5 comments about Italy: The Best Travel Writing from the New York Times.

1. I got this beautiful book for two dear friends, brilliant musicians, who will be traveling to Italy soon. They were entranced, and have thanked me several times, saying the book makes them feel "as if we are already in Italy."



2. this book is superb. plenty of great photos and informative writing. if we get to italy we will feel comfortable in a foreign speaking country as we will have learned heaps about the people and more about this interesting destination. this book covers all the areas from top to bottom and places in between. thanks to amazon for this purchase as i could find nothing like it in new zealand with such interesting information ! yes it is a must weather you get to italy or not and has pride of place in the travel section of our library.



3. There are many interesting articles in this wonderful collection of travel articles from the New York Times. This great book covers Italy from top to bottom and it includes articles of some well known cities such as Rome and Venice as well as some unknown villages and islands. This book shows how diversfied a small country such as Italy is. The photos are gorgeous and the writing is superb from the many different talented writers. I highly recommend this book to any fan of Italy or of travel. This is much more than a coffee table book. Also, a great price through Amazon!



4. I was unprepared of the size of this book. I expected a medium-sized volume of writing, but found myself with a heavy and BIG book which consists of an equal portion of photography. The writing is selected as to cover the whole peninsula, but I still felt that it's somewhat haphazardly assamblied. But then, you can't cover everything. My point is that a single writer selects topics/places more consequently, after some principle(-s). But it's interesting reading and mostly well-chosen photography.



5. 
   THis book arrived in the condition specified in the advert. I would order from this source again.

No comments about Living and Working in Italy, 3rd Edition: A Survival Handbook (Living & Working in Italy).

No comments about IN THE LAND OF TEMPLE CAVES: From St. Emilion to Paris's St. Sulpice : Notes on Art and the Human Spirit.

5 comments about The Paris Mapguide, Third Edition.

1. tOGETHER WITH ITS COMPANION LONDON MAPGUIDE, AN EXTREMELY CONVENIENT, COMPLETE AND USEABLE MAP OF THE CITIES. POCKET SIZE AND VERY HELPFUL-HAVEN'T FOUND BETTER.



2. We went all over Paris using this mapguide. It was the best map for a large city that I ever used. It was our first ime to Paris and I was very comfortable getting around. I would highly recommend the Paris mapguide. We also used the London mapguide also and were just as pleased.



3. What can I say that everyone hasn't already said. I am so happy that I purchased this map. I have 3 other maps of Paris, but none are as good as this one. I really like the way it is laid out. This would be the map that I would recommend to my friends.



4. My family and I just came back from a week in Paris and wouldn't you know that we were there during the transportation strike and WALKED everywhere that we went. You can imagine my glee that I had this nifty little street map guide book to lead the way for us. We never got lost once with it and it is small and compact and fit into my pocketbook quite nicely. The streets and landmarks were clearly marked and easy to read. Also, at the beginning of the book, gives a list of the different sites, addresses and opening/closing times. We never could have done what we did if it wasn't for this little gem. Whenever we travel to another city again, the first thing that I will do is buy another for the city that I am going to.



5. Having travelled some what, I feel qualified to fairly assess 'The Paris Mapguide'. There are many guides of Paris on store bookshelves far more illistrated and far more detailed but they do not address the basic needs of a traveller standing on a Paris street. This publication meets all requirements, it is the right size,street maps and the 'Metro'are percise and very easy to read and the supporting information, be it city history,districts,places of interest etc, are all there.
   'The Paris Mapguide' will facilitate an enjoyable visit to this beautiful city.

2 comments about Streetwise London Underground Map.

1. Very sturdy, folding map of London Underground. Lots of famous landmarks are highlighted to help find which lines & stops you will need. Laminated to stand up to lots of use. Price can't be beat.



2. This is a great map of the London Underground system. It is small enough to be folded and put in a wallet (it is scored to make folding easier), but laminated and extremely durable. It contains all tube stops in the system, and has a map key and very small information box on the back; best of all the price is right. Don't go to London without this mini-map. I also recommend the "Streetwise London Centre City" map to go with this indispensable product.

5 comments about Francesco's Venice: The Dramatic History of the World's Most Beautiful City.

