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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.

Essential Reading

Item EXITL597. Buy these 4 items as a set for $67 including shipping, 15% off the retail price.
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Eyewitness Guide Venice & the Veneto

Eyewitness Guide Venice & the Veneto

by Eyewitness Guides

  • GUIDEBOOK
  • 2012
  • PAPER
  • 312 PAGES
  • COMING IN FEBRUARY

Featuring color photography, dozens of excellent maps and a synopsis of the region's attractions. (ITL200, $20.00)

Eyewitness Guide Florence & Tuscany

Eyewitness Guide Florence & Tuscany

by Eyewitness Guides

  • GUIDEBOOK
  • 2011
  • PAPER
  • 336 PAGES

Superbly illustrated, this compact guide shows the neighborhoods, museums, shops and sites of Florence and surroundings in full color. (ITL46, $25.00)

Galileo's New Universe, The Revolution in Our Understanding of the Cosmos

Galileo's New Universe, The Revolution in Our Understanding of the Cosmos

by Laurence A. Marschall | Stephen P. Maran

  • SCIENCE
  • 2009
  • PAPER
  • 174 PAGES

Written in commemoration of the 400th anniversary of the invention of Galileo's telescope, this insightful analysis combines Galileo's personal story with the latest developments in modern astronomy, documenting important astronomical advances and the effects they have had over the years. (SCI263, $14.95)

Italy Map

Italy Map

by Borch Maps

  • 2011
  • MAP

A handy, laminated map. (ITL19, $11.95)

 
Florence Map

Florence Map


by Borch Maps

  • 2006
  • MAP

A detailed, plastic-covered city map of Florence at a scale of 1:7,000. (ITL59, $8.95)

Venice Map

Venice Map


by Borch Maps

  • 2008
  • MAP

A colorful, detailed city map of Venice, perfect for finding your way around the famously labyrinthine streets and canals. (ITL26, $8.95)

Fodor's Florence's 25 Best

Fodor's Florence's 25 Best


by Fodor's

  • GUIDEBOOK
  • 2011
  • PAPER
  • 128 PAGES

This shirt-pocket guide includes an excellent map and essential information on the city's highlights, including sightseeing, restaurants and shopping. (ITL140, $11.99)

Fodor's Venice's 25 Best

Fodor's Venice's 25 Best


by Citypack

  • GUIDEBOOK
  • 2012
  • PAPER
  • 176 PAGES
  • COMING IN MARCH

This shirt-pocket guide includes an excellent map of the city center and essential information. (ITL106, $12.99)

Made in Italy, A Shopper's Guide

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)

Biba's Italy

Biba's Italy


by Biba Caggiano

  • FOOD
  • 2006
  • HARD COVER
  • 320 PAGES

Caggiano focuses on regional, seasonal food in this omnibus cookbook (featuring 100 recipes), menu planner and travel guide to Rome, Florence, Bologna, Milan and Venice. Nicely produced, this handsome sepia-toned book includes recommended restaurants, cafes and markets in each city. (ITL777, $29.95)

A Traveller's History of Italy

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

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)

Art and Life in Renaissance Venice

Art and Life in Renaissance Venice


by Patricia Brown

  • ART & ARCHITECTURE
  • 2005
  • PAPER
  • 176 PAGES

This compact volume evokes the spirit of Renaissance Venice with authoritative essays and 120 full-color illustrations. (ITL57, $40.80)

Florence, The City and its Architecture


by Richard Goy

  • ART & ARCHITECTURE
  • 2006
  • PAPER
  • 320 PAGES

An authoritative and handsomely illustrated overview of the city. Richard Goy, who has also written a book on the architecture of Venice, pays particular attention to the topography and character of the city. (ITL697, $39.95)

Renaissance Florence, The Invention of a New Art

Renaissance Florence, The Invention of a New Art


by A. Richard Turner

  • ART & ARCHITECTURE
  • 2005
  • PAPER
  • 176 PAGES

A cultural and social history of the city focusing on the great art and famous monuments, featuring vivid color pictures and illustrations. (ITL50, $40.80)

The Stones of Florence

The Stones of Florence


by Mary McCarthy

  • ART & ARCHITECTURE
  • 1989
  • PAPER
  • 230 PAGES

The classic history of the art, architecture and culture of Florence. Novelist McCarthy takes us on a quick and vivid tour of the history of the Medicis and the city of Florence, focusing on Renaissance art. (ITL15, $14.00)

Galileo's Daughter, A Historical Memoir of Science, Faith and Love


by Dava Sobel

  • BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR
  • 2000
  • PAPER
  • 448 PAGES

Sobel evokes the daily life of 17th-century Italy in this engaging tale, drawing on letters to Galileo from his illegitimate daughter, a nun in a Franciscan convent in San Matteo. (ITL176, $17.00)

Life of Galileo


by Bertolt Brecht

  • BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR
  • 2008
  • PAPER
  • 256 PAGES

Galileo ranks as one of Brecht's most intensely alive, human, and complex characters. In this play, the great Renaissance scientist is locked in a brutal struggle for freedom from authoritarian dogma. (ITA70, $13.00)

