Modern Family Modena Memoir
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Bursting with irreverent humour and infectious warmth, My Modena is a memoir that charts one woman’s rollercoaster year in one of Italy’s most historic cities. With a voice as bold as a double espresso and stories as colourful as a Modenese market, Andrea Gelfuso offers a fresh, hilarious perspective on the trials and triumphs of transplanting a family from suburban America to Emilia-Romagna’s cobbled chaos.
The story opens with a bang—no teary-eyed introspection here. “My Italian adventure began with laughter and profanity,” Andrea declares in the first line, setting the tone for a memoir that is both fearless and side-splittingly funny. From the outset, readers are swept into a whirlwind of missed appointments, mysterious bureaucracy, and over-engineered keyholes.
Modena, famed for balsamic vinegar and operatic legends, quickly becomes the stage for a deeply personal transformation—albeit one punctuated by circuit breakers, language mishaps, and the occasional half-naked neighbour. The author’s home, perched seven floors up with a view and very little functioning plumbing, serves as the perfect metaphor for the Italian paradox: maddening yet magnificent.
From the very first pages, Gelfuso draws us into her world with a razor-sharp comedic instinct. Whether wrestling with the intricacies of the Permesso di Soggiorno or deciphering the arcane rituals of the local post office (open, perhaps, fourteen minutes a week), she mines every moment for its absurd brilliance. A visit to the Questura, Italy’s Kafkaesque hybrid of immigration office and pantomime theatre, becomes pure gold in her capable hands.
The characters she encounters feel straight out of a stage play—each with their quirks and contradictions. Giovanna, the ever-watchful landlady, and Raimondo, her husband and circuit-breaker saviour, appear alongside a cast of unforgettable locals: Luca the charming boot-seller, Rosanna the sequined rose-pruner, and Fabio—yes, that Fabio—known less for his conversation than his fondness for balconies and underwear. Each figure is lovingly drawn and never reduced to stereotype, lending the memoir its generous, human heart.
Among the book’s finest qualities is its ability to turn the mundane into the marvellous. One standout episode involves a medieval keyring worthy of The Da Vinci Code, which the author must use to unlock a door requiring two keys to turn simultaneously—“400 times each”—just to get inside her flat. These vignettes sparkle with observational wit, placing Gelfuso in the tradition of literary comedians like Victoria Wood or Nora Ephron.
Why I Recommend This Book
What sets My Modena apart is not just the humour—though there is plenty of it—but the undercurrent of reflection that runs quietly beneath the surface. As the year unfolds, Andrea’s chaotic start gives way to something more profound. She begins to master the market, navigate the bus routes, and forge connections that go beyond the superficial. In embracing the maddening charm of Modena, she begins to discover who she truly is.
The prose dances between irreverence and insight. One moment, you’re laughing at a mishap involving an electric kettle and a historic fuse box; the next, you’re struck by a line that reveals how deeply change has taken root. “Modena changed me,” she reflects, “or maybe it just showed me who I am.” It’s in these quieter moments that the memoir reveals its emotional weight.
Like Dante’s pilgrim wandering through chaos toward clarity, Andrea’s journey through Italian bureaucracy, cultural misunderstandings, and inner restlessness ultimately leads her somewhere meaningful. And, like Dante, she manages to make the journey riotously entertaining.
For readers seeking a straightforward guidebook to Modena’s tourist sites, this may not be the book. But for those drawn to Italy’s beautiful contradictions, to stories steeped in character, comedy, and emotional growth, My Modena delivers in spades.
Diane Hales, bestselling author of La Bella Lingua, describes it as “a scrumptious literary tiramisù.” That’s exactly what it is—layered, rich, full of unexpected textures, and absolutely delicious.
Whether you come for the culture shock or stay for the sun-drenched chaos, this memoir will leave you charmed, uplifted, and perhaps just a little braver when facing your own version of the Questura.
As the Italians say, piano piano si va lontano—slowly, slowly one goes far. Andrea Gelfuso takes that saying and turns it into a laugh-out-loud, heart-warming adventure.
This article was adapted from my original review published on Italy Writers.
See another book review here.
