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NORTHERN ITALY & THE RIVIERA
More Books

Acqua Alta • Donna Leon MYSTERY • 2009 • PAPER • 416 PAGES Number five in the series, this is another in Donna Leon's satisfying, wonderfully erudite Guido Brunetti mysteries. In this installment, a body is discovered in the home of diva Flavia Petrelli. (ITL559, $14.00)
After Hannibal • Barry Unsworth LITERATURE • 1998 • PAPER • 250 PAGES Having taken up residence in Umbria, Booker Prize-winning Unsworth writes of his adopted turf in this excellent novel. His vivid tale encompasses the history, landscape, pleasures, and modern invaders (i.e. the other Americans and Europeans who have come to set up shop in this beautiful part of the world). (ITL100, $17.95)
Al Dente, The Adventures of a Gastronome in Italy • William Black FOOD • 2004 • PAPER • 368 PAGES Clearly besotted by food, William Black travels throughout Italy in search of food and experience. (ITL548, $13.95)
Almost Blue • Carlo Lucarelli MYSTERY • 2001 • PAPER • 195 PAGES A mystery noir set on the streets of Bologna, in which rookie cop Grazia Negro tracks a serial killer. The title is a reference to an Elvis Costello song and music is an important subtheme in this thriller. (ITL673, $12.95)
The Architectural History of Venice • Deborah Howard GUIDEBOOK • 2004 • PAPER • 368 PAGES This revised edition of Howard's concise, fact-filled guide to Venetian churches, palaces, and guildhalls from the Byzantine era to the present includes 70 black-and-white and 100 color illustrations. (ITL797, $26.00)
Architecture in Italy 1500-1600 • Wolfgang Lotz • Deborah Howard ART & ARCHITECTURE • 1995 • PAPER • 205 PAGES A classic, comprehensive introduction to 16th-century Italian architecture. In this highly readable book, Lotz discusses the work of Renaissance architects including Bramante, Giulio Roman, Michelangelo and Palladio. Originally published in 1974 as part two of "Architecture in Italy, 1400-1600." With hundreds of color photographs and site plans, the book is an excellent companion for visitors to Venice, Florence or Rome. (ITL247, $40.00)
The Architecture of the Italian Renaissance • Peter Murray ART & ARCHITECTURE • 1997 • PAPER • 256 PAGES A classic, informative guide to Renaissance architecture throughout Italy, with black-and-white photographs and site plans. Beginning with the 14th century, Murray surveys major works and influences through the Italian Renaissance up to the 17th century. Ideal for travelers to Italy with an interest in architecture. (ITL34, $20.40)
Art and Society in the Middle Ages • Georges Duby ART & ARCHITECTURE • 2000 • PAPER • 128 PAGES A study of the relationship between the production of art and the nature of Medieval society. Noted French historian Georges Duby draws on religion, culture, government, geography, and, of course, artistic pursuits in this portrait of the Middle ages. (EUR85, $30.55)
Art in Renaissance Italy • Gary M. Radke • John T. Paoletti ART & ARCHITECTURE • 2001 • HARD COVER • 512 PAGES • COMING IN A complete, scholarly and remarkably readable overview of Italian Renaissance painting, sculpture and architecture, co-authored by two leading art historians. Paoletti and Radke examine the political, social and artistic currents that produced the unprecedented art of the 15th-17th centuries. With 600 illustrations (more than 200 in color). (ITL412, $85.00)
Art of the Byzantine Era • David Talbot Rice ART & ARCHITECTURE • 1985 • PAPER • 286 PAGES An indispensable classic and a thoroughly illustrated introduction to Byzantine art, wide-ranging and literate. Though it focuses on the extraordinary early Christian treasures of Constantinople (including site plans and photographs of mosaics, carving and decoration), the book also includes chapters on Sicily, Venice and Slavonic art of the Balkans. With 250 illustrations, many in color, and accompanying text, it is a compact introduction to the art and architecture of the era. (TKY22, $21.95)
art/shop/eat Milan • Paul Blanchard GUIDEBOOK • 2005 • PAPER • 183 PAGES Blue Guide's compact, illustrated guidebook with excellent local maps. The book includes not only museums, shops and restaurants, but also not-to-be-missed sites and attractions by neighborhood. The perfect addendum to the Blue Guide Northern Italy (ITL48). (ITL764, $13.95)
art/shop/eat Venice • Paul Blanchard GUIDEBOOK • 2005 • PAPER • 207 PAGES Blue Guide's compact, illustrated guidebook with excellent local maps. The book includes not only museums, shops and restaurants, but also not-to-be-missed sites and attractions by neighborhood. The perfect addendum to the Blue Guide Venice (ITL457). (ITL765, $13.95)
Birds of Britain & Europe • Hermann Heinzel • Richard Fitter • John Parslow FIELD GUIDE • 1998 • PAPER • 384 PAGES • COMING IN This masterfully organized Collins Pocket Guide, featuring 3,000 color illustrations covers the birds of Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. Maps, text and illustrations for each species are organized together on facing pages for quick reference in the field. Heinzel contributed all the handsome watercolor illustrations. (EUR49, $27.50)
The Birth of Venus, A Novel • Sarah Dunant LITERATURE • 2004 • PAPER • 397 PAGES This tasty tale of art, passion, politics and danger, memorably set in Renaissance Florence in the days after the death of the powerful Lorenzo de Medici in 1492, comes to us from British novelist, broadcaster and critic Sarah Dunant, who brings her experience as the creator of the private investigator Hannah Wolfe to this new era. The malevolent political reformer (and zealot) Girolamo Savonarola figures prominently -- and even Michelangelo makes an appearance. Not surprisingly, Dunant divides her time between London and Florence, which she so vividly depicts. A runaway bestseller. (ITL532, $15.00)
Blood from a Stone • Donna Leon MYSTERY • 2010 • PAPER • 320 PAGES Book number 14 in Donna Leon's satisfying, wonderfully erudite Guido Brunetti mysteries, again set in a richly evoked contemporary Venice. In this installment, a Senegalese immigrant is murdered in a public square and no some seems to care. Brunetti's young daughter dismisses the case with a breezy comment that he was only a vu compra (immigrant peddler). This, as you might imagine, leads to interesting questions of race and class. This is the Venice of gossip and incompetent politicians and corruption, not some white-washed paradise. (ITL615, $14.00)
Blue Guide Venice • Alta Macadam GUIDEBOOK • 2007 • PAPER • 288 PAGES A comprehensive guide to the art, architecture, museums, history and culture of Venice. With 30 illustrations, maps and site diagrams, recommended restaurants, cafes and hotels. (ITL457, $29.95)
By the Grand Canal, A Novel • William Riviere LITERATURE • 2005 • PAPER • 272 PAGES A group of friends reunite in Venice in the days after the 1918 armistice in this atmospheric novel. At its center is Hugh Thurne, a British diplomat who tries to escapes the shadows of war among the canals and dilapidated palazzos of the city. (ITL651, $13.00)
Casa Rossa • Francesca Marciano LITERATURE • 2003 • PAPER • 340 PAGES This is Italian filmmaker Marciano's second attempt at the pen, her first being a novel of Kenya, titled Rules of the Wild. This second popular novel, set in Southern Italy, Rome and New York City, follows the lives of a mother, daughter, and granddaughter, and their ties to modern Italy. The novel opens as the narrator, Alina Strada, prepares to sell the family farm (Casa Rossa) in Puglia. The author, as you might guess, divides her time between Italy and Kenya. (ITL534, $14.95)
Charming Small Hotel Guides, Venice • Fiona Duncan • Leonie Glass GUIDEBOOK • 2005 • PAPER • 224 PAGES A full page with a color photograph is dedicated to each entry in this guide focused on hotels with 20 bedrooms or less. (ITL772, $15.95)
The Charterhouse of Parma • Henri Stendhal • Richard Howard LITERATURE • 1958 • PAPER • 560 PAGES Judged by Balzac to be the most important French novel of his time, this masterpiece is in an English translation that does justice to its speedy, passionate style. Set in Parma, Italy, Stendhal's book transcends the court intrigues and military goings-on of the plot to produce a work of narrative brilliance. (ITL208, $11.95)
