War in the Val d'Orcia: An Italian War Diary, 1943-1944

A few weeks ago I recommended Origo's diary from the first years of the war, but this book, for good reason, is the one that made her famous, in part for the understated clarity of her style, and in part from the drama of reading a record written from within a tumultuous time, during the chaos of the Allied invasion of Italy. But it may be best-loved for what Origo and her landowner husband did: made their Tuscan estate a refuge for children bombed out of Italian cities, for partisan guerrillas, and for various soldiers in transit, until the Origos themselves became temporary refugees. It’s a model of aristocratic behavior: using her privilege to protect others with a generosity that seems both savvy and instinctual. The time, and their values, seem far from our own, even if the crisis she responded to does not.