The Secret of Santa Vittoria

by Robert Crichton

The clownish Bombolini becomes a man of significance when he devises a plan to prevent the Germans from taking Santa Vittoria's liquor supply

Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Italy, War, World War II, Novels, Historical

416 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published August 29, 1966

About the author

Robert Crichton was an American novelist known for both nonfiction and fiction. The son of writer and editor Kyle Crichton, he served in the infantry during World War II, was wounded at the Battle of the Bulge, and managed an ice cream factory in Paris before attending Harvard University on the GI Bill. His first book, The Great Impostor (1959), the true story of Fred Demara, was a bestseller and adapted into a 1961 film. He followed it with The Rascal and the Road, a memoir of his adventures with Demara. Crichton’s first novel, The Secret of Santa Vittoria (1966), about an Italian town resisting the Nazis, became an international bestseller and was adapted into a Golden Globe-winning film. His second novel, The Camerons (1972), drew on his Scottish great-grandparents’ lives and was also a bestseller. He published essays and magazine articles, including the notable essay "Our Air War." Crichton was married to documentary producer Judy Crichton and had four children.

Reviews

[D. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this. The characters were so vivid and it totally transported me to another place and time. Even though the story took place during WWII it was a very different story from most WWII books. Unique and endearing.

[Judy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was my favorite novel of the Top Ten bestsellers from 1966. My favorite so far anyway; I have read five of the ten. When I complete reading the entire list I will post it along with the final review.

The Secret of Santa Vittoria was #3. It is set in an impoverished Italian hill town near the end of WWII, beginning with the death of Mussolini. The secret is the wine. The entire town is involved in growing the grapes, tending the vines, and pressing the wine. It is a one-product economy.

When a German occupation arrives, seeking to impound the wine, the people of the town must set aside their many animosities with each other to protect their wine stores. Over a million bottles! They devise a scheme to hide it that is even more labor intensive than the growing, harvesting and pressing.

The large array of characters are all larger than life. There is drama, distress and humor. I couldn't wait to read it each day.

A movie, starring Anthony Quinn, was released in 1969.

[Noel · Rating 5 out of 5]

After visiting some of the hilltowns in Tuscany, I wondered what it would have been like to live through WWII there. Based on a true story and the author 's personal experience, the book clearly told the story of one small village and their ordeal. It was light and humorous, insightful and introspective, and the narrator was excellent! In my mind I placed the book in Montepulciano, the heart of wine making country and a town with many of the same characteristics as the one in the book. The characterization of the townspeople was spot on; they came alive, as did their German occupiers.

Quite a gem!

From The Independent: They thus missed the book's remarkable strengths: its versatile depiction of characters, its unpretentious but subtle prose. Based on the true story of an Italian village that hid its wine from occupying German forces, and probably derived from Crichton's own experiences as an American infantryman fighting his way up Italy, The Secret of Santa Vittoria painted a rich tableau of foreign life for notoriously parochial American readers. Comic, occasionally mawkish, the novel can still veer sharply away from excessive sentimentality. Having bamboozled the dozy occupying Germans, for example, the village's inhabitants find a different treatment in store when a crack Wehrmacht unit retreats through their town:

They never looked at us. They moved through us with the assurance of men who know that if so much as one shot was fired at them by some Renaissance fighter, they would burn the town to the ground.

[Amanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

For many years, this was my favorite book. A beautiful, comical story of a very small town in the mountains of Italy in WWII, the book features some unforgettable characters and one of the best prologues I can remember. It will make you laugh, cry and rejoice at the resiliency of the human spirit.

[Özgür Daş · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nikos Kazantzakis 'in Zorba'sı ve Robert Crichton'un Kasabanın Sırrı kitaplarının ortak noktaları uyarlanan filmlerinde baş karakterleri oynayan kişinin Anthony Quinn olması. Quinn'in filmlerdeki varlığı, iki kitap için de yararlı bir imge sağlıyor okurken (Hele bir de Quinn'in oyunculuğunun hayranıysanız). Sinemaya uyarlamaları yapılan eserleri sevenler için Kasabanın Sırrı, kitap+film şeklinde yapılarak keyfi iki katına çıkarabilen eserlerden. Kitapla film arasında bazı farklılıklar olsa da tatmin edici.