The City of Falling Angels • John Berendt HISTORY • 2006 • PAPER • 414 PAGES Berendt here does for Venice what he did for Savannah, Georgia in the phenomenally popular Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. His central hook is the investigation of the devastating fire of January 29, 1996, which destroyed the Venice opera house. What follows is intrigue, political machinations, financial chicanery, and, of course murder. Berendt succeeds in conveying a certain essence of what it is like to live in modern Venice. (ITL644, $16.00)
City Secrets Florence, Venice • Robert Kahn GUIDEBOOK • 2011 • HARD COVER • 150 PAGES A connoisseur's guide to Italy featuring 200 short recommendations, many by artists, architects and other members of the American Academy in Rome or the organization Save Venice. Each contributor provides a brief profile of a favorite walk, restaurant, garden, market, work of art, building or other attraction. With maps and travel information. (ITL277, $14.95)
The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy • Jacob Burckhardt • S. G. C. Middlemore • Peter Gay HISTORY • 2002 • PAPER • 401 PAGES While focusing on the flowering of art and culture in Renaissance Italy, Burckhardt maintains a keen interest in the nature of civilization itself in this Victorian classic -- originally published in this translation in 1878. He covers state, art, society, religion, morality, philosophy and other topics of universal interest. In a new Modern Library edition. (ITL307, $15.95)
Companion Guide Venice • Hugh Honour GUIDEBOOK • 2001 • PAPER • 386 PAGES The classic guide to Venice. Designed to take along on a walking tour, this wonderfully literate and opinionated guide describes the art and architecture of the city in loving detail. With dozens of maps, site plans and black-and-white illustrations. (ITL21, $34.95)
A Concise History of Italy • Christopher Duggan HISTORY • 1994 • PAPER • 320 PAGES A history of Italy covering the period from the fall of the Roman Empire to the present day, with particular emphasis on the difficulties it has faced in forging a modern nation state. The book weaves together political, social, economic, and cultural history. (ITL35, $30.99)
Death and Judgment • Donna Leon MYSTERY • 2009 • PAPER • 304 PAGES In the fourth installment in the enormously satisfying Guido Brunetti series, the Commissario investigates suspicious happenings in Santa Lucia, Venice and the Dolomites. (ITL745, $14.00)
Death in a Strange Country • Donna Leon MYSTERY • 2009 • PAPER • 400 PAGES This, the second in Brunetti mysteries, opens with a body of an American soldier in a Venetian Canal, an excellent opportunity for Commisario Brunetti to take on military might, the Mafia and local politicians. (ITL556, $14.00)
The Devil in the Hills • Cesare Pavese LITERATURE • 2002 • PAPER • 220 PAGES This book, the most personal of the many stories, poems and novels of Pavese, follows the summer adventures of three young men in the hills, vineyards and villages of the author's native Piedmont. Cesare Pavese was one of the most influential Italian voices of the mid-20th century. Unable to publish during Italy's fascist government, he turned to translation of Melville, Joyce and other modern masters. This book, like most of his work, was published in the short period between WWII and the author's death in 1951. Translated from the Italian by D.D. Paige. (ITL430, $23.95)
Doctored Evidence • Donna Leon MYSTERY • 2010 • PAPER • 272 PAGES Another in Donna Leon's satisfying, wonderfully erudite Guido Brunetti mysteries set in Venice. In this installment, a miserly, unpleasant woman is found murdered and all eyes, at least until our hero arrives, point to her Romanian housekeeper. This is number 13 in the series. Leon seamlesslessly weaves details of Venice and of the family life of her detective (whose kids are now teenagers) into her tale. (ITL613, $14.00)
Dolomites Trekking, Alta Via 1 & Alta Via 2 • Henry Stedman GUIDEBOOK • 2006 • PAPER • 174 PAGES A practical guide to walks and treks in the Dolomites featuring 51 detailed route maps, village plans and concise information on where to go, and what to see and do. The bulk of the book is organized into route descriptions that take the walker refuge-to-refuge. With sketch maps. The covers the Alta Via 1 -- Lago di Braies to Belluno (9-13 days) and Alta Via 2 -- Bressanone to Feltre (10-16 days) in detail. (ITL253, $22.95)
Dressed for Death • Donna Leon MYSTERY • 2008 • PAPER • 352 PAGES Book number three Donna Leon's satisfying, wonderfully erudite Guido Brunetti mysteries set in Venice. In this installment, what looks first like the obvious murder of a tranvestite prostitute gets much more complicated when the body turns out to be that of a bank director. Our poor dective has to cancel his vacation in the mountains to find out what is what. (ITL614, $14.00)
Edith Wharton's Italian Gardens • Vivian Russell BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR • 1997 • HARD COVER • 192 PAGES Edith Wharton's essays on the magnificent villa gardens of Lombardy, Veneto, Florence, Siena and Rome are as full of interest today as when they were first published in 1904. With commentary and color photographs of the villas and gardens by Vivian Russell, who retraced Wharton's journeys. She includes literary excerpts by Wharton, Charles Dickens, Henry James and other admirers. (ITL716, $45.00)
Encounters With Verdi • Marcello Conati • Richard Stokes MUSIC • 1993 • PAPER • 472 PAGES A collection of first hand accounts of experiences with Verdi, drawn from musicians, artists, academics, critics and journalists in the late 19th century. (MUS06, $24.50)
Etruscan Art • 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. A volume in the acclaimed "World of Art" series. (ITL68, $18.95)
Excellent Cadavers, The Mafia and the Death of the First Italian Republic • Alexander Stille HISTORY • 1996 • PAPER • 467 PAGES As you might guess from the title, this fast-paced book is a gripping account of corruption in Italy. The author offers an utterly absorbing -- and impressively researched -- account of the assassination of two top anti-Mafia prosecutors in 1992. Opening in Palermo in 1876, the book is a richly detailed analysis of Italian culture, a portrait of the two brave men who were killed and a penetrating look at the Cosa Nostra and its influence on all levels of Italian society. Masterful. (ITL58, $17.95)
Eyewitness Guide Italian Riviera • Eyewitness Guides GUIDEBOOK • 2011 • PAPER • 224 PAGES A handsome, beautifully illustrated and informative compact guide to Liguria. It covers places, recommended excursions, hotels and attractions along the spectacular Mediterranean coast from the border with France east to La Spezia. (ITL566, $20.00)
Eyewitness Guide Italy • Eyewitness Guides GUIDEBOOK • 2011 • FLEXI-BOUND • 720 PAGES Another gem in the Eyewitness series, this superb guide is handsome, convenient and up-to-date; it's the guide to carry. Featuring color photography, dozens of excellent local maps and a region-by-region synopsis of the country's attractions. (ITL32, $30.00)
Eyewitness Guide Milan and the Lakes • Eyewitness Guides GUIDEBOOK • 2011 • PAPER • 240 PAGES This superb guide to Milan and the Italian lakes features color photography, dozens of excellent local maps and a region-by-region synopsis of the area's attractions. Handsome, convenient and up-to-date, this is the guide to carry. (ITL165, $25.00)
Eyewitness Guide Umbria • 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. With select, annotated listings of where to eat and sleep and what to buy. (ITL512, $20.00)
A Farewell to Arms • Ernest Hemingway LITERATURE • 1995 • PAPER • 332 PAGES Set in snowy Switzerland and the rainy Italian lake country during World War I, this semi-autobiographical novel chronicles the romance between a British nurse and an American ambulance driver. It features some of Hemingway's finest writing about weather and -- unfortunately -- one of his flimsiest-ever heroines. (ITL384, $16.00)
