Official Review: Cinque Terre by Enrico Massetti
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- Latest Review: "Cinque Terre" by Enrico Massetti
Official Review: Cinque Terre by Enrico Massetti
[Following is the official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Cinque Terre" by Enrico Massetti.]
2 out of 4 stars
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Enrico Massetti’s Cinque Terre, at just over 60 pages, is a compact travel guide of the Cinque Terre region off of the coast of Italy. Part tour guide, part history, part love letter the book is broadly divided into three sections. The first introduces the Italian villages of La Spezia, Portovenere, and Lerici—the landmasses tourists must travel in order to access Cinque Terre. He offers brief descriptions of each location before delving into the next section, which offers a brief history and geographic picture of the Cinque Terre—or five villages— of Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola, Riomaggiore, and Monterosso. The book ends with descriptions of the region’s walking trails.
The book’s cover offers a stunning picture of the Cinque Terre vista that is, surely, meant to visually entice the reader. The dramatic assemblage of homes and buildings scaling the seaside hills overlook an adult playground in which hiking, boating, biking, and sunbathing appear as just a few of the many available pleasures. The image is one which creates within the viewer a desire to visit and explore the landscape. The author also opens the book with an energy expected from a proud national eager to tout the glories of his country’s prized gem. The reader then enters the text with a commensurate enthusiasm, ready to explore Cinque Terre.
That journey, however, is curtailed by a number of issues within the book. First, there is no map offered in the initial pages of the text. This would be helpful in order to visually orient the reader to the places Massetti describes, particularly for those wholly unfamiliar with the region. (The author does provide maps on pages 37 and 42 which illustrate the region’s hiking trails). Secondly, none of the remaining pictures (there are over 20) recapture the imagination in quite the same way as the cover. The inside photographs lack crispness and definition. The pictures also seem generic (some have been gathered from the internet) and thus, lack the intimacy one expects from someone with a deep knowledge of the area.
There is also a surprising degree of repetition in this very short work; on multiple occasions sentences and passages are repeated verbatim. For instance, the information about the Via dell’Amore trail on page 22 is repeated on page 30. Additionally, the information about rail travel on page 44 is a direct copy of information given on page 33. In fact, almost the entirety of page 44 is a collection of recycled sentences from that page. These issues are further aggravated by inconsistencies in Massetti’s use of names and terms: is Via dell’Amore “love’s trail” (22), “lovers’ way” (35), or both? Is he referencing UNESCO (6) or Unesco (13)? And is there a reason that we move from meters to its abbreviation, m., in the same sentence (55)?
Cinque Terre can serve as a quick, cursory introduction to this stunning and unique region for individuals completely unfamiliar with the area. This is, I think, the extent of its usefulness. With less than a page dedicated to the history of each of the villages which comprise Cinque Terre (Vernazza scored 1 ¼), real historical knowledge is limited. It manages to function slightly better as a travel guide. While Massetti does a good job listing places to dine, he provides no information about accommodations beyond acknowledging that they are plentiful in some locales and scarce in others. This seems problematic since such a unique place is sure to draw a multitude of tourists. With the exception of hiking, there is no information about available activities to the traveler. Despite the promise of the cover, the reader is given no resources about bike or boat rentals or other potential seaside excursions. While the best effort is given to exploration of the region’s hiking trails, most of the descriptions are explained in three sentences or less; trails take anywhere from 1 ½ to 5 hours to complete. And with landmarks that frequently include nondescript, potentially ephemeral places—a “small white house” (51), “dilapidated house” (58), or a group of “abandoned houses” (55)—one wonders how the voyage might change should those structures be razed someday?
Cinque Terre feels deficient and yet strangely exhausting. It would seem more economical for travelers to reserve their energies for traversing the actual terrain than navigating the pages of this book. The savvy traveler will find a more comprehensive source of information. For this reason, I rate this book 2 out of 4 stars.
******
Cinque Terre
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon | on Barnes and Noble | on Smashwords
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2 out of 4 stars
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Enrico Massetti’s Cinque Terre, at just over 60 pages, is a compact travel guide of the Cinque Terre region off of the coast of Italy. Part tour guide, part history, part love letter the book is broadly divided into three sections. The first introduces the Italian villages of La Spezia, Portovenere, and Lerici—the landmasses tourists must travel in order to access Cinque Terre. He offers brief descriptions of each location before delving into the next section, which offers a brief history and geographic picture of the Cinque Terre—or five villages— of Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola, Riomaggiore, and Monterosso. The book ends with descriptions of the region’s walking trails.
The book’s cover offers a stunning picture of the Cinque Terre vista that is, surely, meant to visually entice the reader. The dramatic assemblage of homes and buildings scaling the seaside hills overlook an adult playground in which hiking, boating, biking, and sunbathing appear as just a few of the many available pleasures. The image is one which creates within the viewer a desire to visit and explore the landscape. The author also opens the book with an energy expected from a proud national eager to tout the glories of his country’s prized gem. The reader then enters the text with a commensurate enthusiasm, ready to explore Cinque Terre.
That journey, however, is curtailed by a number of issues within the book. First, there is no map offered in the initial pages of the text. This would be helpful in order to visually orient the reader to the places Massetti describes, particularly for those wholly unfamiliar with the region. (The author does provide maps on pages 37 and 42 which illustrate the region’s hiking trails). Secondly, none of the remaining pictures (there are over 20) recapture the imagination in quite the same way as the cover. The inside photographs lack crispness and definition. The pictures also seem generic (some have been gathered from the internet) and thus, lack the intimacy one expects from someone with a deep knowledge of the area.
There is also a surprising degree of repetition in this very short work; on multiple occasions sentences and passages are repeated verbatim. For instance, the information about the Via dell’Amore trail on page 22 is repeated on page 30. Additionally, the information about rail travel on page 44 is a direct copy of information given on page 33. In fact, almost the entirety of page 44 is a collection of recycled sentences from that page. These issues are further aggravated by inconsistencies in Massetti’s use of names and terms: is Via dell’Amore “love’s trail” (22), “lovers’ way” (35), or both? Is he referencing UNESCO (6) or Unesco (13)? And is there a reason that we move from meters to its abbreviation, m., in the same sentence (55)?
Cinque Terre can serve as a quick, cursory introduction to this stunning and unique region for individuals completely unfamiliar with the area. This is, I think, the extent of its usefulness. With less than a page dedicated to the history of each of the villages which comprise Cinque Terre (Vernazza scored 1 ¼), real historical knowledge is limited. It manages to function slightly better as a travel guide. While Massetti does a good job listing places to dine, he provides no information about accommodations beyond acknowledging that they are plentiful in some locales and scarce in others. This seems problematic since such a unique place is sure to draw a multitude of tourists. With the exception of hiking, there is no information about available activities to the traveler. Despite the promise of the cover, the reader is given no resources about bike or boat rentals or other potential seaside excursions. While the best effort is given to exploration of the region’s hiking trails, most of the descriptions are explained in three sentences or less; trails take anywhere from 1 ½ to 5 hours to complete. And with landmarks that frequently include nondescript, potentially ephemeral places—a “small white house” (51), “dilapidated house” (58), or a group of “abandoned houses” (55)—one wonders how the voyage might change should those structures be razed someday?
Cinque Terre feels deficient and yet strangely exhausting. It would seem more economical for travelers to reserve their energies for traversing the actual terrain than navigating the pages of this book. The savvy traveler will find a more comprehensive source of information. For this reason, I rate this book 2 out of 4 stars.
******
Cinque Terre
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon | on Barnes and Noble | on Smashwords
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Latest Review: "Cinque Terre" by Enrico Massetti
