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Umbria

READING AND TRAVEL GUIDE

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Enrich your travels with reading! Here's a hand-picked list prepared for your journey in conjunction with the book experts at Longitude.

Item EXITL460. Buy these 4 items as a set for $63 including shipping, 15% off the retail price.
With free shipping on anything else you order.

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Eyewitness Guide Umbria

by Eyewitness Guides

• GUIDEBOOK
• 2011
• FLEXI-BOUND
• 192 PAGES

A marvelously illustrated, compact guide to the culture, history and attractions of Umbria, organized geographically and especially helpful for its innovative site plans, building diagrams and local maps. (ITL512, $20.00)

Songbirds, Truffles and Wolves, An American Naturalist in Italy

by Gary Paul Nabhan

• TRAVEL NARRATIVE
• 1994
• PAPER
• 256 PAGES

The author, a poet and naturalist, heads along the Franciscan Way from Florence to Assisi. This most unusual travelogue combines natural history, spirituality and a lively appreciation of local food and food traditions. A print-on-demand paperback. (ITL99, $16.00)

Reluctant Saint, The Life of Francis of Assisi

by Donald Spoto

• BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR
• 2003
• PAPER
• 272 PAGES

Spoto draws on fascinating new research to explore the travels, spirit and work of the beloved saint. This engaging portrait provides an excellent overview of the life of St. Francis. (ITL849, $16.00)

Umbria Regional Map

by Touring Club Italiano

• MAP

A detailed map at a scale of 1:200,000. (ITL119, $14.95)

 

Also Recommended

Made in Italy, A Shopper's Guide

by Laura Morelli

• GUIDEBOOK
• 2008
• PAPER
• 208 PAGES

The second edition of Morelli's expert survey of handcrafted Italian shops and products from Murano glass to ceramics, jewelry and leather. (ITL473, $24.95)

Rick Steves' Italian Phrase Book & Dictionary

by Rick Steves

• LANGUAGE & PHRASEBOOKS
• 2008
• PAPER
• 281 PAGES

This compact phrase book, organized thematically and with a brief dictionary, also includes Steves' insight into how to break the ice and make friends around the world. (ITL424, $8.95)

Rough Guide Tuscany and Umbria

by Jonathan Buckley | Tim Jepson

• GUIDEBOOK
• 2009
• PAPER
• 836 PAGES

This comprehensive travel guide includes region-by-region descriptions and a good overview of history and culture. With chapters on Florence and surroundings, Lucca, Pisa, Maremma, Siena, Arezzo, Peruguia, Assisi, Spoleto and Orvieto. (ITL292, $22.99)

Umbria: Discover the Heart of Italy with Its Cities, Riches of History, Art and Traditions

by Touring Club Italiano

• GUIDEBOOK
• 2003
• PAPER
• 224 PAGES

A practical, comprehensive guide with excellent maps published by the Touring Club Italiano. (ITL511, $16.95)

A Traveller's History of Italy

by Valerio Lintner

• HISTORY
• 2008
• PAPER
• 287 PAGES

A brief history of Italy through the 1990s -- wide-ranging, accessible and necessarily condensed. With a useful chronology and historical gazetteer, this book marches confidently through the centuries. (ITL86, $14.95)

La Bella Figura, A Field Guide to the Italian Mind

by Beppe Severgnini

• CULTURAL PORTRAIT
• 2007
• PAPER
• 288 PAGES

Italians themselves love this guide to the Italian character, which addresses the apparently never-ending passion for beauty, disorder and high emotion. Severgnini opens the book with a snapshot of the hubbub at Malpensa Airport, then moves on to Tuscany, Rome, Naples and Sardinia. (ITL718, $14.00)

The Italians

by Luigi Barzini

• CULTURAL PORTRAIT
• 1996
• PAPER
• 352 PAGES

The definitive portrait of the Italian people, this is a classic, scholarly essay on the Italian character. Though first published in 1964, it's still worth reading for its insight, grace and wit. (ITL05, $16.00)