Fellowship of Fear • Aaron J. Elkins MYSTERY • 2005 • PAPER • 288 PAGES As Gideon Oliver, professor of forensic anthropology, pieces together the history of bone fragments, he also pieces together a murder mystery. The aging, yet horny, Oliver, with the aid of his FBI friend, John Lau, takes another case. Assigned to teach at European military bases, Oliver encounters NATO and the KGB, while defending himself from physical attacks. The very first Gideon Oliver novel by Edgar-winner Aaron Elkins. (EUR233, $7.99)
Fodor's Exploring Italy • Fodor's GUIDEBOOK • 2008 • PAPER • 288 PAGES With its many photographs, great introductory chapters and practical travel information, this book is an excellent overview of Italy and its attractions for visitors. Featuring separate sections on suggested places to visit, recommended walks, practical information, descriptions of restaurants and hotels, ratings of sights, and a chronology of historic events. (ITL73, $22.00)
Fodor's Milan's 25 Best • Fodor's Travel Publications GUIDEBOOK • 2009 • PAPER • 128 PAGES A shirt-pocket guide to Milan, this slim book includes an excellent map of the center of the city and essential information on its highlights, including restaurant recommendations and sightseeing. (ITL608, $11.99)
Fodor's See It Florence and Tuscany • Fodor's GUIDEBOOK • 2009 • PAPER • 304 PAGES An inaugural volume in this new line of guides by Fodor's this book is notable for its especially vibrant presentation of the region. Each page displays full-color photos accompanied by much useful information on how to eat, sleep, shop, and sightsee in Florence and Tuscany. (ITL553, $24.99)
Fodor's See It Italy • Fodor's GUIDEBOOK • 2011 • PAPER • 496 PAGES An inaugural volume in this new line of guides by Fodor's this book is notable for its especially vibrant presentation of the country. Each page displays full-color photos accompanied by much useful information on how to eat, sleep, shop, and sightsee in Italy. With seven sections choc-full of tips to help make your visit memorable. The "Out and About" section features pre-planned walking and touring routes such as "A Lover's Walk in the Cinque Terre," "A Wine Tour from Alba to Cuneo" and "The Salentine Peninsula." (ITL550, $24.99)
The Food of Italy, Region by Region • Claudia Roden FOOD • 2003 • PAPER • 440 PAGES The marvelous Claudia Roden, who spent a year visiting cooks throughout Italy, presents 300 easy-to-prepare recipes in the context of Italian history, culture and geography. (ITL683, $24.95)
For the Beauty of the Earth: Birding, Opera, and Other Journeys • Thomas Urquhart BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR • 2006 • PAPER • 320 PAGES Urquhart chronicles a lifelong affair with nature, combined with a passion for music, as he travels-- and bird watches-- through pastoral England, Italy, the Camargue in Provence, and the villages of Mali. (BRD35, $15.00)
Foucault's Pendulum • Umberto Eco • William Weaver LITERATURE • 2007 • PAPER • 623 PAGES Eco's stunning sophomore effort is a wild, complex conspiracy novel set in Milan. The narrator (an expert on the Knights Templar) and his co-workers in a vanity publishing house specializing in hermetics invent a stunningly contrived plot to appeal to their readers. It involves Templars, Rosicrucians, Cabalists, occultists, Freemasons, Jesuits, and more. As events progess, the book becomes a study in how fiction can influence reality. A verbose, philosophical, scholarly cross-genre predecessor to the Da Vinci Code, perfect for readers who feel up to an extremely rewarding challenge. (ITL649, $15.95)
Frommer's Venice Day by Day • Frommer's GUIDEBOOK • 2009 • PAPER • 180 PAGES A compact shirt pocket guide, ideal for a short visit, featuring remarkably good suggestions for everything from food, hotels and neighborhoods to shopping. With a separate foldout map of the city center. (ITL353, $12.99)
Giuseppe Garibaldi, A Biography of the Father of Modern Italy • Benedict S. Lipira BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR • 1998 • HARD COVER • 121 PAGES A biography of the 19th-century Italian nationalist, published by the author. (ITL303, $15.95)
The Gothic Enterprise, A Guide to Understanding the Medieval Cathedral • Robert A. Scott ART & ARCHITECTURE • 2005 • PAPER • 294 PAGES Scott, whose interest in the history of cathedrals began when he first saw the magnificent Cathedral Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Salisbury, England, takes his reader on a historical, architectural and sociological tour of the magnificent spires and stained-glass windows that dot the landscape of Europe. It's an accessible, personable overview. (EUR190, $21.95)
Heavenly Supper, The Story of Maria Janis • Fulvio Tomizza LITERATURE • 1991 • HARD COVER • 196 PAGES A well-researched, fictionalized account of 17th-century Venetian peasant Maria Janis, who was reputed to have eaten nothing but consecrated communion wafers and communion wine for five years. From the author of Materada and the winner of Italy's coveted Premio Strega. (ITL817, $40.00)
Here Is Where We Meet • John Berger LITERATURE • 2006 • PAPER • 256 PAGES This novel weaves a portrait of several European countries through encounters with the dead, from the narrator's mother, whom he discovers on a park bench in Lisbon, to a childhood friend wandering a market in Krakow. "The dead don't stay where they are buried," the protagonist's mother tells him, and this becomes the mantra for this most unusual journey through Europe's history and people. (EUR189, $15.00)
A History of Fascism, 1914-1945 • Stanley G. Payne HISTORY • 1996 • PAPER • 628 PAGES A scholarly, comprehensive history of fascism -- and other forms of ultra-nationalism -- with a focus on Europe between the World Wars, and especially Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany. (EUR132, $24.95)
History of Italian Renaissance Art: Painting, Sculpture, Architecture • David G. Wilkins • Frederick Hartt ART & ARCHITECTURE • 2006 • PAPER • 699 PAGES A comprehensive history of Italian art from the 13th through the 16th centuries, long the standard reference on the flowering of art in the Renaissance. David Wilkins thoroughly revised this sixth edition, broadening the scope of the book and adding many new color plates, including details of the Sistine Chapel frescoes. (ITL308, $136.20)
History of My Life (Vols. III & IV) • Giacomo Casanova • Willard R. Trask BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR • 1997 • PAPER • 704 PAGES Casanova's Venice is a city of intrigue and extravagance, a fitting homeland for a multi-faceted, extravagant man. The foremost scoundrel of the 18th century was also a memoirist of formidable talent. In the fourth volume of his autobiography, Casanova -- who was, variously, a spy, a diplomat, a soldier, an astrologer, and a cleric -- tells of his imprisonment in the dungeon of the Ducal Palace in Venice. The tale made him a wanted commodity throughout Europe in 1756, the year of his escape, and indeed it is no less sensational now. (ITL381, $40.00)
A History of Venice • John Julius Norwich HISTORY • 1989 • PAPER • 673 PAGES A vivid 1,000-year history of the Venetian Republic from its ancient settlement to its humiliating defeat by Napoleon in 1797. Norwich, who also wrote a three-volume history of the Byzantine empire, marshals myriad personalities, battles, sieges, and facts into a compelling history of Venice's rise to power under the Doges. He's a terrific writer, and a great admirer of this "most beautiful of cities." (ITL177, $26.00)
Il Postino • Michael Radford 1995 • DVD The Italian comic actor Massino Troisi stars as a shy Italian postman living in a small fishing village on a Mediterranean island off the coast of Italy who learns the ways of poetry and romance while delivering mail to the Chilean poet Pablo Neruda. In Italian with subtitles. (ITL541, $19.99)
The Inferno of Dante, A New Verse Translation • Dante Alighieri • Robert Pinsky LITERATURE • 1996 • PAPER • 355 PAGES The celebrated modern translation of Dante's "Inferno" by former Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky. An accessible and elegant rendering of the classic text, enhanced by an introduction and notes. (ITL411, $12.00)
