6 Degrees of Separation: From Lonely Planet to The Florentine Bridge

Welcome back Six Degrees of Separation, the fun way to recommend books by starting with a title suggested by Kate from booksaremyfavouriteandbest, and then linking it to six others in any way your brain makes connections.

This week, Kate has challenged us to start with a travel guide. One I have on my shelf is not about a specific country; instead it it Lonely Planet’s Guide to Travel Writing by Don George. This edition was published in 2009, but there is an updated version published in 2017, and re-titled How to Be a Travel Writer.

If I could write some travel pieces, I’d love to write about Italy, where my husband’s extended family live (his father migrated to Australia as a young boy shortly after the Second World War). One of the most recent books I read that was set (at least partially) is Still Life by Sarah Winman, which I’m sure I’ve mentioned at some point before. Having visited Florence, I loved trying to picture the parts of the city where the characters based themselves.

Winman references E.M. Forster’s A Room With a View, which I confess is one of those books I feel I should read but haven’t yet. Have you? And what did you think of it?

When I stayed in Florence in 2018, I set out on foot most days to explore the city and discover it’s history. One day I stumbled across the Museo Case di Dante (Dante’s Museum House) after discovering a sign pointing me in the right direction. Having studied Dante’s Inferno at university, I found the museum (including an early version of his book) fascinating. Best of all, there were no queues.

I also spent time locating several plaques dedicated to members of the resistance (partisans or partigiana in Italian) who were killed during the Second World War. There were also buildings such as Villa Triste, which was originally a mansion that was confiscated by the Facists and then the Nazis to torture the partisans. Today the site is an apartment block, but you can find a plaque acknowledging the past. Lucretia Grindle has written a novel called Villa Triste, about two sisters, Isabella and Caterina Cammaccio who join the partisans.

Road to Valour by Aili and Andres McConnon is a fascinating biography about cyclist Gino Bartali, A Tour de France legend, Gino Bartali played his part in helping those who needed to escape Florence during the Second World War by smuggling documents into the mountains in the stem of his bicycle, and using his need to train to explain why he was sometimes far from his home city.

A much more contemporary novel set in Florence is The Florentine Bridge by Vanessa Carnavale, about a young Australian artist who finds herself in Tuscany.

All of these books capture something of the fascination so many have with the beautiful city of Florence. Perhaps they’ll encourage you to add it to your travel wish-list!

Over to You

If you could visit anywhere in the world and write about it, where would you go? What books have you read (or want to read) that capture something of that place?

And head over to booksaremyfavouritebooks to see where other readers traveled this month!