Vroom With a View : In Search of Italy's Dolce Vita on a '61 Vespa

Review by Philip Blazdell

Peter Moore is now well established as a travel writer. I loved his second book – The Wrong Way Home (which due to some quirk of fate was actually published before his first book – No Shitting on the Toilet here in the UK), found the Full Montezuma an entertaining and amusing read whilst hated Swahili for the Broken-Hearted (SFTBH) so much that I swore I would never read one of his books again. However, finding myself stuck in some god-forsaken airport with nothing to read whilst I waited for a flight that never came I was forced to pick up his new book – Vroom with a View.

The premise is that after a late night Tai Bo fitness commercial warns him that his life will be over after 40, Moore decides to pursue a boyhood dream sparked by watching old black and white movies of Sophia Loren riding motor scooters to putt-putt around Italy on a 1960s Vespa, living the Dolce Vita. Compared to the author's previous books, this seemed a somewhat unadventurous and banal journey but Moore has managed to produce a book which is much more rounded and fulfilling than anything he has previously written. Reading this it is hard to believe that the author was responsible for the reprehensible and fit-only-to-be-used-as-toilet-paper SFTBH.

Perhaps the subtle pleasures of Italy and riding a Vespa around the country are more appropriate to Moore's gentle humour (he has been called the Australian Bill Bryson but that's not fair to either author) or that Moore has apparently matured a lot since the last book and fallen in love that makes this book so enjoyable. I wanted to hate this but instead I found myself hoping that Moore got the girl and that everything would end up nicely (which, not to spoil the book, it does.)

Compared to the previous book, the writing is crisp and polished, the descriptions are evocative and meaningful and the humour is gentle and genuine. The landscape of Italy is described with such eloquence that its almost possible to believe that the author projects his love for his new girlfriend on to Italy. Italy becomes the lover and the lover becomes Italy. In parts this is beautifully written.

Moore has definitely grown up with this book and should now be considered as one of the most amusing and polished of humorous travel writers around. There is much to praise in this book and it will, unless you have a heart of stone, leave you feeling good about life. I shall look forward, with anticipation, to his next book.

• Vroom With a View : In Search of Italy's Dolce Vita on a '61 Vespa by Peter Moore