Insight City Guide Venice • Insight Guides GUIDEBOOK • 2008 • PAPER • 313 PAGES In its trademark style, this handsome Insight Guide gives a profusely illustrated overview of Venice. Featuring concise essays by well regarded authors on the art, architecture, and history of the city, it contains hundreds of photos and maps as well as some limited practical information. This handy book is a popular and highly recommended one-volume introduction to Venice. (ITL23, $16.95)
Insight Guide Italy • Insight Guides GUIDEBOOK • 2011 • PAPER • 432 PAGES In its hallmark style, this glossy guide is a full-color introduction to the land, people and history of Italy written by a team of experts. Brief background essays highlight important topics. With sections on Italian food and wine, cinema, music and opera. Much of the book is devoted to a regional survey of attractions. (ITL108, $23.99)
Inventing Leonardo • A. Richard Turner BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR • 1994 • PAPER • 268 PAGES Turner, a leading art historian of the Renaissance, offers a lively appraisal of the controversial genius. It's an elegant and stimulating book. (ITL79, $28.95)
Italia, The Art of Living Italian Style • Edmund Howard ART & ARCHITECTURE • 1997 • HARD COVER • 192 PAGES A beautifully illustrated tour of Italy's most characteristic and striking architecture, landscapes and design. Howard includes a range of styles from villas, farmhouses and gardens to Baroque churches, mosaics and statuary. Accompanying essays cover the history, artists and background for each photograph. He concludes with a visitor's guide. (ITL398, $40.00)
Italian English Bilingual Visual Dictionary • DK Publishing LANGUAGE & PHRASEBOOKS • 2005 • PAPER • 360 PAGES With thousands of neatly arranged color photographs, this compact book is impressively comprehensive, covering everything from the basics of la casa (house) to the vocabulary of le granaglie e i legumi secchi (grains and legumes). With a handy reference section in the back. (ITL626, $14.95)
Italian Food • Julia Child • Elizabeth David FOOD • 1999 • PAPER • 384 PAGES A comprehensive overview of the cuisine of Italy by the great Elizabeth David, originally published as two volumes in 1958 and 1960. David employs a connoisseur's standards for taste and a scholar's meticulousness in her survey of the diverse food and culture of Italy. (ITL298, $17.00)
Italian Indispensables Vocabulary Builder • Audio-Forum LANGUAGE & PHRASEBOOKS • CASETTE TAPE A short audio program wiith 50 common words and phrases for travelers. (ITL401, $9.95)
Italian Journey, 1786-1788 • Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe • W.H. Auden • Elizabeth Meyer TRAVEL NARRATIVE • 1992 • PAPER • 498 PAGES The journals and letters from Goethe's 'grand tour' of southern Italy as a 37-year-old. There's some serious intellectual sledding here, but in addition to his musing on philosophy and art, Gooethe includes some wonderful writing on the Italian landscape. And it's all made easier by a lovely translation by W.H. Auden and Elizabeth Meyer. (ITL144, $18.00)
The Italian Renaissance • J. H. Plumb HISTORY • 2001 • PAPER • 320 PAGES A well-written history of the Renaissance, its artists and thinkers, originally published in 1961, with chapters on Florence, Milan, Rome and Venice, Michelangelo, Da Vinci and Women of the Renaissance. (ITL562, $16.00)
The Italian Renaissance Reader • Julia Conway and Peter Bondanella • Mark Musa ANTHOLOGY • 1987 • PAPER Introducing artists and thinkers of the Renaissance, this collection includes selections by Francesca Petrarca, Giovanni Boccacio, Leonardo Da Vinci, Niccolo Machiavelli and Benvenuto Cellini. (ITL218, $18.00)
Italian Villas and Their Gardens • Edith Wharton ART & ARCHITECTURE • 2008 • HARD COVER • 284 PAGES A facsimile edition of Wharton's witty, astute essays on the history and pleasures of Italy's famous villas, first published in 1904. With the original full-page illustrations by Maxfield Parrish, the book, a classic, covers 80 villas and gardens, including Boboli Garden, Villa Corsini and Villa Borghese. (ITL91, $35.00)
Italian, A Language Map • Kristine K. Kershul LANGUAGE & PHRASEBOOKS • 1999 • PLASTIC CARD This durable, foldout card, featuring 1,000 words and phrases, works as a quick reference for travelers. (ITL645, $7.95)
The Italians • Luigi Barzini CULTURAL PORTRAIT • CASETTE TAPE The definitive portrait of the Italian people, a classic essay on the Italian character first published in 1964 -- and still worth reading (or listening to!) for its insight, grace and wit. Much historical information is included. Highly recommended. (ITL33, $69.95)
Italy and Its Invaders • Girolamo Arnaldi HISTORY • 2008 • PAPER • 240 PAGES A wide-ranging history of the many empires and world powers that have invaded Italy, with either success or failure, and their lasting influences, both positive and negative, on Italian art, architecture and culture up to the present day. (ITL661, $19.95)
Italy Map • Borch Maps 2011 • MAP A convenient laminated map of Italy at a scale of 1:800,000 with excellent topographic detail, an index, and large individual maps of Sicily and Sardinia. Two Sides. 27x39 inches. (ITL19, $11.95)
Italy Northeast Map • Michelin Travel Publications MAP An excellent map at a scale of 1:400,000, covering the northeast region of Italy including Bolzano, Verona, Bologna, and Firenze. Two Sides. 40x52 inches. (ITL72, $12.95)
Italy, A Traveler's Literary Companion • Lawrence Venuti ANTHOLOGY • 2003 • PAPER • 256 PAGES This collection of tales by diverse Italian writers, organized geographically, captures the spirit, history and allure of the country. Not just a literary companion, this anthology is also a who's who of contemporary Italian writers. Bravo. (ITL466, $14.95)
Karen Brown's Italy B & B, Exceptional Places to Stay & Itineraries • Nicole Franchini GUIDEBOOK • 2010 • PAPER • 455 PAGES A survey of highly recommended bed and breakfasts throughout Italy. (ITL291, $19.95)
Karen Brown's Italy Hotels, Exceptional Places to Stay & Itineraries • Clare Brown GUIDEBOOK • 2010 • PAPER • 482 PAGES A survey of inns, castles and other lodging of character, along with suggested itineraries and highlights of each region. (ITL290, $19.95)
Knopf City Guide Milan • Knopf Guides GUIDEBOOK • 1998 • PAPER • 168 PAGES This is a vibrant, colorful guide to Milan with fine coverage of both cultural sights and the best places to eat and shop. Packed with 600 photographs and illustrations and still small enough to fit in your pocket, this guide features travel facts, maps, a cultural history, and much about where to go and what to see and do. With ten double-page maps. (ITL123, $14.95)
Knopf Mapguide Milan • Knopf Guides GUIDEBOOK • 2008 • PAPER • 48 PAGES A practical and handy passport-sized guide to the city, featuring fold-out maps. (ITL809, $10.95)
Knopf Mapguide Venice • Knopf Guides GUIDEBOOK • 2009 • PAPER • 48 PAGES This ingenious full-color guide takes the form of a series of foldout neighborhood maps, each annotated with local sights, hotels, restaurants and attractions. (ITL667, $10.95)
La Dolce Vita • Federico Fellini 1960 • DVD Fellini's celebrated masterpiece which stars Marcello Mastroianni as Marcello Rubini, a Roman tabloid reporter who fully indulges in the decadence of "la dolce vita"-- sex, money, and alcohol. Anita Ekberg is the American starlet whom Marcello takes up with. In Italian with subtitles. Part of the Criterion Collection. (ITL543, $39.98)
Leonardo da Vinci • Kenneth Clark BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR • 1993 • PAPER With 128 well integrated plates and a useful chronology, this authoritative and informative book has become the standard introduction to da Vinci and his work. (ITL78, $21.95)
Leonardo da Vinci • Sherwin B. Nuland BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR • 2004 • PAPER • 170 PAGES In this compact book, writer and professor of surgery (How We Die) Nuland succinctly summarizes the life and times of "the most relentlessly curious man in history." Nuland reviews da Vinci's diverse achievements and obsessions, with special attention to his explorations into anatomy. A volume in the excellent Penguin Lives series. (ITL684, $14.00)
