Certainly its customs are way different than Sawston's, and it's hard for an Englishwoman to navigate.
The problem with Monteriano is that-even though it's beautiful and a stark contrast to the repressed ol' England-it's hard to say whether it is morally good. On the other side, we have Monteriano, a pretty Italian town "where one really does feel in the heart of things, and off the beaten track." The Italians are full of passion and know how to live life to the fullest. Given the suffocating atmosphere of Sawston, we can hardly blame Lilia for wanting to escape. So now they're trying to get Lilia out of the way so that they can mold her daughter Irma, who is still young enough to be influenced. The Herriton family tries to mold Lilia into a respectable member of society, but they fail bigtime. She's the kind of tyrannical matriarch you'd never want as your mother-in-law, and exemplifies the hypocrisy of English society. It's a couple of degrees removed from Stepford. People pretend to be virtuous, but they usually care more about keeping up appearances than actually doing the right thing. On one side, we have the stifling world of Sawston, England, your typical small town full of dust, good manners and narrow-minded gossips. Okay, this book deals with two completely different worlds. You look really uncomfortable in that corset. They are sending her on a trip to Italy with the young but trustworthy Caroline Abbott, to prevent her from making a bad match in England. Herriton and her children, Philip and Harriet.
Where Angels Fear to Tread opens with Lilia, a young unsophisticated widow, being dropped off at the train station by her in-laws: the domineering Mommy Dearest Mrs.
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