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Home > Categories > Books > Non-Fiction > Portrait of the Riviera review
The Riviera is a name that conjures sparkling seas and endless sunshine: palm trees, outdoor cafes and tanning bodies on the sand. But behind the stereotype of wealth and glamour is one of Europe's most beautiful and accessible tourist locations. Take it from one who knows: while renovating her apartment in the medieval ramparts of Ventimiglia, New Zealander Carolyn McKenzie was stunned by the variety of inspiring places surrounding her. Now an entrenched local, McKenzie shares her knowledge so that all visitors can make the most of this unique region.
From Cervo in Italy to Massif de I'Esterel in France, discover a different Riviera. Delve beneath the surface and discover the art, architecture and culture of this enticing destination. Portraits of the Riviera provides a very personal perpective at 150kms of coastline of Italy and France known worldwide as The Riviera.
For dedicated travellers and for readers who simply want to sit back and dream.
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Review by: goldfishstar (Natalie)
Dated: 22nd of January, 2006
I've always wanted to visit the Riveria...
I've hankered to experience the sights and sounds of Cannes during the film festival...
I've daydreamed about summer afternoons spent lazing on secluded Italian beaches enjoying the local food...
I've read books that tease me with information about this wonderful area...
Haven't we all?
Ms McKenzie is one of our own, a Kiwi, who has made this place I've dreamed of, her home.
This book is her attempt to share the countries she has grown to love as home with the rest of us.
This book tries to be too many things though, I felt.
It's not just a travel book, it's the story of how Carolyn came to be in her own special part of the Riveria, her search for the perfect home and her adventures with the locals as she renovates to make it her own...
Well... the first half is.
This part I found to be very entertaining and interesting, and I wish she had kept telling this tale.
But she didn't, she wrote about the rest of the Riveria too - but in a strangely discordant way... It just didn't flow for me as a book.
I know it is meant as a travel book, and the information given at the end of each chapter is bound to be accurate and helpful, however I would have found it more interesting if it told me of her adventures while traveling to these places, instead of writing in a strange third person kind of way about them, like she was there, but not part of it all somehow...
On a whole, I found the book interesting, but a bit of a struggle to read as something to enjoy.
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