Italo Bombolini gibi edebiyat dünyasının efsane karakterlerinden biriyle tanışıyorsunuz:

Üçüncü günün sabahı halk uyandığında, Santa Vittoria'daki bütün eski sloganların bir gece içinde değişmiş olduğunu gördü. Halk Meydanındaki:
...
Bir gün aslan olarak yaşamak
100 yıl kuzu olarak yaşamaktan iyidir.
Şimdi caddeden aşağı indiğinizde şunu okuyordunuz:
100 yıl yaşamak
daha iyidir
—Bombolini, Belediye Başkanı
(s. 100)

Not: Kitap 70'lerde E Yayınları tarafından iki kez basılmış ve bir daha hiç basımı yapılmamış.

[Voracious · Rating 5 out of 5]

WOW. Reading this was a bit like reading the Guernsey Potato Peel Pie Society, and a bit like watching the 1953 movie Wages of Fear. Exciting, moving, funny, wise...and shocking, too.

I have to admit it took me about 100 pages to really get into it, but then I couldn't put it down.

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

This novel covering an Italian village's experiences with the Nazis between the fall of Italy to the allies and the expulsion of the Nazis from the peninsula was both engaging and sobering. The village of Santa Vittoria, famous for its deep red wine, attempts to hide its considerable wine stocks from the pillaging occupation forces. Along the way, as is often the case in war, uncomfortable compromises are made by both sides.

Having never lived in a war zone, it is difficult to fully appreciate the horrible events and bedeviling trade-offs that happen. When you are occupied by an aggressive enemy that can arbitrarily mistreat you and your fellow citizens without consequence, what is the appropriate approach? It is also difficult to understand forgiveness after unnecessary torture, robbery, mistreatment or murder.

The Secret of Santa Vittoria is similar to All the Light We Cannot See in context, though I enjoyed the writing better in the former. Those looking for a war drama that feels believable will likely find this book to be rather satisfying. I look forward to watching the film.

[Cari · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hidden away with my family’s things, my nonno mentioned I may enjoy this book. He knows me well. Come to find out this book was a NY Best Selling book in its day. It’s funny, it’s witty, and loved the storyline. Once again, another WWII book (I seem not to be able to escape this genre), but in this case, it’s a humourous tale of how entire Italian town tricked the Germans occupying it by hiding their prized wines.

My grandfather also mentioned it became a movie. Now I’m off to find it because I’m sure the cinematography will be amazing; yet the acting will be a little kitchsy.

[Malabaricus · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book when I was 16 and it was the only book that made me laugh out loud. I just loved it! What a pity Robert Crichton wrote only two books.

[Aspen McClain · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kind of outdated in some areas, but still pretty entertaining. Certainly not for everyone, but I enjoyed it.

[Shelly - The Illustrated Librarian - · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book for the Wine Store Book Club I moderate for my library. I would not have read it otherwise, in spite of the fact
that I chose the book as a selection for the club. The plot sounded amusing. A small wine-making village in the hills of Italy tries to hide close to one million bottles of wine from the occupying Nazis. Amusing isn't quite the word I used once I finished the book.

The story takes place near the end of WWII, just after Mussolini is executed. The Germans are occupying Italy, and gathering assets. A small German unit is sent to the wine-making town of Santa Vittoria to acquire their wine for the Fatherland. Of course to the citizens of Santa Vittoria, this is the absolute worst thing that could happen to them. The author states, ad nauseam, that the wine is their very blood, the wine is their life. It is everything to them. Don't worry, author Crichton won't let you forget it.

The Mayor of Santa Vittoria is Bombolini. He is a clown who proves himself to be a competent leader of the town. He is also a student of Machiavelli's The Prince, having read it scores of times. One of Machiavelli's basic tenets holds that being crafty and sneaky, even deceitful, are justified in regards to obtaining and maintaining political power. These are sacred words to Bombolini, and he decides this is how he will deal with the Germans. He and the townsfolk hide the wine from the Germans.

They must conceal well over half a million bottles...I won't tell you how...and just get it squirreled away just in time before the German unit arrives. They keep a portion of the wine in the cellar and will tell the Germans that is all they have.

Bombolini's nemesis is Captain von Prum. As Bombolini is a student of Machiavelli, von Prum is a devotee of Nietzsche. The German is the übermensch, the superman. Von Prum writes in his journal, "Deep in the nature of all these noble races there lurks unmistakably the beast of prey, the blond beast, lustfully roving in search of booty and victory." Victory is theirs, von Prum arrives for the booty. He wants to acquire said booty in a reasonable and cooperative fashion. He is deployed to Santa Vittoria with a unit of only eight men. He asserts he does not need any more than that, as he plans to enact a "bloodless victory."

