Italy Books

Noa Steimatsky (associate professor of film studies and art history, Yale University) presents Italian Locations: Reinhabiting the Past in Postwar Cinema, a thoughtful examination of how fascism and World War II forever changed Italy, as reflected through the works of four Italian filmmakers. From the documentary work of Michelangelo Antonioni on the River Po to the creations of Pier Paolo Pasolini, Roberto Rossellini, and Luchino Visconti, Italian Locations is fraught with works that defined a sense of place - a place transformed and reconstructed in the wake of destruction. A handful of black-and-white photographs illustrate this thoughtful analysis, especially recommended for college library shelves and students of historical Italian cinema.

Steimatsky describes images and the tone in which they are pictured of the Italian director Pier Paolo Pasolini's 1966 film "The Earth as Seen From the Moon" as "reconstruct[ing] the ramshackle, marginal world, seeing its humility as grandeur, its muteness as eloquence, its tragic-comedic resourcefulness as a 'desperate vitality'." Such circumstances and characteristics applied to large sectors of Italian society in the post-World War II decades. Steimatsky's timeframe for the postwar cinema stretches to about the latter 1960s. As with the foregoing comments on aspects of Pasolini's films, the author does not basically engage in interpretation (which often becomes overwrought or fanciful with many critics) nor in explanation (which can become didactic or wallow in the elementary). Instead, her style is basically explication, or clarification for properly orienting the reader as a premise for moving on to other matters regarding the subject at hand.

Steimatsky, who teaches film studies at Yale, considers the study of film as a part of cultural studies. In so doing, the author regards Italian film as having a major role in restoring and in so doing reinventing to considerable degree Italian society after its decades of Fascism under Mussolini and alliance with Hitler and the society's devastation in World War II. This is a large claim going beyond the perspective of many critics, film historians, and such of expounding how film can represent situations or issues; make impressions on masses of viewers; and stir imagination. These and more inhere in this author's appreciation of the Italian film. Notwithstanding the novelty and even possible hyperbole of the author's regard of Italian film, one agrees with it. Film in Italian culture is seen to have had such a role considering the weakness of institutions such as government and the military in Italian society.

Taking the top directors of Rossellini, Visconti, and Antonioni with Pasolini, Steimatsky devotes a chapter to each; in which she focuses on each director's primary theme or distinctive style. Antonioni's films, for example, are characterized by their display of modernism. Rossellini depicted "corpse-cities" where children and adults and sometimes foreigners tried to live a normal life in a pre- or post-civilizational condition while also trying to comprehend the enormity of the changes they face symbolized by the destruction of buildings, familiar places, etc.

It is when Steimatsky departs from her spare identifications of elements of a scene that the critique opens into the area of cultural studies around theme of the renewal of post-War Italian society. The author's insights and formulations range from the sociological to the religious to the psychological. In discussing the "Altered Terrain" created by the director Antonioni's camerawork and varied subjects, the author sees "[b]etween quotidian detail and a movement of emptying-out of the landscapes, fragments of river life, less-than-episodes, and unpursued plot clues traverse...the documentary body" of one of his films. Cinematic aspects, images, and subjects of Pasolini's films present an "aesthetic system [which] draws on the potency of the devotional image, whose reverential archaism also carries a realist claim."

This is film study at its most engaging, stimulating, and informative.

A gem of a book, illustrated delightfully and with short excerpts form the authors' favourite writers, inclding Mary McCarthy, D.H. Lawrence, Carlo Levi and Edith Wharton -- all waxing lyrical on Italy and its beauties.
This evocative little book -- pocket sized, but elegantly bound for travelling with you everywhere whilst in Bella Italia -- contains personal essays by expatriates (they live in Rome, naturally!) David Leavitt and Mark Mitchell. They variously describe the multiple delights of this peninsula, rendering the joys and surprises of their adopted homeland, including iced cappuccino, umbrella pines on the Riviera, the expressive nuances of language, window shopping, the many pictoresque names and shapes of healthy pasta, sidewalk art made of flowers.

If you love Italy, this book will caress and enhance your Italian tastes. If you still have to discover Italy's pleasures, then this book will be the right chaperon.

As Goethe said in his 'Letter from Naples': "...it is a strange sensation for me to keep company with people who live only for pleasure."

