Italian Neighbors by Tim Parks

An Englishman in Verona

A witty, affectionate portrait of a foreigner adapting to life in a Verona apartment block, where condo meetings, markets, landlords, and layers of bureaucracy mix with shared meals, sudden hospitality, and noisy street life. Through sharp, humorous vignettes, it captures the rhythms, contradictions, and communal warmth of everyday Italy—language quirks, family ties, festivals, and small misunderstandings—as a newcomer gradually becomes part of the neighborhood.