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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 EXITL650. Buy these 4 items as a set for $77 including shipping, 15% off the retail price.
With free shipping on anything else you order.

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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)

Tuscan Country, A Photographer's Journey

by Wes Walker

• CULTURAL PORTRAIT
• 2007
• HARD COVER
• 160 PAGES

Walker captures the allure of the hill towns, including Siena, Lucca, Pisa and smaller cities and villages in 100 luminous color photographs. (ITL848, $29.95)

Too Much Tuscan Sun, Confessions of a Chianti Tour Guide

by Roberto Rodi | Dario Castagno

• BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR
• 2004
• PAPER
• 224 PAGES

With affection and humor, Castagno recalls his experience as a tour guide in Tuscany, and the remarkable travelers he meets along the way. His ease with and taste for Chianti combine to evoke intoxicating images of the much-loved Tuscan region. (ITL547, $14.95)

Central Italy Map

by Touring Club Italiano

• MAP

A regional map of Central Italy, including Tuscany, Umbria and Rome, at a scale of 1:400,000. (ITL103, $14.95)

 

Also Recommended

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)

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)

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)

Italy, A Short History

by Harry Hearder

• HISTORY
• 2001
• PAPER
• 294 PAGES

Elegantly written, generous and informative, this compact book takes in the sweep of Italian history from the Roman Republic through the Renaissance, World War II and up to the present. (ITL56, $29.00)

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)

La Bella Lingua

by Dianne Hales

• CULTURAL PORTRAIT
• 2010
• PAPER
• 336 PAGES
• NEW

Inebriated with the sounds of Italian, lovesick for its phrases and enamored of its earthy idioms, Hales, "a sensible woman of sturdy Polish stock," dives into the Italian of the piazza, literature, movies and streets in this charming memoir. (ITA26, $15.00)

The Art of the Renaissance

by Peter Murray

• ART & ARCHITECTURE
• 1992
• PAPER
• 286 PAGES

A classic, illustrated survey of the world of the Renaissance and its art. With chapters on Florence and its artists, the Netherlands, early illustrated books and many individual artists. (ITL14, $18.95)

A Day in Tuscany, More Confessions of a Chianti Tour Guide

by Dario Castagno

• TRAVEL NARRATIVE
• 2007
• HARD COVER
• 256 PAGES

This second book from Dario Castagno is a delightfully honest mix of memoirs from life in the hills of Tuscany's legendary Chianti region. Set on the day the author arrived home after a three-month tour of the United States promoting his first book, A Day in Tuscany compels readers to experience this enchanted corner of Italy through the heart and mind of a true Tuscan. (ITL838, $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)

D.H. Lawrence and Italy

by D.H. Lawrence

• TRAVEL NARRATIVE
• 2008
• PAPER
• 495 PAGES

This omnibus Penguin Classics edition includes Lawrence's three travel tales, each very different in tone and all wonderful: Sea and Sardinia is a nostalgic look at traditional ways of life; Twilight in Italy, an evocation of Lawrence's memorable stay on Lake Garda; and Etruscan Places his musings on ancient sites, including the painted tombs of Tarquinia. (ITL62, $18.00)

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)

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)

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)

Under the Tuscan Sun

by Frances Mayes

• TRAVEL NARRATIVE
• 1997
• PAPER
• 288 PAGES

In this best-selling memoir of buying, renovating and living in an abandoned villa in Tuscany, Mayes reveals the sensual pleasures found in rural Italy. (ITL85, $15.00)

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)

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)

Tuscany in Mind

by Alice Powers

• ANTHOLOGY
• 2005
• PAPER
• 400 PAGES

A fine literary anthology covering the region's history, geography, culture and (of course) food, featuring contributions by luminaries including D.H. Lawrence and Robert Browning. (ITL607, $14.95)

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)

Wildflowers of Britain and Europe

by Margaret and Roland Spohn

• FIELD GUIDE
• 2008
• PAPER
• 320 PAGES

Over 450 species of wild flower are covered, each beautifully illustrated with detailed paintings and clear photographs. (EUR46, $21.95)

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