I am very sorry to learn that this small, beautifully put together
book is out of print. If you have ever vacationed in or worked in or
simply visited Italy or if you have dreamed about doing it, you'll
want to, somehow, find this book. Leavitt and Mitchell have collected
famous writers thoughts on Italy (D.H. Lawrence, Nellie Melba, John
Ruskin, Mark Twain, etc.) and then written down their own wonderful
musings: (What makes an Italian ragu?, The thing that Italian boys do
better than any other boys in the world, Is there a cure for chicken
pox?, Speaking "opera" Italian, et al).This is a charming
& fascinating book which ... is definitely not an ordinary Travel
book. This is a book about living in Italy and loving and relishing
every moment and sharing those moments with us. I hope Chronicle
Books is smart and generous enough to reprint it or, perhaps, publish
a paperback edition.

If you are serious about Italian wine and/or food this is great book to have in your library.

The book does a nice job of explaining the wine varietals from particular regions of Italy. They also tell you which years are outstanding, very good, fairly good and unsatisfactory by wine. This book is very helpful for a trip to your favorite wine store.

If you are interested in wine tours while in Italy the book gives descriptions of wineries and which one offer tours and whether you need to make reservations or not. I also appreciated the wine store names, addresses and phone numbers that are listed by region. My husband appreciated the similar listings of golf courses. Their listings of antique fairs were also useful.

When I was booking our last vacation, I compared the hotel and restaurant suggestions with other guides and found that they were similar. It is always nice to have multiple sources for information.

I think that this book has something for everyone. If you never plan to visit Italy this book is very useful with its general information about Italian varietals and which years to purchase.

Tbis book gives all the information needed to actually visit Italian wine regions and the wineries themselves.

Wineries in Italy are generally not set up to receive tourists as in Napa. Prior arrangements usually need to be made just to visit, not to mention an actual tour and on-site tasting.

The book is organized by region with specific address and contact information for some (but not all) wineries. You might not be able to find the exact winery that produced an obscure bottle that you found at Trader Joe's but you can find one near it and probably just like it.

The book is a heavy softcover octavo with glossy pages and many pictures. There are also paid advertisements for wineries and vinotecas grouped with the editorial content. This is not a drawback but is helpful to know which places actually welcome visitors (some don't). The famous Sassicaia winery at Tenuta San Guido in Toscana for example, does not. I found that the binding is poor and pages have a tendency to fall out but I may have gotten a bad example. The book is somewhat heavy (about two pounds) but on balance I would say worth actually carrying with you on your trip to Italy.

The Touring Club of Italy is an organization similar to AAA which publishes maps and guidebooks in addition to offering other travel services. They have a useful website (in English and Italian) at touringclubdotcom.

You can't say Don Monkerud isn't frank with his readers. A writer, who lives on the California coast, he starts this book off by telling you straight that, in his view, he hasn't got the credentials to write about his (and his wife's) experiences on a recent trip to Italy. He's neither an experienced world traveler nor a linguist, he admits. In other words, he lets us know that Fodor's, Lonely Planet, and other guidebooks have nothing to fear from him. That confession out of the way, he proceeds to take the reader on an extended sightseeing ramble through Italy- a tour- with occasional digressions into various historical, political and cultural byways. In the 19th century people must have sent along their observations by letter, in much the same way, while making the Grand Tour of Europe. You get the impression that Monkerud isn't trying to impress you- he's just passing on what he sees... and eats. Some of the descriptions of even simple meals make one's mouth water.

The essential attraction of this book is its honesty; it isn't trying to be something unique. If he disagrees with something one of the other tour members says, he doesn't hesitate to tell us about it. Imagine a standard guidebook digressing into the California energy crisis!

I do have a bone to pick, though, with part of the book; that is the "sidebar" attempts at a humorous rendering of bits of Italian history. If these have a place, it is in a separate book, not in this one, where I found them to be jarring, and in places, somewhat offensive. Monkerud espouses a liberal point of view, and it's difficult for me to square that with some of what he writes.

That aside, however, it's fun to accompany him on his trip. And the photos are excellent, and complement the writing nicely.

Italy Uncensored is not your ordinary tour guide. The Monkeruds go out to see what there is to see in this classical country, but, strangely enough, it is only partly what all the rest of us see. He is at times funny, other times satirical, and at other times plain outright outrageous! But around the comedic accounts is a wonderful stroll--actually, more like a hike--through the city streets and countryside as he observes this very different world and compares it to ours. The Monkeruds take a Ric Steves
tour for part of the trip, then spend some time on their own. But whether moving quickly or slowly, they not only get the feel of the land, but also get to convey it to us in a well-written style.I thoroughly enjoyed reading these adventures Italiano. I recommend that you try it for yourself.

