An Odyssey in the Second Year of the Plague – Old Calabria

 

Norman Douglas (whose praises I sang over his Siren Land) has done it again – or, rather, did it again. Since his follow-up book Old Calabria was published in 1915.

What Siren Land did for the Sorrentine peninsula, Old Calabria does for the lands to the south of Naples – and in spades. It is a joyous and witty ramble around the foot of Italy, packed with historical, geographical, philosophical, anthropological and downright arrogant observations on life there a century ago.

Here is just one of Douglas's useful tips: "The foreigner in Italy, if he is wise, will familiarise himself not only with the cathedrals to be visited but also, and primarily, with the technique of legal bribery and subterfuge – with the methods locally employed for escaping out of the meshes of the law. Otherwise he may find unpleasant surprises in store for him."

After my encounter with the border police in Brindisi (see this blog An Odyssey in the Year of the Plague – 10: 8-14 September 2020), I would certainly endorse the enduring need for such preparedness. Although perhaps it is not necessary to go so far as one practice that Douglas observed. "In England," he says, "we should think it rather paradoxical to hear a respectable old farmer recommending his boys to shoot a policeman, whenever they safely can. On the spot [in Calabria], things begin to wear a different aspect..."