Apringcleaning Book 24 – “Vroom by the Sea” by Peter Moore

I have no idea where I got Vroom by the Sea from, or when. It’s a travel book which is a genre that I enjoy but I don’t remember buying it or whether I received it as part of my second-hand book subscription (I am beginning to think that I should pencil in the date and origin of books that I add to my piles in the future). It’s a paperback, in good condition, by Peter Moore who is an Australian travel writer living in Britain. A previous book told the story of the writer riding his Vespa scooter across Italy and this book is about a similar ride through the Italian islands and up the mainland coast to Rome.

The author started this trip when he knew that he was shortly to become a father, possibly in an attempt to help him come to terms with this change in his life, but this isn’t a huge theme in the book. The narrative concentrates on the countryside and landscape, his experiences with his Vespa, and the people he meets along the way. He feels that riding a scooter allows him to interact with people in a way that travelling by car wouldn’t permit, especially since the brand is popular with Italians and he was riding a classic model.

The author takes in Sardinia, Elba and other islands before he travels by ferry to the mainland and Rome and Naples. I have been to Rome but never to any of the other places he visits and he certainly makes them attractive to read about, although he is honest about the run down areas he encounters on the way. He obviously loves Italy and understands its popular culture, if not always its language, so the book is coloured by his affection for the country and its people.

Apart from the scooter this is not a book with lots of gimmicks. The author has enough money to travel, he plans his journeys properly and he, mostly, keeps within the law. He respects the country and its culture but is most attracted by the landscape and the views. There is no big crisis and the journey is completed successfully with the assistance of local people, friends and other owners of Vespas. The tone of the book is light-hearted but not silly.

I enjoyed this book and was swept along by the author’s enthusiasm for the area; so much, in fact, that I might even look into travelling there myself. The book will be passed along to Oxfam as I keep few travel books but I would read others by the same author if I saw them available.