Leonardo da Vinci, The Mind of the Renaissance • Alessandro Vezzosi BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR • 1997 • PAPER • 160 PAGES A pocket-size encyclopedia, this colorful book illustrates and documents the life and work of Leonardo, including a long section of excerpts from his writings. (ITL77, $12.95)
The Life of Verdi • John Rosselli MUSIC • 2000 • PAPER • 204 PAGES A biography of the innovative 19th-century composer. In studying Verdi's life, Rosselli also examines the master's major operas and their long-lasting appeal. Part of the Musical Lives series. (ITL447, $38.00)
Liguria Regional Map • Touring Club Italiano MAP A map of the region, including Cinque Terra, at a scale of 1:200,000. Two Sides. 37x58 inches. (ITL118, $14.95)
The Lives of the Artists, Vol 1 • Giorgio Vasari • Julia Conway and Peter Bondanella BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR • 1987 • PAPER • 477 PAGES Vasari offers short biographies of the art and lives of his Renaissance contemporaries in this classic and much-discussed book written in the mid-16th century. He focuses on painters both great and lesser-known, including Giotto, Michelangelo, Titian and others. This edition includes parts one, two and three of the huge original work. (ITL17, $14.00)
Lombardia Regional Map • Touring Club Italiano MAP A colorful regional map of the Lombardy region, with shaded relief and excellent coverage of local towns and landmarks at a scale of 1:200,000. Two Sides. 37x54 inches. (ITL120, $12.95)
Lonely Planet Italian Phrasebook • Lonely Planet LANGUAGE & PHRASEBOOKS • 2011 • PAPER • 260 PAGES A handy, palm-size guide to pronunciation, basic grammar and essential vocabulary for the traveler. (ITL531, $8.99)
A Long Finish, An Aurelio Zen Mystery • Michael Dibdin MYSTERY • 2000 • PAPER • 272 PAGES Another enjoyable "Aurelio Zen Mystery" from Michael Dibdin, this time private investigator Zen is in Rome and Alba, enjoying wonderful wine and food while uncovering a murderous plot that may jeopardize the Piemontese wine industry. (ITL193, $13.95)
Love and War in the Apennines • Eric Newby TRAVEL NARRATIVE • 2008 • PAPER • 276 PAGES Eric Newby's powerful account of his days as a young Brit during World War II in German occupied Italy. After leaving a POW camp, he takes flight from advancing German forces and finds allies in some Italian families who take him in and help him hide. Newby has gone on to fall in love with Italy, building a house there and marrying an Italian woman. (ITL171, $14.99)
M, The Man Who Became Caravaggio • Peter Robb BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR • 2000 • PAPER • 592 PAGES A masterful biography of the Renaissance painter by the author of "Midnight in Sicily." (ART47, $24.00)
Mammals of Europe • Priscilla Barrett • David W. MacDonald FIELD GUIDE • 2002 • PAPER • 320 PAGES Published by Princeton, this is a field guide to land and marine mammals throughout Europe, both endemic and introduced. With more than 600 color illustrations of over 200 mammals, it's a comprehensive handbook, with detailed descriptions, range maps and commentary on behavior. (FG61, $38.50)
Marco Polo and the Discovery of the World • John Larner EXPLORATION • 2001 • PAPER • 288 PAGES A scholarly, insightful study of Marco Polo's famous travel account -- and its impact on European ideas and politics, particularly its influence on cartographers and explorers. The author looks too at the circumstances of Marco Polo's life and travels, arguing that Marco Polo really did visit China -- and that he must have had a highly talented co-author in Rustichello da Pisa. (EXP22, $21.00)
Michelin Green Guide Italy • Michelin Travel Publications GUIDEBOOK • 2010 • PAPER • 576 PAGES A survey of the cities, villages and sites of Italy in the classic Michelin style, featuring brief descriptions of all the major attractions and excellent full-color city maps. Organized alphabetically for easy reference. (ITL279, $21.99)
Michelin Green Guide Venice • Michelin Travel Publications GUIDEBOOK • 2009 • PAPER • 288 PAGES A comprehensive, practical guide in the Michelin series, organized alphabetically and featuring detailed neighborhood maps. With suggested tours, site plans of major attractions and a rating system. An excellent planning guide, especially useful for the independent traveler. (ITL818, $19.99)
The Middle Sea • John Julius Norwich HISTORY • 2007 • PAPER • 720 PAGES A marvelous writer who has already tackled Byzantium, the Normans in Sicily and Venice, Norwich spins his magic in this story of culture, trade and politics, royalty and rulers, wars and religion in the Mediterranean from antiquity to the end of the First World War. (MED98, $21.00)
Milan Map • Streetwise Maps MAP A detailed travel map of Milan, at a scale of 1:19,000. Two Sides. 8.5x32 inches. (ITL65, $8.95)
Milan Map • Touring Club Italiano 2004 • MAP An excellent map of Milan and the metropolitan region at a scale of 1:15,000 by Touring Club Italiano. Two Sides. 36x47 inches. (ITL618, $12.95)
The Moon and the Bonfires • Cesare Pavese • R.W. Flint • Mark Rudman LITERATURE • 2002 • PAPER • 176 PAGES Poet, novelist and translator of Anglophone literature (including Moby-Dick), Cesare Pavese was one of the most influential Italian voices of the mid-20th century. "The Moon and the Bonfires", published shortly before the writer's suicide in 1950, is his evocation of post-Mussolini Italy. The protagonist, an emigrant, returns to Northern Italy from America in the wake of World War II. (ITL427, $14.00)
Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana • Umberto Eco • Geoffrey Brock LITERATURE • 2006 • PAPER • 480 PAGES Having suffered a complete loss of memory regarding every aspect of his own identity, rare book dealer Yambo withdraws to a family home nested between Milan and Turin, where he sorts through boxes of old records and experiences memories in the form of a graphic novel. (ITL717, $18.00)
A Noble Radiance • Donna Leon MYSTERY • 2009 • PAPER • 277 PAGES Number seven in the Guido Brunetti mysteries, all memorably set in contemporary Venice. For some readers, this installment is the best yet. A body is found on the estate of a local landowner at the foot of the Dolomites. (ITL557, $14.00)
On the Making of Gardens • George Sitwell NATURAL HISTORY • 2003 • PAPER • 162 PAGES A handsome edition of Sitwell's 1909 meditation on the Renaissance gardens of Tuscany, Rome and the Lake District. It's not a handbook but rather an inspiring analysis of the transformation -- and magic -- of gardens. Sitwell's 1909 title captures the spirit of this enduring (and beautifully written) book: An Essay On the Making of Gardens: Being a study of old Italian gardens, of the nature of beauty, and the principles involved in garden design." With period photogaphs. (ITL499, $16.95)
On The Road with Francis of Assisi • Linda Bird Francke TRAVEL NARRATIVE • 2006 • PAPER • 256 PAGES Weaving tales of the 13th-century saint and her own 21st-century travels, Francke follows in the footsteps of Francis on her own pilgrimage. She lingers in Assisi, Venice and Rome, and takes in Siena, Bologna, Gubbio, and many hill towns, sanctuaries and chapels. The book nicely evokes both the spirit of Francis of Asisi, and the history and pleasures of Italy. (ITL647, $15.95)
One-Hundred & One Beautiful Small Towns in Italy • Paolo Lazzarin GUIDEBOOK • 2004 • HARD COVER • 276 PAGES A handsome book highlighting Italy's charming and scenic villages. Featuring color photographs and an overview of history and attractions, favorite accommodations and restaurants by photographer-journalist Lazzarin. Translated from the Italian (the book was originally published for the Italian market as an introduction to unique and wonderful places throughout the country). (ITL546, $45.00)
Othello • William Shakespeare • Roma Gill LITERATURE • 2002 • PAPER • 176 PAGES This Oxford School Shakespeare edition of Othello is nicely footnoted, providing lots of commentary on the immortal text. Set in Venice. (ITL527, $7.95)
The Ottoman Centuries • Lord Kinross HISTORY • 1988 • PAPER • 638 PAGES A richly detailed, engrossing history of the Ottoman Empire from its dawn in 1300 through its zenith under Suleiman the magnificent and up to the foundation of the modern republic in 1923. With maps and black-and-white photographs throughout. (ITL54, $18.99)
