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.

I first read this book in high school back in the early 70s. I remembered really enjoying it, and I am glad I re-read this again!

Kind of outdated in some areas, but still pretty entertaining.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

The town clown Italo Bombolini has just been declared mayor by the town of Santa Vittoria. He turns out to be a very good leader for the town, but it is with the arrival of the Germans that he shines.

The people of Santa Vittoria are wine makers and the Germans want their wine. Bombolini's problem is how to hide over a million bottles of wine.

If the length of the book seems to be daunting there was a movie based on the book. I rember enjoying the movie but of course the book offers you so much more.

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.

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.

The Secret of Santa Vittoria spent 50 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. I have no idea why. It became an international bestseller. Ditto. Never saw the film version (it won a Golden Globe). The book was released in 1966. Maybe WWII was closer in people's minds (the book is about a small Italian town's resistance to the Nazis). Maybe writing was different. I kept waiting for something to happen. Lots of character description but no conflict that rose above humdrum, small village banalities. In the end I didn't care about anybody. Not a good thing when reading a novel.

The best book I've read all year. I laughed and cried.

I may be biased, since the author is my nephew’s wife’s grandfather; but this is an excellent read. Set in a small Italian village whose entire life focuses around wine, it takes place near the end of WWII, after the death of Mussolini and the Italian change of sides in the war. It is the story of a small group of soldiers sent to occupy the village and their interaction with the townspeople. It is both anti-war and an exposition on life in the village, and describes the importance of wine in the village culture. There are both grim and celebratory moments, as well as humor.

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.

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

Near the end of World War II, the German captain sent to a small mountain town in Italy to confiscate most of its wine thinks he can easily accomplish his job by getting the villagers to cooperate with him. But he doesn't know what he is up against. While pretending to cooperate with the Germans, the "simple" Italian villagers quietly get the best of the Germans. Even when the Germans use more brutal tactics, the townspeople manage to frustrate his plans.