Italy Books

14 month sojourn of the author's in-depth profiles of the very diverse regions and people throughout Italy. Beautifully descriptive, with a full open-hearted portrayal entertaining from the first to the last page.

This is one of the most innovative books I have read on the subject of comparative history. It brings a breath of fresh air to the field. Both professionals and amateurs who are interested in American and Italian history will find it intellectually stimulating.
The authors provide well-crafted essays which touch on some of the most controversial topics related to both Souths. Slavery and labour relations, the ideology of the landed elites, modernisation and backwardness are all topics treated at length in the contributions. Particularly impressive is the attempt by a few authors, such as Enrico Dal Lago and Donna Gabaccia, to write explicitely comparative essays.
The introduction to the book not only sets the guidelines for the entire comparative project, but it will also be an inspiration for any future scholar who will have in mind to study a specific aspect of this fascinating comparison between the American South and the Italian Mezzogiorno.
This is a MUST read for both comparative historians and American and Italian historians alike. At the same time students and non academics will find it an extremely interesting book.

The American Express Travel Guide of Amsterdam (1992), written by Derek Blythe, has been re-written by Carol Winkelman and re-published as Travel&Leisure: Amsterdam (1997). Travel&Leisure magazine, in conjunction with Macmillan Travel, designed this new version of the book for a larger audience that includes young travelers, budget travelers, babyboomer travelers, discriminating travelers, and business travelers. The new book is a combination of traditional and offbeat travel guide, helping the reader find his/her way to hotels, restaurants, museums, and historical sites while also taking him/her "inside" Amsterdam to experience its cafe culture, lively arts scene, and famous nightlife. The new book, like The American Express Guide, includes an excursion to Rotterdam that leads the reader from the historic to the ultramodern.

great coorelation between neurophysiology and computer science

This book gives a fascinating guide to the churches of the city of Rome up to the 7th century. Not only does it show how the architecture developed and how existing buildings were adapted to liturgical use, but also how (not for the last time) the Christian Church became an arm of the state. It is a pity that the publishers did not have the text of the English translation proof-read by a native speaker but, in spite of the fact that it often clunks and is unidiomatic, the meaning is usually perfectly clear. The superb illustrations and copious plans more than make up, however, for the faults of the text and I recommend it very highly.

I went to Rome last March and took this book with me. Although it is not designed as a guidebook (it is heavy on foot-notes, further references etc) it encouraged me to go and visit some of the lesser known sites of Rome where archaeologists have recently been working. I loved the chapter on food supply especially and went to see Monte Testaccio, a pile of broken pots discarded from the boats that carried wine up the Tiber. It's extraordinary - as high as a natural hill - and the book gave full details of the internal structure, the types of vessel that made up the pile, and some of the statistics for how much alcohol Rome consumed. There are some other great chapters too and the authors are well-known experts: Kathleen Coleman, who wrote the chapter on sports and pastimes, was the technical advisor for the Russell Crowe movie Gladiator. Anyway, all in all, a really fascinating read and bang up-to-date on the continuing work archaeologists are doing in Rome to expose daily life, behind the glitzy imperial facade.

This book is invaluable when visiting ancient monuments in Sicily because so many are in pieces with very little signage, and most of that is in Italian. The flip over pages show how wonderful these sites would have been and the visitor really can appreciate all the steps in designing and building them. In many cases, stones from the sites were used to build nearby towns, so the original sites are a jumble of leftover stones for the most part which mean nothing to the average visitor - this is why this book is vital.

If you are looking for a first-hand, honest account of a little known area of Italy, you should get this book. This accounting of a group of young people's sojourn through the Marche area of Italy made me want to get on the first plane! No travel agent bull---- here. You will fall in love with the book and the region.

Great book! Fun and so funny! Will quickly inspire any reader to hop on a plane to Europe and explore the world the way these girls have

Each time I visit the Met at Christmas and see this exqusite creche, I am in awe at the magnitude and splendor of detail. The book was fascinating. I appreciated the in-depth history of Neapolitan artists who meticulosly hand carved the individual figures with such fastidious, detailed execution..

These 42 black and white photographs, taken between 1979 and 1987 with Diana cameras, are eerily beautiful. The cameras were made in the 1960s, are constructed entirely of plastic, and have a lack of focus at the edge of the image. The photographs taken by Lindbloom are all of Florence, but not a familiar Florence filled with commerce and people, Florence is strangely empty and ghostly in these photographs which feature much sculpture and architecture. The text does not go through the photographs to talk about what they are of and how they were taken, so they might make more sense if the viewer has been to Florence, though all the photographs are titled by location. There is a preface by Linda Pastan, an introduction by Ben Lifson, a "Note on the Photographs" by Eric Lindbloom himself, and a very informative afterword on the Diana camera by Italo Zannier.