The Oxford Illustrated History of Italy • George Holmes HISTORY • 2001 • PAPER • 400 PAGES With contributions by 12 scholars, this generously illustrated volume tackles the full sweep of Italian history from Roman Empire to the development of powerful city states to national identity. With 24 color plates and hundreds of black-and-white illustrations. (ITL306, $31.95)
Painting and Experience in Fifteenth Century Italy, A Primer in the Social History of Pictorial Style • Michael Baxandall ART & ARCHITECTURE • 1998 • PAPER • 183 PAGES A slim introduction to Renaissance art and representation with color illustrations throughout. First published in 1972, it's an influential overview of not only how to look at art -- but how the original 15th-century audience may have seen the paintings of the period. Braxandall explores contemporary sermons, dancing manuals, and mathematical treatises, original contracts and other source materials to understand the context in which the paintings were conceived. Among the artists he discusses are Filippo Lippi, Fra Angelico, Stefano di Giovanni, Sandro Botticelli, Masaccio, Luca Signorelli, and Boccaccio. (ITL236, $19.95)
Painting in Renaissance Venice • Peter Humfrey ART & ARCHITECTURE • 1997 • PAPER • 320 PAGES A compact, well illustrated introduction to Bellini, Titian, Tinteretto and other Venetian masters. With 80 fine color plates. Humfrey balances the works themselves and individual painters with information on the social and political background of the period. (ITL492, $28.00)
Palladio • James Ackerman BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR • 1974 • PAPER • 170 PAGES James Ackerman's seminal biography of Venetian architect Andrea Palladio. (ITL234, $15.00)
Paradise of Cities, Venice in the 19th Century • John Julius Norwich HISTORY • 2004 • PAPER • 336 PAGES Norwich, a lively historian who has written frequently on Italy and the Ottomans, conjures the appeal of Venice for a star-studded group of 19th-century residents and visitors. He devotes a chapter each to Napoleon, Byron, Ruskin, the Browns, Wagner, Henry James, Robert Browning, the Layards, Whistler and Sargent and the Corvo. With archival illustrations. (ITL483, $16.00)
The Perfect House, A Journey with Renaissance Master Andrew Palladio • Witold Rybczynski ART & ARCHITECTURE • 2003 • PAPER • 320 PAGES Rybczynski considers 17 villas designed by Palladio in this appreciate account of the pleasures of travel and architecture. A professor of urban studies and popular author, he's an enlightening guide to Palladio, his history and influence. (ITL590, $19.99)
Pimsleur Quick & Simple Italian • Pimsleur Language Method LANGUAGE & PHRASEBOOKS • 2005 • AUDIO CD Four audio CDs with eight 30-minute lessons in basic Italian, covering elementary vocabulary and phrases used in travel and everyday situations. The Pimsleur method emphasizes the use of listening skills without reading materials (so there isn't a book to follow along). It's advertised as "Totally audio: hear it, learn it, speak it." (ITL630, $19.95)
The Prince • Niccolo Machiavelli • George Bull • Anthony Grafton LITERATURE • 1999 • PAPER • 105 PAGES The classic text of social mobility, written during the peak of the Italian Renaissance. (ITL235, $7.00)
Recollections of the Last Days of Shelley and Byron • Edward Trelawney BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR • 2000 • PAPER • 224 PAGES The lives and deaths of these two most romantic of Romantic poets are lovingly recounted in this memoir by Edward Trelawny, a contemporary and friend of both men. The action unfolds mostly in Italy, where Shelley and Byron frolicked and swam (and where Shelley drowned, just off the coast of Cinque Terre); then it follows Byron to his own death in Greece. Trelawny was a fascinating figure in his own right, and his tribute to his two lost friends bears all the marks of his own generous, wild personality. (ITL336, $13.95)
Red Guide Italia, Hotels and Restaurants • Michelin Travel Publications GUIDEBOOK • 2011 • HARD COVER • 1360 PAGES The venerable Michelin Red Guide to dining and lodging in Italy, revised annually. With city maps, telephone numbers, addresses, and a complex series of categories, all in Italian. (ITL275, $29.99)
Renaissance Florence, The Invention of a New Art • A. Richard Turner ART & ARCHITECTURE • 2005 • PAPER • 176 PAGES Taking as his cue the great art and famous monuments of Florence, Turner explores the cultural and social history of the city. It's an art and architecture oriented guide with abundant color illustrations. A volume in the Prentice Hall Perspectives series. Second edition. (ITL50, $40.80)
Renaissance Philosophy of Man, Petrarca, Valla, Ficino, Pico, Pomponazzi, Vives • Ernst Cassirer • Paul Oskar Kristeller • John H. Randall HISTORY • 1956 • PAPER • 405 PAGES This overview covers the three dominant philosophical movements of the early Italian Renaissance: classical humanism, Platonism and Aristotelianism. (ITL237, $22.50)
Rick Steves' Italian Phrase Book & Dictionary • Rick Steves LANGUAGE & PHRASEBOOKS • 2008 • PAPER • 281 PAGES A compact phrase book for travelers, organized thematically and with a brief dictionary. This is no dry litany of phrases but is instead peppered with humor and Rick Steves' insider insight into how to break the ice and make friends around the world. (ITL424, $8.95)
The Rise of Christianity • Rodney Stark RELIGION • 1997 • PAPER • 272 PAGES The subtitle to this book says it all: "How the Obscure, Marginal Jesus Movement Became the Dominant Religious Force in the Western World in a Few Centuries." More a sociological study than a religious history, the book delves into what compelled so many people to convert to the then infant religion. (MED64, $14.99)
Riviera di Levante, Golfo Tigullio, Cinque Terre • Litographia Artistica Cartographica MAP A regional map at a scale of 1:140,000. One Side. 30x44 inches. (ITL779, $12.95)
Romeo and Juliet • William Shakespeare LITERATURE • 2000 • PAPER • 352 PAGES This edition of the Bard's tragedy is heavily footnoted, providing lots of commentary on the immortal text. (ITL322, $10.95)
Rough Guide Italy • Ros Belford GUIDEBOOK • 2009 • PAPER • 1096 PAGES A comprehensive guide in the British series with a good overview of culture and history, dozens of sketch maps and extensive listings. (ITL328, $24.99)
Rough Guide Venice & the Veneto • Jonathan Buckley GUIDEBOOK • 2010 • PAPER • 440 PAGES A no-nonsense, comprehensive travel guide with region-by-region descriptions, a good overview of history and culture, and a great bibliography. With color photography. With a section of color maps. (ITL554, $19.99)
Short Stories in Italian, Racconti in Italiano • Nick Roberts LITERATURE • 2001 • PAPER • 174 PAGES This bilingual collection, with the English and Italian alongside, features stories by contemporary and established Italian literary figures, including Italo Calvino and Primo Levi, Leonardo Sciascia, Goffredo Parise and Antonio Tabucchi. (ITL730, $14.00)
Shorter Walks in the Dolomites • Gillian Price GUIDEBOOK • 2002 • PAPER • 224 PAGES One of a series of practical guides on walks and treks in the Dolomites by the British publisher. (ITL725, $19.95)
A Small Place In Italy • Eric Newby BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR • 2008 • PAPER • 240 PAGES An account of 25 memorable years spent in northern Tuscany, where the farmhouse "I Castagni" is as much of a character as the uproarious Newby, his wife Wanda and their eccentric neighbors. Marvelous. (ITL111, $14.99)
Songbirds, Truffles and Wolves, An American Naturalist in Italy • Gary Paul Nabhan TRAVEL NARRATIVE • 1994 • PAPER • 256 PAGES A poet and naturalist, Nabhan makes his way by foot along the ancient Franciscan Way from Florence to Assisi, talking to farmers and townsfolk en route. This most unusual travelogue combines natural history, spirituality -- and a lively appreciation of local food and food traditions. It's the local scale of Tuscany and Umbria and the accommodation of wild and domestic that intrigues Nabhan. This edition, the only one available, is a print-on-demand paperback. (ITL99, $16.00)