Thus begins the 400+ page battle of wills between the clown and the superman.

Bombolini's first trick is to hide most of the wine, but leave some, convincing the Germans that portion is their entire stock. He gets von Prum to agree to only taking half of this small amount. Upon delivery, von Prum is informed by his superiors that the number of bottles delivered should only be a minute portion of what the town should have, based on past delivery and sales records. He's been made a fool. Bombolini brushes this off by declaring the records false.

The battle of wills rages on as von Prum searches for the missing wine. The situation takes its toll on von Prum's mental state and military career. He's being pressured and threatened by his superior officer, but he's making no progress with the town and their secret. It reaches a point at which Bombolini and the rest of Santa Vittoria's citizens are downright cruel to von Prum and his soldiers.

Bombolini and his Machiavellian sneakiness wreak havoc on the Nietzschean superman.

Cruel to a Nazi? you say? Absolutely. Ever since humans discovered how to fight with each other, to the victor went the spoils. The occupying force takes what is wants because they won. This is true of countries, pirates, and bullies on playgrounds everywhere. Unless the loser is wily like Bombolini.

The Germans are doing what victors do, and they really try to do it nicely. They don't come in to town shooting people as many Nazi troops would have done. The "bloodless victory" von Prum is trying to implement doesn't work out very well, even though he's pretty friendly for a Nazi, or what one would expect a Nazi to be. The people of Santa Vittoria don't know how lucky they are to get someone like von Prum showing up to ask for their wine. They're lucky anyone in town survived at all.

Does von Prum ever get his wine? I won't spoil it by telling you.

Overall, for me, this book was a chore to read. The writing style is very old-fashioned, even for 1966 when it was written. Repeated flowery passages about the ideal of being Italian, what Italians do and how Italians think and feel, overloaded the plot.

Crichton somehow manages to keep many characters two-dimensional, despite describing them in painful detail. The overly-dramatic descriptions of the grape harvest, wine pressing, etc., repelled me instead of drawing me in.

I'm giving the book a three-star rating, based on the Machiavelli vs. Nietzsche plot being interesting, once I separated the plot wheat from the flowery chaff.

[Mike Futcher · Rating 3 out of 5]

A charming but laborious novel, I think Robert Crichton's The Secret of Santa Vittoria attempts but falls short in something that Larry McMurtry's Lonesome Dove, one of my favourite books, would later achieve remarkably. Both are comic epics with a great mass of colourful characters; stories that have, just below their surface, a penalty of violence and death for those characters who err; and the central anima of a great, though unassuming, undertaking that becomes, through the wonderful dove-tailing of various character interactions, the deed of their life.

However, where McMurtry's sweeping Western was larger-than-life, Crichton's wartime farce is often cartoonish and whimsical. Where the 900+ pages of Lonesome Dove were almost dreamlike in their swift pace, the 380 pages of The Secret of Santa Vittoria are often plodding. Crichton's characters can be shallow, for all the attention given to them, where McMurtry's come to life in a single line of dialogue. Where Lonesome Dove's violence feels inevitable, Santa Vittoria's feels reckless. Perhaps most importantly, Lonesome Dove's quest to establish a cattle ranch in Montana feels like the greatest triumph of all the world – in Woodrow Call's phrase, a "hell of a vision". In Santa Vittoria, the efforts of the population of a small Italian town to hide their stores of wine from the Nazis seem quixotic and, eventually, anti-climactic.

It is harsh, perhaps, to compare The Secret of Santa Vittoria to McMurtry's masterpiece, for all books should be judged on their own merits, but I found the parallels occurring to me as I read the book, and illuminating when trying to diagnose Santa Vittoria's points of failure. Without the illustrative comparison to Lonesome Dove I mentioned above, one could still say that Santa Vittoria is often slow in its pacing, cartoonish in its characterisation and redundant in its attempts. I couldn't help but think how fortunate the citizens of Santa Vittoria were that the German commander sent to loot their hidden wine is determined, for no apparent reason, to use the mind rather than the muscle (pg. 272). The Italians bamboozle the Germans, which is fine enough for a while, but eventually they are in clear mockery of the German occupiers, which is unfathomable. Even when more hardened German (and SS) troops arrive, there are only a few instances of coercive torture and one contrived execution. By the end, I was staggered that Captain von Prum's Luger hadn't bore a hole in Bombolini's head – or anyone's. There are some clever schemes in this book, but I was never fully on board with the townspeople's ingenuity, because I knew it was only the author's artifice preventing Santa Vittoria from becoming Oradour-sur-Glane.

