Ten reasons to like Italian Inspector Montalbano book – TV series combo

As an Italian I am certainly biased when I list ten reasons to like Inspector Montalbano, the beloved Sicilian detective who adopts unusual methods to catch criminals. In Italy everybody knows and likes Commissario Montalbano’s adventures in Sicily thanks to two TV series which are super hits at international level. Even BBC4 shows them with Italian subtitles.

Here are ten reasons to like Andrea Camilleri’s Sicilian police inspector and most charming commissario ever created in literature and films.

1. Inspector Montalbano is a very charming Italian man who (surprise, surprise!) has a great taste in food. Before reading or watching Montalbano it’s best have some food to hand as the descriptions of the Sicilian food are guaranteed to make you salivate! His favourite dishes include pasta coi broccoli, arancini di riso and spaghetti con l’astice.  
   
2. The name Montalbano is homage to the Spanish writer from Barcelona, Manuel Vazquez Montalban, who also created a famous crime novel series based on the character of the 50-year-old gastronome-detective Pepe Carvalho. I have only read a Carvalho novel  and loved it. The passion for food and investigations runs in the veins of both Andrea Camilleri and Manuel Vazquez Montalban.
   
3. Inspector Montalbano lives and works in the fictional town of ‘Vigàta’, in the fictional district of ‘Montelusa’. Camilleri based Vigàta on his home town of Porto Empedocle on Sicily’s south-west coast. Sicilians are very proud of Camilleri and in 2003 Camilleri’s home town, Porto Empedocle – on which Vigàta is modelled – took the extraordinary step of changing its official name to that of Porto Empedocle Vigàta.
4. Andrea Camilleri refers to the engaging and multi-faceted character of Montalbano as a “serial killer of characters,” meaning that he has developed a life of his own and demands great attention from his author.
5. Popularity of Montalbano around the world is demonstrated by the fact that 30 millions of books have been sold so far and that Cammilleri has been translated in 35 languages.
6. Camilleri’s books are one of the few Products Made in Italy that is not suffering recession.
7. The books are written in a language that is a mix of the Sicilian dialect and Italian. I considered myself lucky to be able to read and understand this mixed language that only a genius like Camilleri could have used if not invented. Usually in literature authors use either a dialect or a proper language. But Camilleri uses his own spoken language which is actually very realistic as it is what a real commissario in Sicily would speak.
8. The TV series Il Commissario Montalbano and Il Giovane Montalbano (The Young Montalbano) are based on the books.  Generally the adaptation of a great book for television is never what you imagined while you were reading the book. But in this case it is quite the opposite: the TV characters seem to come straight from the author’s imagination and you are never disappointed.  The main reason for the accuracy of the TV series is the close collaboration of Camilleri with the film production cast and crew. In each episode (which usually lasts 90 minutes like a feature film) the commissario and his policemen investigate two cases. It seems a bit confusing but there are two Montalbano TV series with very different looking actors in the role of the detective. It could have been a disaster for the whole project but the involvement of the author in both series ensured that they are both loyal to the books. Some prefer Montalbano in Luca Zingaretti’s (the more mature inspector) interpretation and some Michele Riondino’s Montalbano. I personally like them both although deep inside I prefer the young Montalbano as I feel he is truer to the commissario from the books. But trust me that the majority of Italians love the older Montalbano.
9. There are 12 books translated into English already to feed your appetite for Montalbano’s stories and keep you entertained for a while. Read an extract from the book The Shape of Water here. This the first book in the Inspector Montalbano series. When I read all stories in Sicilian / Italian language it took me a while to get used to the style so maybe a couple of pages are not enough to get into the spirit of these tales. In the English translations the typical Sicilian variations get lost but you can still enjoy the books.
   
10. The biggest difference for me between the books and the TV series is that the Montalbano in the books is very much like his creator Camilleri madly in love with cigarettes and smoking, while in the TV series he is a healthy person who does not smoke and swims every day (even in Winter) in the beautiful waters of Marinella in Vigata where he lives in a flat overlooking the Sicilian sea. One last curiosity: Montalbano’s house in the film when is not a film set, it hosts tourists as it is a hotel and restaurant. In recent years, a new pilgrimage was born: the one of the tourists wanting to visit Montalbano’s Sicily.