Il Bel Centro

A Year in the Beautiful Center

By: Michelle Damiani

Narrated by: Nicol Zanzarella

Length: 20 hrs and 4 mins

Publisher's summary

When Michelle Damiani dreamed of living in Italy, she imagined her family as it was in Virginia - her husband filling every moment with work, her teenage son experimenting with sarcasm, her daughter smiling at the scent of lilacs, her baby-cheeked son methodically clicking Legos together, and herself hovering over the happiness of them all - only surrounded by ancient cobblestone alleys and the sound of ringing Italian. What she didn't know was how Italy would work to change them all.

©2015 Michelle Damiani (P)2018 Tantor

Made me wish for that sort of a life

Interesting enough story, but at some point the endless luscious details and descriptions of food and wine started to overwhelm me. Also, the first 2/3 of the book seem to be the best. The last third of the book seem to veer off frequently into philosophical, theological and introspective discussions that got old pretty quick. I almost didn’t finish the last couple of hours. I would have appreciated and afterword where we might be told how the family adjusted upon their return to the United States. So in that way, it left me unsatisfied.

Fall in love with Spello

As a newly retired woman who has dreamed for decades of moving to Italy, this book cemented encouraged me further. From beginning to end the author seemed to aspire for a real depiction, and not to gloss over the hardships involved. It is obvious that the many rewards of living in Spello far outweighed the obstacles faced to make it happen. How each of the children responded was interesting and heartwarming. I loved that I listened to this book, and didn’t read it, because I learned a bit of beautiful Italian along the way.
I’m seriously considering listening from the beginning once again, and definitely plan to visit Spello on an upcoming trip to Italy. Who knows, we may find a Spello of our own!
Well written, and each day I couldn’t wait to hear more of this sweet family’s adventures.

Wonderful book

I loved this book and the narrator did a great job. What a warm and winsome story. I wish I had read/heard this book before we visited Spello.

Take me back to Italy

This book caused me to start dreaming again of living in Italy and truly taking my fluency to a higher level

Condescending tone from narrator and author

Would have loved it if it didn’t have so much expat America bashing and annoying end of chapter quips.

Unique memoir of a sweet family’s experience abroad

This memoir certainly provides a much appreciated culturally broadening experience through a story shared with vulnerable compassion and much emotion. The author clearly felt she had to push her political stance while leaving out other detail that left the story hanging in parts. The occasional recipe thrown in was fun. Enjoyable read overall.

Extremely light weight on all levels.

Extremely light weight on all levels. Somewhat pleasurable, evoking the silly pretty side of Italy. But, on the whole, pathetic. I could not finish it.

Conflicted

Honestly, I’m not sure where I stand with this audio book. I flipped flopped so many times between thinking the writing was bad to thinking it was the narration was the problem. Ultimately, it was probably a little bit of both. I stuck through it because I had never found a autobiography like this where a whole family that moves abroad. Typically, it’s the experience is of a single person or married couple. Overall, her writing is a bit much. She’s repetitive in the description of the food and boy does she love her similes. Some parts were so cheesy that I couldn’t control my eye roll and the not so subtle words that would come out of my mouth. I wouldn’t go out of my way to recommend this to anyone, but I don’t regret sticking it out to the end. It definitely could’ve been like 5 hours shorter, if not more. If you’re feeling like giving it a go, you’ve been warned. It probably won’t be the biggest waste of your time, but also be ready to ask yourself out loud (multiple times) why you’re still listening to it.