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Umbria & the Marches

READING AND TRAVEL GUIDE

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Get the featured set of Essential Reading, our top picks of what to read, and get free shipping on anything else you order.

Essential Reading

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

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

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

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

Umbria Regional Map

by Touring Club Italiano

  • MAP

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

 
Blue Guide the Marche

Blue Guide the Marche


by Ellen Grady

  • GUIDEBOOK
  • 2006
  • PAPER
  • 416 PAGES

Covering Rimini and Urbino, the cuisine of the region, its history and culture, art and architecture in detail. (ITL691, $26.95)

Cadogan Guide Tuscany, Umbria & the Marches


by Dana Facaros | Michael Pauls

  • GUIDEBOOK
  • 2007
  • PAPER
  • 704 PAGES

A comprehensive guide in the British series covering the entire region from Florence and Siena to Chianti, the Tuscan Coast, Umbria and the Marches in detail. (ITL493, $22.95)

Every Pilgrim's Guide to Assissi

Every Pilgrim's Guide to Assissi


by Judith Dean

  • GUIDEBOOK
  • 2002
  • PAPER
  • 160 PAGES

With travel tips and an introduction for those wishing to discover more about Frances and Clare, this handy pocket guide covers not just Assisi and the Basilica of St. Francis but also easy excursions father afield, including The Hermitage (Carceri), Rivotorto, the sanctuaries of the Rieti Valley, Gubbio, Perugia and Cortona. (ITA202, $16.00)

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)

Rick Steves' Italian Phrase Book & Dictionary

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

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

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

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)

La Bella Lingua

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)

Etruscan Art

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

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, $13.00)

D.H. Lawrence and Italy

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)

Italian Days

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)

Living in a Foreign Language, A Memoir of Food, Wine, and Love in Italy

Living in a Foreign Language, A Memoir of Food, Wine, and Love in Italy


by Michael Tucker

  • TRAVEL NARRATIVE
  • 2008
  • PAPER
  • 255 PAGES

Shedding the vestiges of their American life, actor Michael Tucker and his wife Jill Eikenberry move to 350-year-old Rustico, perched on a hill in Umbria's Spoleto valley. (ITA199, $14.00)

On The Road with Francis of Assisi

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

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)

The Lady in the Palazzo, At Home in Umbria

The Lady in the Palazzo, At Home in Umbria


by Marlena de Blasi

  • TRAVEL NARRATIVE
  • 2008
  • PAPER
  • 317 PAGES

In this sequel to A Thousand Days in Venice, de Blasi and her husband move to Orvieto, where they set up house in an apartment in the Palazzo Baschieri. Her love for the sensual pleasures of Italy, especially the food, is infectious. (ITL757, $14.95)

Canti


by Giacomo Leopardi

  • LITERATURE
  • 2011
  • PAPER
  • 528 PAGES

An acclaimed new translation of Italy's greatest modern poet's work. Born in the Italian Marches in 1798, Leopardi lived in Rome, Central Italy, and Naples, where he died in 1837. (ITA285, $25.00)

Italy in Mind

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

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)

Waking Raphael

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

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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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.