With this bewilderment always in mind, it was a struggle for me to engage with the stakes in Crichton's book. If you strain, you can dig out some deeper theme about how the wine represents the life of the town, or life in general, which must be protected at all costs against the death and surrender represented by the Germans. But such is the plodding nature of the story, and its artificial, often whimsical, tone, that it can be hard for such a theme to settle. There's no great movement in the prose or the story, and it drags. This novel is one of those that, while good, you feel it should be better than it is. I kept expecting some note to sound which never came.

[Blaine DeSantis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really torn on this book, as I remember the movie that was made from this - a movie that was a huge box office disappointment! Maybe it is because I am Italian, maybe it is because the sites in the book all come from the region of my ancestry - Le Marche on the Adriatic Coast - and maybe it is because of the fact that this is an older book based on WW2. I wanted to like the book that is sort of classified as a comedy but at the same time there are vast parts of this book that deal with the horror of war that, while realistic, really gave me a different impression on the book.
The basic premise is that the town of Santa Vittoria is a great wine growing and producing area, and is the wine used to make vermouth. After the US invasion of Italy the Germans move into the area and a small group of 8 or 9 soldiers are told to take the town and get the wine. The town, after the fall of the Fascist government, elected a new mayor who is charitably described as a Sicilian clown, except he is a much deeper thinker than they realize and he does things to help the town including hiding the wine. This is a book about occupation and resistance, about the Italians appearing dumber than the Germans and yet have outwitted them the entire time. Seen as that there is definitely amusement in the book.
However, the scenes of torture by the SS, sacrificial citizens unwittingly being led to torture, a village hostage who is left tied up in the village square before being killed, the substitution of another citizen for sacrificial death, etc. all is a lot more than I expected and to me the book drags through these parts, as the citizens are forced to do all of this to protect their One Million bottles of wine. Not that realistic that wine is more important that people and dignity, and dignity is what is lacking in this book as the Italians are made to look like fools and in the end the German occupiers are made to suffer the same fate.
Also, cannot stand the character Tufa who plays an important part in the book and certain storylines appear not to have been successfully tied up by the end of the book.
A fast read, and at times a fun read, but not one I would really recommend.

[Scoats · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow. There is so much to like about this book.

It starts off a little dry and old school. After a few chapters it hits its stride though.
Well developed characters and great pacing. Surprising suspenseful. Machiavelli is worked well into the story.

Not that I have anything to go on, but it feels that this book captured what a small hillside Italian town was like back in the 1940s.

One thing that really disappoints me after finishing it is that book isn't as real as the introduction or parts of the book make it out to be. Googling revealed almost nothing about the story behind this book. I could find a lot about the movie from 1969 but little about anything else. It's a long book and bit of it explains the materials found that go into telling the story behind the story. This whole conceit isn't needed. An omniscient narrator would have lead to a come compact book.

[Aaron · Rating 5 out of 5]

A bumbling, hilarious, over-the-top and pitch perfect gem of a read. The story of a small town in Italy that goes to extraordinary lengths to protect it's wine- the purpose of the town's (and it's inhabitants) very existence- during a German occupation towards the end of World War II. Laugh out loud funny. Hard to find, but if you can, it's absolutely worth getting.

[Spook · Rating 5 out of 5]

A second world war story about the Germans taking over a small Italian wine growing town. Beautifully told and a great insight into the peasant mind when they hide the wine and refuse to tell it's location. Full of humour, love, courage, cruelty, honour and cowardice. A must read story.

[Mizmuzikmama Musiker · Rating 5 out of 5]

Old book but one of the most memorable I've read. Italy, wine, comedy, suspense, it has it all!

[Melissa Tea · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved, loved, loved this book. Storytelling at it's best.

[Ellen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. I read it when it was first released, and had a lot of fun. There's a lot of humor in this book and for anyone who likes Italy and Italians it's a really fun read.

[Jana · Rating 5 out of 5]

Being an Italian myslef, I absolutely LOVED this book! Thanks to my mom for recommending it!

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great book. Best novel I've read in a long time. There's plenty of humor early on, but as the end comes (and the SS) the fun ends. It rings true from beginning to end.

[Anthony Orso · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have read this a few times and have always enjoyed the tale. Great character development, a great plot and well written.