Etruscan Art

by Nigel Spivey

• ART & ARCHITECTURE
• 1997
• PAPER
• 216 PAGES

In this illustrated and wide-ranging introduction, Nigel Spivey brings the Etruscan world to life, illuminating the social, political and cultural context of the art objects and artifacts that remain the singular achievement of the Etruscans. (ITL68, $18.95)

A Valley in Italy, The Many Seasons of a Villa in Umbria

by Lisa St. Aubin de Teran

• BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR
• 1995
• PAPER
• 224 PAGES

This short memoir chronicles a year in the small Umbrian village of San Orsola--especially the delights and frustrations of renovating a decayed villa. Taking in food, wine, local customs and landscapes, the book is an excellent introduction to the region (ITL98, $14.99)

Italian Days

by Barbara Grizzuti Harrison

• TRAVEL NARRATIVE
• 1998
• PAPER
• 479 PAGES
• FAVORITE

Grizzuti Harrison writes with warmth and depth of her journey from Milan south to Calabria in this sprightly account of Italy and the Italians. (ITL02, $15.00)

On The Road with Francis of Assisi

by Linda Bird Francke

• TRAVEL NARRATIVE
• 2006
• PAPER
• 256 PAGES

Assisi wandered for 20 years, affording Newsweek editor Francke and her patient husband plenty to see and do in the piazzas, sanctuaries and chapels of Assisi, Siena, Bologna, Venice, Gubbio, Rome and other choice spots. (ITL647, $15.95)

Salvation, Scenes from the Life of Saint Francis

by Valerie Martin

• BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR
• 2002
• PAPER
• 268 PAGES

A new and splendid biography of Saint Francis of Assisi. It's a vivid literary accompaniment to Giotto's frescoes in the basilica of San Francesco, Assisi. (ITL282, $13.00)

After Hannibal

by Barry Unsworth

• LITERATURE
• 1998
• PAPER
• 250 PAGES

Unsworth's vivid novel takes in the history, landscape, pleasures and the other Americans and Europeans, like himself, who live in Umbria. (ITL100, $17.95)

Italian Folktales

by Italo Calvino

• LITERATURE
• 1992
• PAPER
• 763 PAGES

A treasured collection of 200 lively folk tales presented by none other than the great Italo Calvino, a modern master with great affection for the folkloric traditions of his childhood. (ITL314, $25.00)

Italy in Mind

by Alice Powers

• LITERATURE
• 1997
• PAPER
• 349 PAGES

A terrific collection of some of the best literary writing on Italy, including pieces by Melville, Lawrence, Henry James, Mary McCarthy and many others. (ITL39, $17.95)

Ratking

by Michael Dibdin

• MYSTERY
• 1997
• PAPER

Venetian crime investigator Aurelio Zen goes after the kidnappers of a Perugian industrialist in this enjoyable thriller, winner of the Gold Dagger Award (and first book in the series). (ITL622, $13.95)

The Little Flowers of St. Francis

by W. Heywood | Ugolino | Madeleine L'Engle

• LITERATURE
• 1998
• PAPER
• 120 PAGES

Classic tales attributed to St. Francis, divided into 50 vignettes, including the story of the wolf of Gubbio, set along the Franciscan Way. (ITL132, $13.00)

Two Lives, Reading Turgenev and My House in Umbria

by William Trevor

• LITERATURE
• 1997
• PAPER
• 375 PAGES

The second of these two Booker Prize-nominated novellas is the beautifully rendered story of an ex-prostitute who settles in Umbria to write romance novels, but whose life is disturbed by local political events. (ITL122, $15.00)

Waking Raphael

by Leslie Forbes

• LITERATURE
• 2005
• PAPER
• 432 PAGES

This literary thriller, set in painter Raphael's hometown of Urbino, follows the fate of an art historian mixed up in local affairs. (ITL536, $15.00)

Birds of Europe

by Lars Svensson

• FIELD GUIDE
• 2010
• PAPER
• 416 PAGES
• FAVORITE

Featuring 3,500 glorious paintings by Killian Mullarney and Dan Zetterstrom, the second revised edition of this exquisite guide has been brought up to date with revised text and maps. (FG47, $29.95)

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