If your typical travels center around tourist hotels and planned agendas, you’ll enjoy the vicarious thrill of traveling with author Linda Dini Jenkins. Her new book, Up at the Villa, combines a fresh mix of personal essays, travel narrative and touching poetry inspired by her travels. The poetry is a wonderful way for one to remember the feelings and flavors of life’s experiences.
Following Jenkins and her husband on their travels, you’ll learn a bit about some European cultures, and useful language prompts so you’ll be more prepared than Jenkins who, at moments, laughs about the approaching “language danger” when attempting a conversation with a merchant. Those of us who are equally challenged trying to speak a foreign language to pay for a small purchase or buy a train ticket can empathize.
The book includes high-quality photos and lovely illustrations, making it a relaxing experience to browse, or to plan your next adventure.
Based on her travel experiences, Jenkins also offers coping strategies for group travel. It’s a great way to combine visits with friends, and shared experiences, such as when renting a villa, but we all know the realities of living with different people require great understanding.
Up at the Villa includes memories of the author's trips to Paris and to Brugge, Belgium, but most of the travel is within Italy, including Tuscany, Lombardia and Liguria. There are a few abrupt shifts to other random places, including Bermuda and Idaho.
Collapsing many years of happy travels, memories and experiences into a charming flashback of life’s travels, Up at the Villa is a pleasure to read and its factual details are easily absorbed along with the personal adventures.
You’ll notice the anecdotes vary whether on an escorted tour of the Almalfi Coast or the more intimate experiences traveling as a group without a guide. You see lots more with a guide but nothing so unpredictable as what travelers can do unescorted, in a foreign country, with a bucket of snails.
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