Spartacus • Stanley Kubrick 1960 • DVD Stanley Kubrick's riveting epic about the leader of a Roman slave revolt, starring no less than Kirk Douglas, Laurence Olivier, Jean Simmons, Charles Laughton, Tony Curtis and Peter Ustinov. The screenplay was written by the playwright Dalton Trumbo, who was blacklisted at the time. Part of the Criterion Collection. (ITL544, $49.95)
The Talented Mr. Ripley • Anthony Minghella 1999 • DVD A screen adaptation of the first in Patricia Highsmith's popular Mr. Ripley mystery series. Matt Damon stars as the obsessive and murderous Mr. Ripley, whose jealousy of his dashing companion Dickie Greenleaf (Jude Law) quickly turns sinister. The highlight of this thriller, which also stars Gwyneth Paltrow, Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Cate Blanchett, is its suspenseful portrayal of an exquisite sundrenched Italian town (the film was shot in, among other places, Venice, Tuscany, the Gulf of Naples and Southern Sicily), where life is carefree but a menacing potential for violence lurks behind every corner. (ITL542, $14.99)
Taming of the Shrew, The Oxford Shakespeare • William Shakespeare • H.J. Oliver LITERATURE • 1998 • PAPER • 256 PAGES This Oxford Shakespeare edition of the Bard's comedy is heavily footnoted, providing lots of commentary on the immortal text. Set in Padua. (ITL526, $10.95)
That Fine Italian Hand • Paul Hoffman CULTURAL PORTRAIT • 1991 • PAPER • 246 PAGES A former newspaperman in Rome, Hoffman spears the Italians in this affectionate portrait of Italian society with all its quirks, contradictions, and energy. (ITL346, $17.99)
Through a Glass, Darkly • Donna Leon MYSTERY • 2010 • PAPER • 272 PAGES Number 15 in the enormously satisfying, wonderfully erudite series memorably set in the author's beloved Venice and starring police commissioner Guido Brunetti. The secrets of the Murano glass factories unfold as Brunetti, with the help of an annotated Dante's "Inferno," discovers a body that may reveal the mystery of the polluted Venetian waters. (ITL714, $14.00)
Time Out Milan • Sylvia Tombesi-Walton GUIDEBOOK • 2008 • PAPER • 256 PAGES An up-to-date guide on what to do and where to go by the people who publish Time Out Magazine. (ITL669, $19.95)
Time Out Venice: Verona, Treviso, And The Veneto • Time Out GUIDEBOOK • 2009 • PAPER • 335 PAGES An up-to-date guide on what to do and where to go by the people who publish Time Out Magazine. (ITL672, $19.95)
Timeless Cities, An Architect's Reflections on Renaissance Italy • David Mayernik ART & ARCHITECTURE • 2005 • PAPER • 274 PAGES In this thoughtful book, Mayernik shows the philosophical and religious meaning behind the planning and architecture of Rome, Florence, Venice, Siena and Pienza. Not exactly a guide, nor a history, Mayernick's meditation on the buildings and texture of these very different cities is illuminating. (ITL589, $18.95)
The Titian Committee • Iain Pears MYSTERY • 1999 • PAPER • 230 PAGES In this second Jonathan Argyll book, the amiable and incompetent professor Jonathan Argyll and the vivacious Flavia di Stefano of the Italian Art Theft Squad investigate the murder of a prestigious member of the scholarly Titian Committee. Through Titian's paintings, the increasingly-amorous couple follows clues leading to the murderer -- but the subsequent deaths of an art collector and a philosopher mean that they must act quickly before the murderer strikes again. (ITL741, $6.99)
Travelers' Tales Italy • Ann Calcagno • Jan Morris ANTHOLOGY • 2001 • PAPER • 437 PAGES From a climb up the dome of St. Peter's to a walk through Milano Centrale train station, this collection of 48 stories on traveling in Italy and Italian life is an insightful introduction to the country. Contributors include Barbara Grizzuti Harrison, Frances Mayes, Jonathan Keats, and Stanley Crouch, who writes on "Umbria Jazz" in Rome. (ITL182, $18.95)
A Traveller's Companion to Venice • John Julius Norwich ANTHOLOGY • 2003 • PAPER • 432 PAGES An illuminating selection, edited and introduced by the great John Julius Norwich. The book includes, among its many pleasures, selections of Mark Twain, Henry James, Byron, Casanova, Robert Browning and (of more recent vintage) Jan Morris. (ITL484, $16.95)
A Traveller's History of Italy • 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)
Treasury of Byzantine Ornament: 255 Motifs from St. Mark's and Ravenna • Arne Dehli ART & ARCHITECTURE • 2005 • PAPER • 112 PAGES A great reference for anyone with an interest in 6th- and 7th-century Byzantine art and architecture. This guide provides clear line drawings of interior and exterior adornments; thorough and well-illustrated. (ITL690, $12.95)
Treks in the Dolomites • Gillian Price • Martin Collins GUIDEBOOK • 2005 • PAPER • 133 PAGES A detailed practical guide to the two best-known long-distance walks through the Dolomites: the Alta Via 1 -- Lago di Braies to Belluno (9-13 days) and Alta Via 2 -- Bressanone to Feltre (10-16 days). (ITL692, $19.95)
Trentino Alto-Adige Map • Touring Club Italiano MAP A colorful regional map of the Italian Dolomites at a scale of 1:200,000, with shaded relief and excellent coverage of local towns and landmarks. Two Sides. 37x44 inches. (ITL42, $14.95)
Trentino Alto-Adige Map • Touring Club Italiano MAP A colorful regional map of the Italian Dolomites at a scale of 1:200,000, with shaded relief and excellent coverage of local towns and landmarks. Two Sides. 37x44 inches. (ITL42, $14.95)
Trieste and the Meaning of Nowhere • Jan Morris TRAVEL NARRATIVE • 2002 • PAPER • 208 PAGES A loving celebration of the city and its faded glory. Morris, who first visited the city as a soldier during WWII, is especially good at evoking the varied history and fortunes of Trieste. This brief book, which Morris says is her last, captures the many political and economic transformations of this region at the head of the Adriatic Sea. (ITL347, $15.00)
The Tuscan Year, Tuscan Life and Food in an Italian Valley • Elizabeth Romer FOOD • 1996 • PAPER • 182 PAGES • FAVORITE • COMING IN An intimate portrait of life on a Tuscan farm, as seen primarily through the robust food. Romer captures the goings-on in the countryside, and especially in the Cerotti kitchen, where traditional Tuscan rural food is prepared with loving care. Every chapter includes concisely described recipes. The index makes it easy to look up recipes if you're inspired to use this wonderful account as a cookbook. (ITL131, $14.00)
Tuscany in Mind • Alice Powers ANTHOLOGY • 2005 • PAPER • 400 PAGES These selections, including D.H. Lawrence, Robert Browning, Mary McCarthy, to Eric Newby, Erica Jong and David Leavitt, cover a wide range of subjects, from the region's geography to its history and culture and (of course) the food. Another fine literary anthology from the editor of Italy in Mind. Powers provides an appreciative introduction to each 8-10 page selection, focusing on the transforamtion wrought upon American and British writers. (ITL607, $14.95)
Under the Tuscan Sun • 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: the lasting sunlight, rich colors, warm architecture and the languor of slow paced days. An accomplished cook as well as poet, writer and handy-woman, Mayes includes recipes and much savory talk about food and wine. (ITL85, $15.00)
Uniform Justice • Donna Leon MYSTERY • 2010 • PAPER • 258 PAGES In this twelfth entry in the satisfying Guido Brunetti series a cadet is found dead. Leon conjures the atmosphere of Venice as evocatively as ever -- and has a few comments to make about the military too. (ITL558, $14.00)
Unspeakable Women, Selected Short Stories Written by Italian Women During Facism • Robin Pickering-Iazzi LITERATURE • 1993 • PAPER • 118 PAGES A selection of short stories by 10 women writing in Italy in the 1920s and 1930s. (ITL312, $14.95)
A Valley in Italy, The Many Seasons of a Villa in Umbria • 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 custom and landscape, the book is an excellent introduction to the region. (ITL98, $14.99)
A Venetian Affair, A True Tale of Forbidden Love in the 18th Century • Andrea Di Robilant HISTORY • 2005 • PAPER • 320 PAGES The author, a journalist based in Rome, bases his tasty tale of frustrated love, passion and society on a cache of letters discovered in his family's Venetian palazzo. The affair between the Anglo-Italian beauty and her aristocratic lover (in which Casanova has a minor role) plays out in the richly evoked milieu of 18th-century Venice, Paris and London. (ITL604, $15.95)