[Klára · Rating 5 out of 5]

Knihu mi doporučil a půjčil táta mého kamaráda, stejně jako pár knih předtím. Motivací ke čtení bylo společné téma, kterých bylo vždy pomálu, ovšem pak se kniha četla sama. Malá vesnice Santa Vittoria existuje daleko od všech problémů probíhající války, je jí jedno, kdo zrovna je u moci. Samozřejmě dokud nezačne být v ohrožení to nejcennější, co ve vesnici lze nalézt- víno. A tak se obyvatelé musejí spojit, aby ukryly milion láhví nejlepšího vína před německými vojáky, jejichž velitel se rozhodl vesnici obsadit a o víno oloupit bez násilí. I přes téma obsazení města je kniha humorným románem, ve kterém se seznamujeme s obyvateli města, jejich potížemi, životem a hlavně myšlenkami. Kniha mě velmi bavila a doporučila bych ji každému, kdo hledá něco lehčího na odreagování. I přes tu jednoduchost schovává kniha poselství pro každého. Mně jako vždy ukázala, že jednání lidí nelze dělit nutně na špatné a dobré. Ostatně to je boj, který se bojuje stále dokola.

[Bill · Rating 5 out of 5]

I saw the film starring Anthony Quinn & Anna Magnani which was based on this book years ago and hadn't thought of it in ages until a co-worker and I were talking about stories set in Italy and this came up.

I have to say the book started off slowly and I felt like I was getting bogged down in the routine every day life of a small town where they make wine and nothing else happens. And then they find out the Germans are coming to take all the wine back to Germany. The story takes off at that point as the villagers plan what to do; and the interactions between Mayor Bombolini and Captain von Prum changed my whole perception of the book. Even with the slow beginning what happens after earns this book a well deserved 5 stars from me. And a celebratory glass of Italian red. Cin Cin!

[Carolyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was such a fun book. I found this book, fittingly, on a shelf at my Italian grandmother’s house, with pages so old that they cracked or fell out of the book as I turned each one. That gave the story more allure, a sort of magic as I traveled through time to this tiny Italian village.

It’s amazing that this book is based on a true story, and I very much want to know how much of it is true and actually happened to the author, and how much is exaggerated or added for effect. The descriptions of these characters, the way in which Bombolini becomes mayor, the day to day lives of the inhabitants of Santa Vittoria, their traditions, their mannerisms, and of course their undying respect and honor for their wine.

The lengths they went to in order to hide their wine from the Germans were equal parts legendary and outlandish. Would they pull it off? Would the Germans find it? I turned each fragile, disintegrating page with bated breath as the wall was built, as the Germans arrived, as the bottles exploded, on and on. The people of Santa Vittoria faced each new challenge with such spirit and unyielding determination to keep their wine, I couldn’t help but root for them the entire way.

I know this is also a motion picture, and now I’d like to see it. This book made me laugh out loud and dazzled me with such strong characters and communal spirit. The writing style does somehow feel a little old now, though I can’t quite put into words why, but nonetheless the book was worth my time. Also notable: I started this book in November, went away for six weeks, and still remembered the story vividly when I picked it up again upon my return. Sometimes I seem to forget a book almost as soon as I read it, but this one is as sticky as dried wine under an Italian sun.

[Czarny Pies · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is about the heroic story of a cute charming village in Italy that prevents the German army which is evacuating from seizing the town's inventory of wine. You may think that the premise is thin but in 1966 it was enough to keep the book on the best seller list for over a year. I read it as a sixteen year-old and was shocked at how banal and trivial it was.
It served to teach me the valuable lesson that most successful books are quite dreadful.

[Lynn G. · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 * Lost one-half star because of the length; for me it was about 3 to four hours too long. Interesting story of how a small Italian village, in the middle of nowhere, fooled a equally small occupation force (0nly 8 soldiers) during World War II. None of the characters particularly engaged me, nor did I find any of them sympathetic.

[Barbara Neuzil · Rating 5 out of 5]

I remembered that I had read this as a teen when it first came out. I just finished rereading it. Glad that I did. The characters are vivid as is the town. I did not remember details but I did remember the flavor of the book for 58 years. There is one section that is a bit rough...one person is tortured. When you see it coming, you won't miss anything if you pass that section over.

[Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great book...I don't know why this book is not considered one of the greats..highly recommended !

[John P · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wine, Italy, Italians, Nitsche, Machiavelli, a hero waiting for a circumstance; what’s not to love?