Tim Parks is an Englishman who has lived in Italy since 1981, and has written more than a dozen novels, and a further 8 or 9 books of non-fiction, mostly about Italy. Italian Ways is a kind of travel memoir, and is also a very funny meditation on the Italian character, as experienced through train travel. This may seem a strange approach at first, but trains did help build and rebuild Italy, and they do reflect Italians sense of themselves. For Parks, all of the glorious contradictions of Italian life are encapsulated in train travel: the eccentric and contrary rules around ticketing and timetables, the superb engineering of their fast trains, and the mysteries around how they were paid for, the memorable encounters he has with other travellers. This book is fascinating, funny, and probably the best book on the Italian psyche since Tobias Jones' The Dark Heart of Italy.