1. John Parker's photographs in "Francesco's Venice" are lovely. However, the historical text written by Francesco Da Mosto, although complete and covering a vast time period, is opinionated, rather cumbersome and replete with self congratulatory statements concerning his family's Venetian heritage. I found the latter annoyingly childish; like a 6 year-old giving a class report wanting to make sure his classmates knew just how important his daddy was. This self importance as a true Venetian with a rich family history may have been the impetus for writing the book but adds nothing to it. In the final analysis, aside from the photographs I was not particularly pleased with my purchase.



2. I enjoyed Venice and Italy while on My Grand Tour of Europe for my 50th Birthday.....and discovered this wonderful author and TV Travel while cruising through the Travel Channel. So fantastic & brings back all of my travel memories. I was the first of my family to discover Italy & now they all want to go!!!!



3. Really enjoyed this book. Beautiful photos and easily readable text. A lot of good information ,history included, presented in such a way that you actually do want to read it and not just look at the pictures.



4. This is the accompanying book to the TV series, but so much more too!
   
   Firstly, the book is replete with stunning photography by John Parker. These in themselves are enough to merit applause, but Francesco's text is a good read and full of personal insight. He clearly is no lightweight historian, but has delved deeply into his own and his city's past.
   
   The book is in five chapters (one more than the TV series) with titles that explain much of the subject they contain: 1. "Water - From the Waters to the City"; 2. "Earth - The Boundaries of Land Enlarge"; 3. "Air - La Serenissima Evaporates"; 4. "Fire - Venice Burns Its Past"; and 5. "Ether - Life under Uncertainty".
   
   There is a healthy dose of scepticism of traditions in relation to the early history of the city adopted by the author, and his own tentative assertions ring true. He is good on this period, whereas other histories skip over it lightly. He focuses on the physical origins of the city and its political beginnings. It was then not a matter of display or grandeur or empire, but trade, commerce and industry, especially where salt and fish were concerned. It was also a healthy sign that Francesco sheds doubt on the blindness of Doge Enrico Dandolo, the scourge of the Fourth Crusade to Constantinople.
   
   He is also good on the Arsenale, which presently lacks any detailed history in English. It is still very much out-of-bounds to tourists, but it would have been nice, though, to have had plans of its development. And I have yet to see in print those marvellous birds' eye view drawings of the naval base before and after Napoleon's conquest. Francesco is also good on the subject of trade, such as the mechanics involved in sailing convoys, as well as their destinations (but, alas, no map, not even any line drawings of how a galley, a galleass or a navi would have looked like).
   
   There is more emphasis on how Francesco's own family history has become intertwined with that of the city: this is, after all, Francesco's history of his birthplace! We learn of its involvement in the Tiepolo plot of 1310 and in that of Doge Marin Falier, the only doge to be sentenced to death, in 1355. Francesco provides personal reminiscences too about the first time he received his first communion in Saint Mark's Cathedral, about his first experience of a Titian painting, about witnessing the fire at the La Fenice opera house, and about his own home, which was the setting for part of Anthony Minghella's film "The Talented Mr Ripley." There is much more.
   
   Many of these recollections appear in the numerous additional textboxes that populate the whole book. These allow the reader to focus in more detail on particular aspects, whether it's the doge's hat, robes and regalia, or the antics of Baron Corvo. Those boxes devoted to the language of Venice proved very useful to me. I always wondered why the Venetians often failed to pronounce the suffixes used elsewhere in Italy; Francesco explains that it is partly down to laziness.
   
   There are, as one would expect, many links to the TV series. He repeats in the book his castigation of the bridge to the mainland as a folly; its name - Ponte della Liberta - he insists is ironical. But there are differences with the TV series too. For example, the painter Turner appears nowhere in its pages, but John Singer Sargent appears in his place.
   
   Francesco's coverage of twentieth century Venice is a pleasure to read, as this is often an overlooked episode in its history, for understandable reasons. And yet, it has a richness of drama all of its own, especially in his family reminiscences of war and peace.
   
   So why only four stars? On the negative side, Francesco mentions books in his introduction, but there is no bibliography to guide the reader further into the details of the subjects raised. And where are the maps? Maps of the lagoon would have been useful for placing the city in its geographical setting and for providing bearings in relation to many places named in the early chapters, such as Torcello, Aquileia, Grado, Ravenna and Chioggia.
   