Great book! During the last year, I've cooked over a dozen dishes from this cookbook, and they've all turned out wonderful. The recipes are authentic, delicious, easy to follow, and usually quick to prepare and cook.

These delicious recipes are simple and assisted by lots of beautiful photos. Great bargain!

Excellent book covering wines from throughout Italy. Written by some one who obviously loves Italian wine it covers wines back to the 1920's (even in one case 1893). The book is totally different from the Robert Parker type of wine book and is in some ways much more informative. I would strongly recommend this book to anyone interested in Italian wine. Bring on another edition.

This book is by far the best book about italian wine i know.

I covers indept allmost every aspect, with describing and rating the producers as the most important.

They have visitet many of the small produceres, who normally don't find there way to these kind of books.

The problems with the book is that it is old. Many things happens in italian wine theese days.

An other problem, or limitation, is the word 'Noble'.

It means that only wine that were considered good at that time is included in the book.

Jesper Sleth

I couldn't agree more with the previous reviewer. We went to Venice in 2006, and this is definitely what you want to have with you as you cruise down the Grand Canal. (And if you're smart, you will have bought a multi-day vaporetto pass, so you can cruise up and down as many times as you want, getting a feel for the city in a leisurely, non-stress fashion.)

Kent's Venice is NOT a substitute for a city map to go walking around with, nor for a good travel guide like Rough Guide or Insight Guides. It doesn't cover every tiny alley, and it won't keep you from getting lost. But when you've wandered into a piazza, and there are no obvious signs, like why is that weird skull carved over the door of that palazzo, or even what palazzo IS it you're looking at, then Kent's Venice is what you want. The simple watercolor illustrations cut out unnecessary detail, and put in clear, identifying details of major landmarks, so you can instantly orient yourself.

I can't recommend this book too highly! We're going to Florence in 2008, and I've already bought Kent's Florence & Siena. I wish there were more books in this series.

This is like no other book on Venice I have found. It has been our companion on two trips. As we ride the Vaparetto, the history of the buildings unfolds. I read out loud to my sweetie, and before you know it, other English speaking tourists are hanging on my every word.

The illustrations are outstanding and along with a more detailed map of the Venetian Islands, any first time visitor can feel immediately at home.

It doesn't bog one down in great details or teeny tiny print. Can' believe it is our of print!

Susan McMichaels has created a very moving and very readable Jungian view of St. Francis. I felt like I know the man and his struggle as I have known few biographical characters. For anyone who wants a really relevant twentieth century view of a great saint, this is the book to read.

For serious Jungian types this book is a remarkable study of individuation. For the rest of us it is absolutely entertaining and engaging. Thank you Susan for this book.

Father Burtchaell's presentation of this series of events in Italy is a joy to read. The issues go beyond conscription/conscientous objection to civil disobedience and legislation. Don Lorenzo's life and story are enlightening, and the way in which he made a protest into changes in Italian law is a model of effecting change. Father Milani's logic is clear and powerful, using masterful rhetoric. This would make an excellent book for a seminar on civil rights or related topics. The book concerns a Catholic priest, and is written as well by one. It does contain religious debate, and it might present problems if used in a public school. But its tale, only lightly framed by the author, is told mostly in letters, articles and court documents of the time. The nearest figure in American history to Father Milani might be Henry David Thoreau.

This is a classical masterpiece. In this book, you can find a systematic analysis of the war and of the emptiness of war. It is a "must buy" for students and for professor of political science and juridical studies. It is a "must buy" for all the people on earth that cherishes the life of their own children. DO NOT MISS IT.

This book was loaned to me by a travel agent friend who had used it for his personal travels. I quickly purchased a copy and a companion volume, Karen Brown's Charming Bed and Breakfasts in Italy. They made the real difference in our trip. We found that each place we stayed offered something special, whether it was a quiet, flower-filled courtyard in the center of Florence or a memorable meal on the coast. We also appreciated the variety of prices and accommodations described. A real find.

Last year my son and I traveled to Italy for the first time on his winter break. This was a last minute decision and a friend recommended Karen Brown's book. We were daring, and didn't make reservations prior to leaving, but carried her book with us. We stayed at a recommended Inn at each of our destinations in Italy and was not disappointed once. Each Inn and Inn Keeper were delightful and as described in the book. We were never disappointed and looked forward to the next town we decided to visit!

This trip was such a fantastic experience, that we're doing it again this year!