Venetian Life • William Dean Howells TRAVEL NARRATIVE • 2001 • PAPER • 336 PAGES A leisurely account of housekeeping, touring and socializing in 19th-century Venice by the American consul and literary lion, first published in 1866. (ITL327, $16.95)
Veneto Friuli Venezia Giulia Map • Touring Club Italiano 2008 • MAP A detailed, shaded relief map of the Veneto at a scale of 1:200,000. Accurate, colorful, and imported from Italy. Eigth edition. Two Sides. 37x54 inches. (ITL22, $12.95)
Venice and the East: The Impact of the Islamic World on Venetian Architecture 1100-1500 • Deborah Howard ART & ARCHITECTURE • 2000 • HARD COVER • 300 PAGES A stunningly illustrated survey of the Islamic roots of Venetian architecture. Howard focuses on links with Egypt, Syria, and Palestine, Persia and the Silk Route, all familiar to Venetian traders, looking, in particular, at two of the city's iconic buildings: San Marco and the Palazzo Ducale. Named a New York Times Book Review Notable Book for 2000. (ITL796, $70.00)
Venice and the Slavs, The Discovery of Dalmatia in the Age of Enlightenment • Larry Wolff HISTORY • 2001 • PAPER • 404 PAGES Professor of history at Boston College, Wolff's expertise is the divide between eastern and western Europe: its intellectual, political and artificial origins. For this volume he focuses on the Venetian empire in the Balkans in the 1700s, finding there much that explains modern Yugoslavia and westerners' attitudes toward the Balkans. (BLK35, $29.95)
Venice Observed • Mary McCarthy CULTURAL PORTRAIT • 1995 • PAPER • 158 PAGES Originally published over 30 years ago, this collection of eight essays is a literate, evocative celebration of the city, its character, and its history. Most of these essays first appeared in the "New Yorker." (ITL27, $13.95)
Venice Revealed, An Intimate Portrait • Paolo Barbero TRAVEL NARRATIVE • 2001 • HARD COVER • 233 PAGES An appreciation and rediscovery of Venice, its mysteries and pleasures by a native son. A volume in the excellent Steerforth Italia series. Barbero lives in the Dorsoduro. Trained as a civil engineer, he considers the precarious state of the city built centimeters above the water on many tiny and disappearing islands. He laments the duel challenges of geography and tourism. (ITL678, $27.00)
Venice Triumphant, The Horizons of a Myth • Elisabeth Crouzet-Pavan • Lydia Cochrane HISTORY • 2002 • HARD COVER • 432 PAGES A scholarly, provocative history of Venice, organized thematically. Elisabeth Crouzet-Pavan, a professor of medieval history at the Sorbonne, uses the city's geography and architecture as a lens to re-examine the developemnt of the city -- and its identity -- from Roman Empire to the end of the Renaissance. (ITL504, $56.00)
Venice, a Maritime Republic • Frederic C. Lane HISTORY • 1973 • PAPER • 505 PAGES A wonderfully written history of the Venetian empire, engrossing in its scholarly detail. Lane (who has also written a book on Venetian ships) focuses on the history of trade from the origin of the city in the 6th century to modern times. With drawings, maps, and archival photos. (ITL24, $32.00)
Venice, City of Art • Matteo Varia • Livio Bourbon • Richard Pierce ART & ARCHITECTURE • 2006 • HARD COVER • 128 PAGES A lively photographic celebration of the architecture, art and life of Venice with extended captions and an accompanyings. (ITL721, $27.95)
Venice, Lion City • Garry Wills HISTORY • 2002 • PAPER • 448 PAGES A magisterial history of Venice at the height of its power as a maritime republic in the 15th and 16th centuries. Wills shows the power and influence of the city through its magnificent Renaissance art and architecture. With 130 illustrations, 30 in color. An accomplished historian and political commentator, Wills is attuned to the nuances of Venetian religious and political power. (ITL324, $20.00)
Venice, the Tourist Maze • Robert C. Davis • Garry R. Marvin CULTURAL PORTRAIT • 2004 • PAPER • 368 PAGES A history of the impact and importance of tourism in Venice, a city that both thrives on and suffers from the millions of people who visit it every year. The authors paint a sobering picture of the state of the city today and the prospects for its future. (ITL648, $26.95)
Verona Map • Litographia Artistica Cartographica MAP A colorful, folded travel map to Verona, Italy, at a scale of 1:12,000. Two Sides. 29x44 inches. (ITL453, $12.95)
Voice of the Violin • Andrea Camilleri • Stephen Sartarelli MYSTERY • 2004 • PAPER • 256 PAGES In this fourth installment in the popular Inspector Montalbano series. Camilleri delivers a delightful cast of characters and wry commentary on Sicilian ways, headed by the irresistible Inspector Montalbano, a small town police detective with a healthy appetite, roving intellect and wry sense of humor. It opens with a classic conceit of police procedurals: a beautiful blond woman is found dead. That's the least of it. (ITL537, $14.00)
The Walker's Literary Companion • Robert Gilbert • Anne Wallace • Jeffrey Robinson ANTHOLOGY • 2000 • HARD COVER • 352 PAGES A diverse sampling of literature on the pleasures of walking, representing philosophers, naturalists, outcasts, athletes and intellectuals from Plato to Frank O'Hara. (WLK08, $24.00)
Walking • Henry David Thoreau REFERENCE • 1994 • PAPER • 92 PAGES You may want to carry this small volume in your daypack for inspiration. In it, Thoreau offers his meditations on the spiritual benefits of this most civilized form of travel. (WLK04, $9.99)
Walking in the Dolomites • Gillian Price GUIDEBOOK • 2003 • PAPER • 224 PAGES A comprehensive walker's guide to the Dolomites geared to a wide variety of difficulty levels. Gillian Price is our guide to the natural wonders, historical artifacts and mountain refuges of this spectacular range. Illustrated with photographs and maps. (ITL289, $19.95)
Wallpaper City Guide Milan • Wallpaper Magazine GUIDEBOOK • 2012 • PAPER A stylish, thin (it fits in your back pocket) city guide compiled by the design magazine Wallpaper's local reporters. Well-organized, with chapter tabs, many photographs and of-the-moment recommendations. (ITL753, $9.95)
Watermark • Joseph Brodsky TRAVEL NARRATIVE • 1993 • PAPER • 135 PAGES In this brief, intense, gem-like book, equal parts extended autobiographical essay and prose poem, Brodsky turns his eye to the seductive and enigmatic city of Venice. A mosaic of 48 short chapters -- each recalling a specific episode from one of his many visits there (Brodsky spent his winters in Venice for nearly 20 years) -- Watermark associatively and brilliantly evokes one city's architectural and atmospheric character. (ITL105, $13.00)
Wildflowers of Britain and Europe • Margaret and Roland Spohn FIELD GUIDE • 2008 • PAPER • 320 PAGES This indispensable guide to the Wild Flowers of Britain and Europe in Black's Nature Guide series covers 450 species, each beautifully illustrated with detailed paintings and clear photographs. The images not only show you what the plant looks like in its habitat, but also focus in on specific features such as the leaves or flower head, to aid identification. (EUR46, $21.95)
Wine Country Europe, Touring, Tasting, And Buying At European Regional Wineries • Ornella D'Alessio • Marco Santini FOOD • 2005 • HARD COVER • 324 PAGES Part how-to, part guidebook, part picture book, this charming coffee table treat covers sprawling French vineyards as well as lesser-known hidden treasures in Austria and Hungary. The authors, both Italian journalists and wine connoisseurs, provide helpful tips alongside the hundreds of magnificent color photographs. (EUR191, $35.00)
Worldly Goods, A New History of the Renaissance • Lisa Jardine HISTORY • 1998 • PAPER • 470 PAGES Historian Lisa Jardine presents a new slant on the history of the Renaissance. She views the Renaissance as an age made possible by the economic boom of the time. Her arguments are well founded and compelling, making this nicely illustrated book quite readable. (ITL173, $19.95)

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