Ciao America!

In the wry but affectionate tradition of Bill Bryson Ciao America! is a delightful look at America through the eyes of a fiercely funny guest—one of Italy’s favorite authors who spent a year in Washington D.C. When Beppe Severgnini and his wife rented a creaky house in Georgetown they were determined to see if they could adapt to a full four seasons in a country obsessed with ice cubes air-conditioning recliner chairs and of all things after-dinner cappuccinos. From their first encounters with cryptic rental listings to their back-to-Europe yard sale twelve months later Beppe explores this foreign land with the self-described patience of a mildly inappropriate beachcomber holding up a mirror to America’s signature manners and mores. Succumbing to his surroundings day by day he and his wife find themselves developing a taste for Klondike bars and Samuel Adams beer and even that most peculiar of American institutions—the pancake house.. The realtor who waves a perfect bye-bye the overzealous mattress salesman who bounces from bed to bed and the plumber named Marx who deals in illegally powerful showerheads are just a few of the better-than-fiction characters the Severgninis encounter while foraging for clues to the real America. A trip to the computer store proves just as revealing as D.C.’s Fourth of July celebration as do boisterous waiters angling for tips and no-parking signs crammed with a dozen lines of fine print. . By the end of his visit Severgnini has come to grips with life in these United States—and written a charming laugh-out-loud tribute.