All the Noise of It: Living In a Tuscan Hilltown

Christopher H. Warren arrived in Sorano in 1988. Enticed by the exotic and ageless town in its lovely state of ruin, and the promise of a good quality of life, he soon learned to speak even the local Italian dialect, and became deeply involved in traditional town activities—including making his own wine. In this book which derives its name from “The Infinite,” a poem by Italian philosopher and writer, Giacomo Leopardi, he relates what brought him to the Tuscan hilltown, what has kept him there, and what living there has taught him about life. Drawing on his education in anthropology and his expertise as a photographer, he shares a visually stunning and thoughtfully considered study of the life of a Tuscan community that has been his home for the past thirty years. From renovating a home, creating a garden, interviewing old inhabitants, investigating traditional life, and photographing the abandoned far side of town, he offers a genuine account of the past and present of a world that is seldom revealed.