Picture Tour of Letter from a Cave
Pictures which served as inspiration for the novel
A view of the mountains from Andeer, a village in the Rhaeto-Romanic area of the canton of Grisons in Switzerland, where Andreas and his youngest daughter, Emilia, live and work.
Below a few pictures of Andeer and Spluegen, villages which are central to the novel.
History in action: Via Spluga, now a beloved hiking path, was the main link between the canton Grisons in Switzerland and towns and villages in Italy for many centuries. It was used by pack drivers and tradesmen who crossed the Alps to transport their goods (and ideas) from North to South and vice versa. It begins in the town of Thusis and leads through the breathtaking Viamala Gorge, the Roffla Gorge, the villages of Andeer and Splügen among others all the way to the top of the Spügenpass and down to Isola and Chiavenna in Italy.
Via Spluga is also the favorite hiking path for Andreas, the protagonist in Letter from a Cave.
Overwhelmed by a thunderstorm on one of his hikes in the mountains near the Swiss-Italian border, he takes shelter in a cave, where he finds an old abandoned backpack. In it he finds a letter, written by a young Jewish refugee to his pregnant wife in Italy during World War II. This sets him on a quest to uncover the mystery of the letter and find the intended recipient or her family in Italy.
Flower boxes with geraniums decorate many houses in this area.
The decorations in the photo above and below are typical carvings on many of the houses in the canton Grisons (or Graubünden in German). The technique is called Sgraffito. The name comes from the Italian word sgraffiare or graffiare, meaning “scratch” or “scratching,” a form of decoration made by scratching through a surface to reveal a lower layer of a contrasting color. It’s typically done in plaster or stucco on walls or on ceramics before firing.
Below are some pictures of the vineyard in Tuscany, where Andreas, his youngest daughter, Emilia, his son Tonio and Toni’s partner, Mario, spend a two-week vacation to celebrate Emilia’s first job as veterinarian.
It is also here in Vignaverde, where Andreas meets Luisa, the owner of the vineyard and vacation resort. She becomes his travel companion through Italy on his search for Bella, the woman the letter Andreas found, was addressed to.
Tuscan landscape
The entrance gate to the hill town of Volterra, which served as inspiration for the fictional town of Vignaverde.
The fictional town of Vignaverde
Part of Podere Francesco Ginori, the estate near Vignaverde where Andreas, Emilia, Tonio, and Mario spend their vacation in Tuscany and where they meet Luisa, owner of the estate and travel companion for Andreas on his search for Bella and her family.
This is the wine cellar of Eberle Winery in Paso Robles, California. It could equally be the wine cellar of the estate in Vignaverde.
A sunset in Tuscany
I hope you enjoyed the pictures. If you want to read the story, you can find it at: https://mybook.to/LetterCave