionate look at the locals, and a healthy dose of wish fulfillment for us all. Under the Tuscan Sun has nothing on this. Enjoy!

Many excellent reviews have been written for this book and quite frankly I can add little more. But I cannot resist writing a few words after reading and tremendously enjoying this rather charming memoir.

The author chronicled her somewhat adventurous settling in the Italian Riviera through (almost impulsively) buying a very old farmhouse - with a few dozen olive trees to go with it, and struggling to make it a home, and herself and her sister part of the community. San Pietro was not exactly known for being hospitable to outsiders, how did this pair of foreign females (extra virgins) manage to get accepted as part of the community - in fact, practically as everyone's darlings? Well, they were friendly, respectful, open-minded, conscientious, and armed with a tremendous sense of humor.

Besides learning a good deal about the life style and food fares of the Northern Italian peasantry, the landscape and climate of the place, and the folklores and sentiment of the locals - all through a gracious style of writing, with wit and humor in good measure, I must say I also learn from the author much wisdom for getting to know and live with strangers in a strange place.

If you have not read this book, you should not wait any longer.

Makes me want to go and live in Italy, the new one is called Ripe for the Picking and is available on Amazon.co.uk.

I bought this book after a quick trip through the book store while on a vacation that needed a book. I was so excited to discover how much I loved this book! Not only was the story fun and exciting (& true), but I learned so much about the customs in italy and a lot about food. More than once I jumped off the couch and ran to the garden to gather basil and tomatoes. This book has been back and forth across the country more than once and deserves a second read.

This is a delightful and very funny book. Read it and then her follow-up book Ripe for the Picking. Enjoyed it much more than Under the Tuscan Sun. You feel you get to know the local people and the culture and you like them but it isn't sugary. I'm looking forward to the next book.

This is a fantastic book. Anyone who has ever lived in Italy will love Hawes honest rendering of Italian life and all of its complexities. Having lived in Rome for several years myself, I was overjoyed to finally find a book that portrays Italian life as it really is.

Over the course of the past couple of years several of my friends have moved to Italy. One is an expat returning to Italy and the other is an american transplant.

Annie Hawes story of her time in Liguria is probably one of the most "real" expats in Italy stories I have ever read. She isn't rich and doesn't have 1/2 a million to pour into creating a showpiece. She buys a ramshackle farm house and to this day its still pretty ramshackle (course if this book hits the best seller list who knows?).

Anne Hawes is living my dream. She writes of her day to day experiences. Some of the same things that she experiences have happened to my friends. I feel like she is doing just what I would do. I'd go exploring broken down houses. If somebody offered me a smoking deal I'd probably buy it and then try to work out how to live there at least part of the year.

Anne Hawes writes with affection and consideration for her friends and neighbors. Her Italy life and her Italy house are built on this foundation of respect and affection. I only hope that when my "Italy life" happens it is half as full as Anne's.

I enjoyed this book written about their living experience on the Italian Riveria. I loved reading about the "hanky-head" characters of this town. I could almost taste the food they ate when they described it. This book also explained a lot to me about the way Italians eat. I visited Italy [Rome, Florence] in 2001 and could not understand whey the waiter gave me a strange look when I asked for more cream/milk for my American coffee after I had just finished eating dinner. Now I understand about the digestio system here. If I ever go back to Italy, I will be sure to get an espresso instead after dinner. I wish I could visit a small down like the one the sisters live in and experience the olive harvest. There were so many episodes in this book that were so funny and some that were very serious. I would love for them to do a sequel to this book.

I have read a number of "let's buy a tumble-down house in a foreign country and renovate it while we learn to live in a new /old culture" books, and this is the best of the lot. Annie Hawes is a great story-teller and made me laugh out loud at the characters and characterizations. I've given the book as a gift to my mother and various friends, and everyone unanimously loved it.

This book was so boring! I could not keep track of all the characters Hawes introduced. Her writing style is one confusing ramble and the way she kept jumping from the past to the future drove me nuts. The book had a lot of potential, but it was a giant disappointment

Seeking a change of scenery, author Annie Hawes and her sister travel from London to rural Liguria, Italy, for a temporary job grafting roses. What the author lacks in knowledge of roses she more than makes up for with storytelling skills as she describes how she and her sister began their 20-year relationship with Liguria and its inhabitants. She conveys the mutual bemusement between the tradition-bound villagers and the naive British interlopers, and shows how she learned the hard way to respect their traditions while earning a measure of acceptance herself. Hawes' keen observations, wry sense of humor, and distinctive turn of phrase place this book a cut above the usual travel memoir.

