A couple of weeks ago I left home and I drove East of Rome (2 hours away). I was looking for the house where the famous David Herbert Lawrence wrote the last chapters of the book “The lost girl”.
“Sex and beauty are inseparable, like life and consciouness. And the intelligence which goes with sex and beauty, and arises out of sex and beauty, is intuition”
Born in England on September 11, 1885, he is regarded as one of the most influential writers of the 20th century. Lawrence published many novels and poetry volumes during his lifetime, but is best known for his infamous novel Lady Chatterley’s Lover.
In 1919, with the First World War finally ended, Lawrence departed England for Italy. Here, he spent two highly enjoyable years traveling around.
He stopped with his wife Frieda for two weeks in a small town Picinisco located in a region called Ciociaria (named after the special shoes local wore).
Casa Lawrence
He was so charmed by the beauty of these mountains, history and people that he had the right inspiration to end his book.
The Lost Girl, D. H. Lawrence’s forgotten novel, is a passionate tale of longing and sexual defiance, of devastation and destitution.
Alvina Houghton, the daughter of a widowed Midlands draper, comes of age just as her father’s business is failing. In a desperate attempt to regain his fortune and secure his daughter’s proper upbringing, James Houghton buys a theater. Among the traveling performers he employs is Ciccio, a sensual Italian who immediately captures Alvina’s attention. Fleeing with him to Naples, she leaves her safe world behind and enters one of sexual awakening, desire, and fleeting freedom.
The garden
Reviled as a crude and pornographic writer for much of the latter part of his life, D.H. Lawrence is now widely considered—alongside James Joyce and Virginia Woolf—as one of the great modernist English-language writers. His linguistic precision, mastery of a wide range of subject matters and genres, psychological complexity and exploration of female sexuality distinguish him as one of the most refined and revolutionary English writers of the early 20th century.
Landscape
Once arrived, the house looks a little bit English but you’re right welcome by the great smell of the Italian cuisine. Today on the first floor, Lawrence’s apartments looks like when he left.
Lawrence’s bedroom
His typewriter and the ciocie (leather shoes)
At the ground floor there is a well know restaurant. The owner Loreto is, first of all, a man who loves his land and produces everything you eat in his restaurant.
The goat ricotta he makes is the best I ever had in my life!!..and cheeses too!!!
Goat ricotta
The famous local white beans
It’s not hard to believe why Lawrence loved this region….Its history (since Roman time up to the Unification of Italy), the mountains, the lakes, the vineyards (the best and the first Cabernet wine was produced here, in this region),
Cabernet Wine “il podere del falco”