The World of Venice

The World of Venice


by Jan Morris

  • TRAVEL NARRATIVE
  • 1995
  • PAPER
  • 315 PAGES
  • FAVORITE

Morris displays her talent for research, anecdote and well-wrought prose in this spirited history of a beloved city. (ITL12, $18.95)

Watermark

Watermark


by Joseph Brodsky

  • TRAVEL NARRATIVE
  • 1993
  • PAPER
  • 135 PAGES

A metaphysical, metaphorical meditation on Venice by poet Joseph Brodsky. His ruminations take the form of 48 short chapters, each prompted by an idea, memory or scene associated with his much loved city. (ITL105, $13.00)

A Traveller's Companion to Florence


by Edward Chaney | Harold Acton

  • ANTHOLOGY
  • 2003
  • PAPER
  • 336 PAGES

This illuminating guide brings Florence to life through the letters, diaries and memoirs of travelers and Florentines from past centuries. The selections, from Boccaccio to D.H. Lawrence, are as rich as the city itself. (ITL485, $16.95)

Dead Lagoon, An Aurelio Zen Mystery

Dead Lagoon, An Aurelio Zen Mystery


by Michael Dibdin

  • MYSTERY
  • 1995
  • PAPER
  • 297 PAGES

Dibdin -- a master of ambiguous settings, shady dealings and fast-paced prose -- returns to Venice in this sixth book in the thoroughly enjoyable Aurelio Zen series. (ITL577, $14.95)

Death in Springtime

Death in Springtime


by Magdalen Nabb

  • MYSTERY
  • 2005
  • PAPER

Two women are kidnapped in Florence, sending Marshal Guarnaccia to the Tuscan foothills, in this third mystery in the series. (ITL635, $12.00)

In the Company of the Courtesan

In the Company of the Courtesan


by Sarah Dunant

  • LITERATURE
  • 2007
  • PAPER
  • 385 PAGES

Dunant paints a vivid, earthy portrait of Renaissance Venice in this absorbing novel of intrigue, ambition and love -- cleverly narrated by the wily dwarf Bucino Teodoldo, loyal companion of the courtesan. (ITL650, $13.95)

The Birth of Venus, A Novel

The Birth of Venus, A Novel


by Sarah Dunant

  • LITERATURE
  • 2004
  • PAPER
  • 397 PAGES

A rich novel of art, passion and patronage, memorably set in late 15th-century Florence and prominently featuring the famously pious reformer Savonarola. (ITL532, $15.00)

The Light in the Piazza and Other Italian Tales

The Light in the Piazza and Other Italian Tales


by Elizabeth Spencer

  • LITERATURE
  • 1996
  • PAPER
  • 304 PAGES

The touching tale of young (and not so young) love, now a Broadway musical. Spencer, a southerner like her characters Margaret and Clara, writes eloquently of the transformation of a mother and daughter by Florence. (ITL628, $22.00)

Travelers' Tales Tuscany

Travelers' Tales Tuscany


by Tara Austen Weaver | James O'Reilly

  • ANTHOLOGY
  • 2002
  • PAPER
  • 222 PAGES
  • OUT OF PRINT

An anthology of great excerpts from travel essays about Tuscany, with pieces from Saul Bellow, Frances Mayes and Ferenc Mate, among others. (ITL315, $16.95)

Blind Watchers of the Sky, The People and Ideas That Shaped Our View of the Universe


by Rocky Kolb

  • SCIENCE
  • 1997
  • PAPER
  • 352 PAGES

A popular history of astronomy, focusing on ideas and personalities of Tycho Brache, Kepler, Galileo and other great scientists in the field. (SCI10, $18.00)

Dialogues Concerning Two New Sciences


by Hawking Stephen | Galileo Galilei

  • SCIENCE
  • 2005
  • PAPER
  • 230 PAGES

This text contains the provocative essay by Galileo Galilei, famed for its proving Copernicus' theory that the earth revolves around the sun. It is edited and accompanied by an illuminating biography of the father of modern physics, written by Stephen Hawking. (SCI264, $12.95)

Galileo, A Very Short Introduction

Galileo, A Very Short Introduction


by Stillman Drake

  • SCIENCE
  • 2001
  • PAPER
  • 152 PAGES

In a startling reinterpretation of Galileo's trial, Drake advances the hypothesis that Galileo's prosecution and condemnation by the Inquisition was caused not by his defiance of the Church but by the hostility of contemporary philosophers. (SCI265, $11.95)

The Earth Moves, Galileo and the Roman Inquisition

The Earth Moves, Galileo and the Roman Inquisition


by Dan Hofstadter

  • SCIENCE
  • 2009
  • HARD COVER
  • 240 PAGES

Hofstader traces the beginnings of modern science to the historic clash between Galileo and the Roman Inquisition, explaining the apparent paradoxes and placing the moment in the widest cultural context. (SCI262, $23.95)

More Recommendations

Here are some other groups of books that might be of interest

Longitude provides recommended reading for travelers in partnership with the leading tour operators and travel programs for hundreds of destinations worldwide. We've got the classic, new and hard-to-find books and maps to help you get the most out of your adventures.