Fabio Volo is one of those guys that you just can’t help liking. He’s good at everything he tries and he’s tried a lot of things. He began his career with a radio show, then he started writing young adult fiction, and now,though he’s known outside of Italy primarily as an actor, I’m not sure which of those things he prefers.
His books are pretty good; I always recommend them to people who are studying Italian because they are conversational and pretty easy to read. Young people like them and I don’t think parents could find fault in that because they are strong, positive and intelligent stories that are funny, too.
I really enjoyed the book and its subsequent movie version of Il Giorno In Più, starring Volo and Isabella Ragonese. This one’s the story of a ladies’ man that sees a woman day after day on the streetcar on his way to work and becomes infatuated with her. Though the book was very successful, the movie was, for reasons that I still can’t understand, panned by Italian critics.
READ IL GIORNO IN PIÙ (ONE MORE DAY) IN ENGLISH
READ IL GIORNO IN PIÙ IN ITALIAN
WATCH THE MOVIE ON YOUTUBE
While Italian critics complained of a “Hollywood formula”, a Hollywood formula works great with romantic comedies like Il Giorno in Più if it has nice looking, accomplished actors ( Il Giorno In Più surely has that ), witty, smart dialogue (and it has that), and chemistry between the protagonists (yes, it does). I liked Michela and Giacomo, wanted to see them together, felt their pain when they were apart, and the ending made me feel all warm and fuzzy romantic.
The premise is ridiculous, plausible, and fanciful all at once, all things I like in a good love story. A man flies 2000 miles to pursue a woman he hardly knows and she, instead of calling the cops to have him arrested for stalking gives him a chance. It isn’t far-fetched, because through the ridiculous and fanciful there are genuine emotions and a believable attraction between Michela and Giacomo.
Fabio Volo, well, there’s just something likeable about him. He’s the kind of guy that you’d want for a friend, the kind that would make a good boyfriend.
If you like a good romantic comedy, what’s not to like about Il Giorno In Più? If there is some big glaring reason for its failure it’s gone completely over my head; I think Americans will enjoy it as I much as I did.
I Love Italian Everything 