Why a Booktrail?
1923: One woman’s attempt to keep her family safe in the most dangerous of times.
The Madonna of The Mountains
What you need to know before your trail
Maria Vittoria is embroidering a sheet for her dowry trunk.
Her father has gone to find her a husband. He’s taken his mule, a photograph and a pack of food: home-made sopressa sausage, cold polenta, a little flask of wine – no need to take water – the world is full of water.
There are no eligible men in this valley or the next one, and her father will not let her marry just anyone, and now, despite Maria’s years, she is still healthy. Her betrothed will see all that. He’ll be looking for a woman who can do the work.
Maria can do the work. Everyone in the contrà says that.
And the Lord knows Maria will need to be able to work. Fascism blooms as crops ripen, the state craves babies just as the babies cry for food. Maria faces a stony path, but one she will surely climb to the summit.
Travel Guide
Travel with the book to Italy’s Veneto region
The locations here are vague yet clearly in the Veneto reginon. They live in the Fosso valley. The town of Fossò is located in a fertile plain in the territory of the Riviera del Brenta, between Padua and Venice. The neighbouring village is Campolongo.
Carefully evoked and crafted via the descriptions of mountains and nature. This is an atmospheric setting and life on the mountains, amongst nature, is difficult. The novel is set during the war and facism is rife. Life is hard even if war seems far away in the cities. The vagueness of it all makes it feel even more remote and desolate.
People wander but mountains stay pot. And Yet, mountains are fickle – a chasm can appear suddenly with a slip of the foot, a sunny sky lulls a hunter like a child to venture too far, a freezing fog blinds the world in moments, a sly air creeps into the lungs and becomes pneumonia.
The Madonna of the mountains
“Set on the chest of drawers by her mother’s bed, the golden statue is like a beautiful doll on a plinth, forever safe inside her glass bell jar, gazing heavenward, round-faced and sublime.”
This is the statue to which she prays and talks. The mountains outside are her home, her workspace and her world:
“Today is the day of the first Spring wash. It makes no difference that Maria is newly betrothed. The river has unfrozen and its waters are flowing fast and full.”
The war in the mountains
“All the way up, from twelve hundred metres to nearly two thousand, there are tunnels and caves – dug out, or blown out, built by Italian men. We’re a nation of engineers. One of the those tunnels goes up like a corkscrew into a cone of granite – like a spiral staircase in a steeple. We’re not stupid. We outwitted the Austrians, even though we had less money and less equipment. Thanks to those tunnels, we could travel without being seen.”
BookTrail Boarding Pass: The Madonna of the Mountains
Destination: Veneto region, Italy Author/guide: Elise Valmorbida Departure Time: 1923
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