Trapped in Tuscany: Liberated by the Buffalo Soldiers

First the bad - This is a memoir written by a someone who is not professional writer.Now the good - He tells a fascinating story. In fact, the story itself makes this book worthwhile. It is an honest snapshot of the experiences of an American boy trapped in Tuscany during WWII. It provides a wonderful first-hand look at life in a small Italian town during those years.

Tullio Bertini has written an earnest, but amateur book about his childhood experiences in Italy. His memories of his life there are interesting, but don't come to life because he's not very skilled at narrative, but only at writing "just the facts". He includes plenty of detail about what was going on in WW II at the time -- a little too much, it seemed to me. He also tells a lot about how things were done in his village, such as harvesting and roasting chestnuts, making charcoal, etc. The book is nearly half over before the Germans show up in town. Then he does relate some telling incidents, such as the first time Allied warplanes strafed some Germans who were mining a bridge, and what he saw and how he reacted. Contrary to the title, he was not liberated by the Buffalo Soldiers, but by Brazilians! The Buffalo Soldiers arrived several days later. This is an excellent personal history for his family to keep, but does not qualify as a professional memoir.

fascinating history

I purchased this book since my wife's family home is located only a few miles from Diecimo and we have spent 2-3 months in that area for the past 30 years. During that time, I have heard many stories from my wife's older relatives about being liberated by the 92nd Division and thus enjoyed finding a first-person work describing those events. The book is entertaining and informative and brings a very personal feel to the author and his extended family and the times they lived in leading up to and throughout the war in that region. The biggest negative is a horrible lack of editing. The back cover contains so many typographical and punctuation errors that I would have been dissuaded from buying the book if I had read it prior to ordering. Within the book, the document format used by the author is obviously incompatible with the book's format so that apostrophes and other special characters come out as other symbols.

very good.