Italy Books

LIke its sister volume,Sevilla Forma Urbis, this luxuriously produced coffee-table sized book is a feast for the eyes. Each glossy, highly-detailed photograph, in gorgeous color, is one of hundreds of arial views of Napoli, Italy. Atlante Di Napoli is an outstanding example of photography as art. Each crisp, sharp photograph has an accompanying page with a non-detailed outline or template of the featured area, and these outline pages would provide hundreds of fascinating design elements for many art mediums. What sets this book apart is the apparently artless arrangements of the buildings, objects and natural formations that comprise Napoli. In the end, these photographs become less a factual record of the current metropolitan and coastline real estate and more an artistic exploration of color and pattern--a sort of arial example of Chaos Theory. Coastal lines, strings of bright red taxicabs, buildings snuggled next to each other all constitute a brilliant, chaotic design that somehow seems artifical and natural simultaneously. Artists, photographers, travelers and students of life will treasure this gem of a book!

Although there are likely to be many fewer Americans in Europe this year, mainly because of the double whammy of the soaring euro and the rising price of oil, some intrepid travelers will go. If you are going to be in Italy, you must have the large format bound collection of maps issued by the TCI (Touring Club Italiano). They are virtually foolproof and though a bit unwieldy in size, I and many fellow travelers have been saved from driving around in circles for hours and hours. With a scale of 1:200,000, many very minor roads, even unpaved ones, are shown clearly on the maps.

This particular volume, 120 pages of large maps and index, covers Centro, that is, the regions of Tuscany, Umbria, Lazio, Le Marche, Abruzzo, Molise, and Sardegna. My guess is that these regions represent where 75% of American tourists end up.

The book is very difficult to obtain in this country. Most of those that are available have been brought back here from people who bought them in Italy. Those that are available tend to be a bit tattered. Ignore this fact, for even if you find a new one, it will be a bit grungy after only a few days on the road.

Atlas Maior, originally published between 1662 and 1665 by Dutch cartographer Joan Blaeu, was an 11-volume, cartographical masterpiece of the Baroque period. Today, it's still known as one of history's finest examples of commercial mapmaking. Tachen's reprint is made from a well-preserved, hand-colored and gold-leaf copy of the atlas in the Österreichische Nationalbibliothek in Vienna. The maps, originally printed from hand-engraved copperplates, are exquisite, if not inspired.

The Italia book features all 60 color maps and all of Blaeu's original notes (translated). Blaeu's comments provide a glimpse of the 17th-century view of the world; his introduction, while interesting, is a bit dense. Thankfully, the Italia book also includes a generously illustrated introduction from Peter van der Krogt, giving a brief history of Dutch map and atlas production, as well as some details on the making of the Atlas Maior in particular. It's unfortunate that Van der Krogt's commentary does not continue through the book; given the extraordinary qualities of the individual maps, their corresponding captions are far too brief.

However, with its large format and beautifully printed color maps, Taschen's Atlas Maior packs a great deal of value into its $26 price tag -- a mighty bargain and a worthy addition to any art or map enthusiast's book collection.

(Multilingual text is in Italian, English, and German)

It is great,
and when I read it
I knew it was fate!

All Louisa's Books are
fantastic,
that I would want to got to
the atlantic!

She inspired me
and filled me with glee!

She gave me the courage
to write poems
at a very young age!

She is as great like
J.K Rowling
that they should go BOWLING!

They are both talented writers
their stories even spark up
like lighters!

She writes about a life
that can always makes you
wish that it was true!

She made a story that
can't be forgotten
easily,
so I bet she made heartily!

She gave life to 4 little
women and made them
part of our lives, that we go looking for
more of her hives!

She teaches values lesson
in a different way,
that everyone has got something to
say!

She showed us real talent
and even made her own patent!

She gave us the family that
we have always dreamed of
in our daily lives, and it seems
that she lived such a life!

She made us cry
and made us laugh
but she never told a lie,
her story is oh! so true
that if I didn't finish it
I would feel blue!

So I thank her for making such a story
that all I care about now are
hers and J.K Rowling's Books!!

The Touring Club of Italy is well-known for its focus on natural, cultural, culinary, and historical itineraries. This guidebook is very well written, perfect for pre-travel planning and to carry with you during your trip as well. Great for off-the-beaten path itineraries and do-it-yourself travelers.
The Touring Club offers guidebooks for each region of Italy, and for those of you who don't know, that's the best way to see Italy: region by region, NOT all in one single trip! So, find out which regions you want to see first by giving these books a read and finding out which area is more ideal for your vacation.

This book, that is well made, tells the history of a little Italian car, the Autobianchi Bianchina, that was built from 1957 to the end of the '60s.
The text (in Italian) is well written, has a structure in good order, and contains a large number of informations about the technical and aesthetic characteristics of the Bianchina Trasformabile (coupé), Berlina (sedan), Cabriolet and Panoramica (station wagon). The chapters of the volume are accompanied by a lot of photographs; the greater part of them, are in black and white, but there are also some beautiful photos in color. At the end of the book, there are one chapter that contains various advices for the restorers, one about the colors of the car bodies and interiors, one concerning the aesthetic differences between the various series of the Bianchina, the list of the codes of the bodies and engines, the number of the built cars (divided according to the type), and the technical specifications of all the models.

I believe this book deserve 10 stars for the humor (if possible) and the clarity in which the growth of the fascism in Italy is described. Not in Rome, not in a major town in Italy, but in a small and relatively unimportant place (for the continent) that can be the beautiful Sardinia. This is a history (or perhaps a chronicle) of how the fascism took place in Sardinia, masterly narrated by Lussu with clarity and most of all the humor of who knew that things were only to get worse. All who claim they know about fascism should first read this.

This intensely personal book on the Piemonte is a delight. It is a gorgeous pictorial survey of the entire region. The narrative brings a nice personal touch. And the recipes seem to be delicious. I plan on cooking several.

The Piedmont is the one region north of Rome that we have not visited. I am already planning my next visit to Italy based on this book.

I had this book when I was a kid. It's about a man who has repeated nightmares until a witch gives him a potion that allows him to "snatch" things he sees in the nightmares. But after the nightmares end, he finds he has another problem, and that problem is temptation.

I'm not sure where the story takes place. From the illustrations it looks like a bt like Russia.

I recently used a copy to find my way around Malta and Gozo. The entries are concise and focused. No unnecessary detail. I enjoyed the historical basics about the places I visited - just what I needed to know. The entries are precisely indexed - a really easy guide book to find your way around! My uncle has been living on Gozo for the last year and has decided that a copy of Baedeker's Malta is just what he needs.