An Osteria in Chianti

http://amazon.com/dp/8375138231

“Ultimo is Chianti.”  The truth of these words – and the epic, century-long existence of one man, the inimitable Ultimo Gori – is the essence of An Osteria In Chianti, Dario Castagno’s fourth book.  A native Chiantigiano himself, Castagno delves into the history and character of Tuscany through Ultimo’s extraordinary narrative arc, which begins with his 1908 birth as the 1oth child of an ill-fated sharecropping family eking out a frugal existence in the rock-strewn fields of Chianti Senese.  When Dario initially meets Ultimo in 1983 – after the then-septuagenarian tosses his Vespa into a tree as if it were a sack of wild mushrooms – it is by chance.  But the 25-year friendship that followed was clearly meant to be, in the most profound of ways. Shortly after first encountering Ultimo, Dario also crosses paths with a mysterious and elegant gentleman in a bar. Overhearing Dario’s tale of the rough-hewn Vespa-hurler, the enigmatic stranger gives him an important envelope to deliver back to Ultimo.  He then launches into a spellbinding recantation of Ultimo’s life, his own place in it — and the evolution of Chianti itself. Tales of pre-modern Tuscany, tragically lost family members, unrequited love, friends humble and noble alike, World War II, swapped identity, imprisonment, and redemption cascade together.  They are inter-cut with episodes from Dario’s deepening companionship with Ultimo.  An Osteria In Chianti takes the reader on an irresistible journey that is Chianti.