Opening Sentence: "... "I could never live like you," said Orlando the fisherman...."

Journalist Marc Llewellyn and his wife ,Rohan, are sick to death of the Sydney rat-race, so when Rohan finds out she is pregnant they make the decision to travel to Italy and live for a year while she is on maternity leave. They have a vague promise of work from the Italian husband of the daughter of a friend of theirs.

They arrive with their new born son and dog , Tetley, in a small village on Lipari Island in the middle of winter. They end up renting a small villa that is freezing cold in winter and stifling hot in the summer. However, it does have a view to die for from the terrace. The first thing that happens in their new home is that Tetley does a giant poo all over the kitchen floor. Not an auspicious start.

Their landlord, and closest friend and neighbour, is Nino. A farmer who knows about growing olives, making wine and finding your place in the universe.

Marc is brutely honest in the events of that year. The whole move is spontaneous and unplanned, at the very least not well thought out. The young couple have to cope as new parents with no close family to help, a way of life that at times seem alien to them, and being unable to speak the local dialect. The couple plunge to the depths of despair as life goes on, uncaring of their plight, around them. While Rohan is trapped at home by a wailing child that never sleeps, Marc gets out and about and learns to live as the local men do - spening his time either on a fishing trawler or helping Nino on his farm.

The book is not all doom and gloom about a marriage in trouble, in fact it is wonderfully upbeat with some very funny moments as Marc relates the local customs and beliefs. The Italian medical system, family honour and bush fire mitigation plans to name a few.

Finding Nino is about following a dream and in the end finding out what really matters. It is not about running away from what you don't like, it is about finding out what you do like.

Marc Llewellyn has written another book about cycling across Russia called Riders to the Midnight Sun, I will have to get my hands on this one. ( )