   This review is of the softback print. Unfortunately, there are errors arising from the reduction in size and pages from the original hardback, for example, the "see above" on page 107 is meaningless, as are the picture credits (although these can be worked out with a little patience). The index is good, but there is no entry, for instance, for either "Messeteria" or "Modone".
   
   How does this book compare with the standard introduction to the history of Venice in English by John Julius Norwich? Although Francesco spends some time to accounts about the city's wars in the east and its political relations with the Italian mainland, there is by far a greater amount of information and history given to the development - architectural, social and economic - of the city itself. For example, space is given by Francesco to the paving of streets and the standard of cleanliness, to clothes and how nobles greeted each other - it would have been nice to have one of Longhi's pictures to accompany these social points; you will look almost wholly in vain for such details in Norwich's history. The downside is that there are only two paragraphs devoted to the role of Paolo Sarpi whereas the more political and wider geographical sweep of Norwich's book devotes a chapter or more to the workings out of the papal crisis of the early seventeenth century.
   
   So, `you pays your money and you takes your choice', but if you are seeking an introduction to the city of Venice as opposed to an introduction to the politics and external relations of the city, then Francesco's must be the better buy. However so great Norwich's history is, it does spend more than half its time on the coasts of the eastern Mediterranean and the plains of Lombardy, rather than in the city itself (see my amazon.co.uk review).



5. I just got back from Venice, at 2AM today in fact, and I am extremely glad that I read this book before the trip. It is very well written and covers a breadth of information about Venice, ranging from history, politics, art, architecture and more. It is beautifully illustrated and contains a number of inset discussions about venetian society and other topics that just add more and more to the book. Altogether, it was a fascinating and easy read, and one that dramatically enhanced my trip. I am thinking of reading it again, or renting the videos, to further the experience. In my opinion, a must read for any traveller to Venice.

5 comments about The Wee Mad Road: A midlife escape to the Scottish Highlands.

1. Wow! I felt like I was there. I have been to Scotland before, but not quite that far northwest. Now I see what I missed. The Frieda chapter was priceless! It was nice to read both authors' comments. It gave a well rounded picture of the people and terrain of the area. I felt as though I were there. The writing is so vivid, that I felt the wind and cold rain. The life the authors had is quickly dying, and it was wonderful that they were able to take that time in their life, to live a somewhat slower pace, where you had time to "smell the flowers" and appreciate their neighbors. The pictures were excellent as well, and easily showed Scottish life and scenery.



2. I read about this book in the St. Paul(MN)Pioneer Press
   
   We have a Scottish daughter-in-law. We went to visit her parents on the Isle of Skye after she married our son. I fell in love with Scotland, especially the Highlands.
   
   I ordered this book for my daughter-in-law for her birthday and she was delighted with it. She knew the location of Coicagh, had been there and knew how to pronounce it. I picked the book up at our library and am enjoying it immensely. Anyone born in Scotland or it was their birthplace, can't help but identify with these Highland Scots: Warm, generous, patient with Americans, especially. To me Scotland could be heaven and I would be satisfied.



3. Fun read if you are into Scotland!...and I certainly am! So I'm really enjoying it. If you are looking for an instruction manual on how to move to a foreign land I don't believe this book will give you all the information that you need, but I don't think the writers intended that. It's just a short journal/story of their experience. I am finding it very entertaining. And Mrs. Maloney's sketches are such a bonus! I believe if you have a love for Scotland you will enjoy this book. And I believe if you are contemplating taking a big step in your life this couples story will be an inspiration to you to just go for it! (...and don't forget to journal your journey so that others can enjoy your experiences too!)



4. Plainly written but very true to the scottish people, countryside, and a wonderful view of what their life was making this dramatic change to living. Really enjoyed due to the insight into the scottish village life and way of interaction.