I picked up this book in the UK prior to a visit to Italy. I loved every page. It's witty and fun and transports the reader to the hills of Liguria.

The copy I bought is titled, "Extra Virgin Amonst the Olive Groves of Liguria, a far better title than the one in the US. I believe it is the same book since the excerpts here are the same.

Wonderful book. I hear she has another due out called Ripe For the Picking. Can't wait.

I've read many travel books on Europe, Italy in particular, and this book beats them all without question. Hawes' writing style is incredibly enjoyable to read, full of the detailed and lively descriptions you'd expect. She does not romanticize with sugary sweet language as many other authors do. Instead, this book goes beyond the typical travel essay in a number of ways, not the least of which is Hawes' dry sense of humor that made me laugh aloud dozens of times.

I have yet to read a book that hit home like this book did. Being married to an Italian for 16 years and visiting in-laws 8 times, I related to this book as if I wrote myself. It was delightful, funny, truthful, in such a loving way to the wonderful people of Italy. I highly recommend this book to anyone that has ever visited Italy, has Italian relatives or good friends. If you've been there, it's a wonderful connective experience, if you have relatives, it's a wonderful explanation for why things are as they are. I love this book and have recommended it to every Italian and non-Italian I know. Great Job, Annie!

Great, enjoyable read.

Lets you experience a wonderful dream - having a life on the Italian riviera. What's more, these girls did it on zero budget! A great book that lets you dream it could happen to you.

This is the most interesting story I have seen in a long time. The experiences of these two young women adjusting to life in the hills of Italy are written in a very entertaining way which keeps your interest. I am going to look to see if the author has any other books. But I would certainly recommend this book for the information about the area and how the folks think and the absolute "readability" of it. Very pleased with this purchase.

Alhough growing up in the New York Metropolitan area I knew many people of Italian decent, this book really put things into perspective, I really feel like I was there. Like another reviewer commented I would love to see a sequel. My only critism is the authors total reluctance to display emotion. She is very objective and she could have shown a little more feeling for these characters who I came to know and love while reading about them.

I heard this title being read on the radio ( abridged ) . It was fine . The book OTOH , is long winded , repetitive and hence quite dull . Mss. Hawes doesn't tell us much about herself , her own 'feelings' . It is a spectator game .

Wonderful book for anyone who loves Italy, Italian culture, Italian cuisine and Italians! Complimenti a Annie Hawes!

Hawes has written a truly enchanting story of a Brit in Liguria. She arrives a naive tourist, looking to make a long summer out of a job she knows nothing about and lied to get. She ends up owning a home, or rather a country place, before the end of the summer. Hawes learns a great deal over the next several years from the locals. In her learning she uses her naivete of the region to amuse the reader and ends up admitting that her impressions of the locals at the start was incomplete and incorrect. Her prose is good and her discourse with the locals retold well. Deserves a better fate than on the remainder table where I found it.

It's tough to find much redeeming in another one of these "expat moves to crazy but poetic italy" books.
Hawes is a skilled writer and tale teller but you'd really have to be a fan of the genre to get through almost 400 pages of quirky anedotes by an author who refers to her Italian neighbors as "peasants." Even her considerable wit makes for an "been, there done that" reaction--yet again the Anglo-American expat who never manages to get inside the culture...

This is a book that I savored, like fine chocolate, and instead
of my typical immersion and finish, I read this one little
by little, because I didn't want it to end.
If you are at all interested in Italians, living with Italians,
or just Italy in general, this book will captivate you.
After spending 3 weeks in Italy with my husband, it was hard
to resist reading anecdote after anecdote aloud to my husband,
or just giggling again and again while reading it.

Great fun read..!
Does she get married to Ciccio???

I think my title says it all: this book is tons better than that book about the lady who restores some pile of rubble in Tuscany.
Unlike that book, Ms. Hawes spends a bit less time sharing some mis-placed sense of entitlement and a bit more time examing the cultural differences which make integration into a new culture so difficult and eye-opening. I am amazed at her ability to get to know these people who are so different from her and her ability to depict their differences with out putting the Ligurians down or making fun of their culture. I found it ended too soon. And having read it just as I was heading to Liguria for vacation made it even better. I highly reccomend this book.

This is NOT your typical story about foreigners buying a house and restoring it. Unlike Frances Mayes, who seems to only visit during the summer, these two plucky girls actually live in the rustico all year round, living like a peasant and learning their ways. It almost seems like an anthropological survey.

