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Material Nation: A Consumer's History of Modern Italy. By Emanuela Scarpellini. Oxford University Press. 352pp, Pounds 35.00. ISBN 9780199589579. Published 3 March 2011
"Eat well, crap well, and don't be afraid of death" was, Emanuela Scarpellini assures us, a Tuscan peasant saying. It is a philosophy worth remembering when you next enter the wonderful restaurant that a skilled tourist can always find, hidden down a backstreet in one of Italy's gorgeous "historic centres". Such clever visitors should take a copy of Scarpellini's delightful book with them. It will make for pleasant and instructive reading when, after a satisfactory meal topped off with an amaro or grappa, they reach their hotel bedroom, pull the shutters tight against the sunshine and retire for a lengthy siesta. Food, the occasional burp, sex, sleep and that pervasive Italian aroma somehow fusing garlic, oil, coffee, tomato, really fresh fruit, church incense, sweat and car exhausts (Scarpellini does...