Hawe's writing is witty and sharp, and spares nothing in the minutiae of their daily life. This is a refreshing change from the typical fare from the genre where everything is bathed in some orange glow, everything is perfect, ripe and bursting with life. Hawes will have none of this shilly-shally, and throws in broken marriages, drugs, Aids and even death, amongst the endless feasting, olive oil, sunshine and beaches. Hawes also writes with surprisingly little emotion, letting little of her own feelings into the book, (unlike the rollercoaster account of Carol Drinkwater in the Olive Farm)
However, some little things, like her excessive use of Capital Letters, and sarcasm gets under your skin.

On the whole, a real-life, satisfying and wholesome read, just like the peasants in the book.

The idea of 2 English women living in northern Italy sounds like a romp but, it quickly became tiresome. For me, each minute detail of their life among the Italians became old. As the book progressed, the author seemed to be reaching for topics...did we really need a chapter on building concrete steps? Very disappointing.

Don't let the soppy title fool you - Extra Virgin is an excellent memoir of the author's life in small-town Italy. Annie Hawes has created a down-to-earth (and back-to-the-earth) book that, in addition to an excellent description of life in Liguria, gives a close up look at topics we can all relate to: learning to maintain and improve that first house, fitting in to a new place, adjusting to new customs.

Probably the main strength of the book, though, is Hawes' portrait of her adopted home town and its changes through the years. She has lived at least half the year in Diano San Pietro for 20 years; she's become at least as Ligurian as English, while her town has become more modern and continental - but only a bit. Reading about Hawes' transformation, I learned along with her - about the excellent reasons behind some of the strange peasant beliefs, about the culture and society of rural Northern Italy, and about the everyday life of a small Italian town.

In the background are other stories, equally involving: the small gossips, scandals, and events of 20 years in one place. One of Hawes' virtues is to make her neighbors and friends seem real, with real-person traits and flaws, rather than merely colorful characters, especially as time progresses within the book.

The book itself is a pleasant, fun read. Hawes writes with a lot of gentle and mostly self-directed humor, and her style is breezy and light. It's easy to identify with her, also, both because of the style and because of the life she describes; I felt less a spectator and more a sympathizer in her struggles and delights.

All in all, Extra Virgin is one of the most enjoyable and knowledgeable living-in-Italy books I've read to date, and it lacks the self-conscious, overblown prose stylings that have rendered some similar books less engaging. I would recommend this to anyone who loves Italy or travel; it's a book worth reading and owning.

I was lucky enough to pick up this book before setting off for two weeks in Liguria. Not only was I entertained by Extra Virgin, but the unfolding of her characters and their history was an wonderful way of learning about the food, culture and sense of community around us. We resisted the temptation to go looking for San Pietro village but understood more of what was happening in the village we were in. A fabulous, funny and realistic read. Fortunately the edition we bought didn't have that terrible subtitle!

It was a true pleasure to read Hawes, "Extra Virgin." She is capable of clearly describing people of Italian heritage and their ways, which I found surprising not being of Italian descent herself. I felt as though I was in Liguria, her accounts so detailed and clear. A true work of art. A must-read story for those who enjoy creative non-fiction.

Forget Francis Mayes and all the other travel narratives about Italy - this one is funnier, sweeter, younger and hipper. Great book, hard to put down and you'll feel sad when it's over. Wonderful characters and good writing.

Readers might miss this book solely because of its silly title. "Extra Virgin" has really nothing to do with the story except that olive oil is made in the region. And that ridiculous subtitle--"A Young Woman Discovers the Italian Riviera, Where Every Month Is Enchanted"--suggests the kind of soft-centered, caramel-dipped, high-fructose prose found in Harlequin Romances...

This is not a gooey romance written by a birdbrain but a consistently engaging tale of a young Brit and her sister who take seasonal work harvesting olives in a little-known peasant village in a lesser-known region of Italy--and end up buying a houdse there.

The opening drags a bit. The author struggles with her pose as the bright young thing taking the traditional Brit's view of benighted foreign peasantry. Too pert by half, frankly. But what makes this book work is that the author observes closely, learns, and grows--grows up, too.

She began by thinking of her neighbors as jolly but backward folk who just love to feed people--and keep on feeding them. So typically Italian! Well, she gets over this; she begins to understand that these people actually know a thing or two and even know things she doesn't. As a result her prose calms down and her story moves along pretty briskly. There's humor and passion as she and her neighbors come to terms with each other--and as she increasingly becomes not merely a summer visitor but a person who comes to have some standing as a genuine member of her community.

The change occurs gradually through innumerable small steps (steps too small to mean much if taken out of context in a review) and one large event that can't be discussed because it would give away far too much. Look at it this way: We've had the sugary stuff of "Enchanted April" and the cold and cynical exploitation of "A Year in Provence." Annie Hawes's story is different; it might even be what would happen to you or me.