5. In addition to reader reviews, here's what the media are saying:
   
   "...funny, touching, insightful, The Wee Mad Road is well worth traveling, if only from the comfort of your favorite armchair."
   Neill Kennedy Ray, editor, SCOTTISH LIFE magazine, Summer 2008
   
   "If you're looking for a respite from politics and war, you can lose yourself in The Wee Mad Road...so idyllic it'll make you Highland green with envy."
   Mary Ann Grossman, book reviewer, Saint Paul Sunday PIONEER PRESS, May 4, 2008
   
   "The Wee Mad Road is kind of like Peter Mayle's A Year in Provence, with rotten weather and lots of whisky."
   Bob Gilbert, columnist, VILLAGER, May 7, 2008
   
   "...a two-year adventure of shearing sheep, learning folk songs and befriending locals. The whole romantic endeavor is captured in The Wee Mad Road."
   Kerri Westenberg, travel editor, Minneapolis Sunday STAR TRIBUNE, June 22, 2008
   
   "...gloriously whimsical...This is great fun!"
   Hamish Coghill, book reviewer, SCOTTISH LIFE magazine, Autumn 2008

1 comments about Roumeli: Travels in Northern Greece (New York Review Books Classics).

1. I first encountered Fermor in his riveting accounts of his walk across Europe as World War II began descending. I was fascinated by his encyclopedic and poetic narrative. He made you feel you were walking alongside him. Now, his travels take us to Roumeli, the old name for northern Greece and Macedonia. Again, Fermor takes us on a poetic and detailed odyssey through villages and rugged Greek countryside, meeting interesting people and telling their tales. He has an uncanny ear (and eye) for the temperament and culture of the Greeks and one can sense his affection for the people he helped defend while a British commando on Crete during WWII. This is a travelogue of the old sort: careful attention to detail, wanderings off the well-trod tourist paths, and vivid description of the sounds, smells and history of this fabled land.

5 comments about French in 10 Minutes a Day® (10 Minutes a Day Series).

1. I bought these right after returning from Paris knowing I was going back the following year. I didn't know one word of French before these CD's and when I returned to Paris I felt quite competent getting around. I wasn't fluent by any means, but these CD's focus on what you need to know as a traveler i.e. asking basic questions, making reservations, going to the post office, airport terms, ordering food, menu item names, names of shops and conjugation of common verbs. I learned a tremendous amount just by listening to the CD's. The use of different people on the CD's introduces various accents and helps reinforce pronunciation. The workbook lessons are a nice beginner level and follow the CD's and are good to reinforce the spellings and vocabulary. There is a glossary in the back which is also helpful. I highly recommend this set to anyone wanting a good first step to learning French or just wanting to be able to get around France on vacation. It made a huge difference in my confidence from the first year, not knowing a word to being able to walk into a place asking for a table, ordering my meal and paying completely in French.



2. I doubt that you can learn a language in just ten minutes a day but this one at least gives you confidence to at least try to speak some french as a traveller and people always respond well to the fact that you have made an effort.
   One of the most attractive features of this book is the simple system of pronuncation. Next is the logical way it sets about teaching you ie., the order of gettin to the heart of the matter. Some of the suggested ways of learning vocabulary can be expanded onWell worth the cost.



3. Although I believe the sequence of the training is good, I would have liked the CD to strictly follow the book. The tape also uses several French speakers and they all pronounce the words very differently, which to a beginner like me, is very confusing. The intent was good as they wanted folks to hear people with French accents from all over the world; however, to someone hearing and learning the language for the first time, I personally found this to be frustrating. For my level of expertise (none), I needed consistency in pronunciation and pronunciation I could understand so I could repeat. Folks who already are familiar with the language, may find this CD useful.



4. All I want is to learn to communicate the essential needs of a tourist when I travel to France. This book includes sticky labels to label all sorts of items in your home, flash cards, and other tools that help to learn basic French with less effort. You will need other materials if you want to learn this language more fluently and a CD to help with pronounciation. Regardless, this book can be a helpful tool.



5. i was happy with the book and the phonetic structure that gives you an idea of how the words are pronounced. i have a problem learning a new language and this book makes it easier. the spanish version already has a home in my library and has been very helpful. however, i was disappointed when i put it in my cd player and got no response. i didn't realize that it was a cd rom and not a regular cd.

5 comments about Jaywalking with the Irish.

1. I delighted in the armchair journey with David Monagan and his family as they embarked on their adventure to Ireland. It's refreshing to read a travel memoir that gets past the stereotypes to relate what's truly special about Ireland and its people.
   
   This book is a must read for anyone who has ever longed to leave the familiar to take on new challenges and adventures. It also offers lots of delicious nuggets along the way and inspiration to book the next flight to Ireland.



2. It is not your typical - this is what to expect when you live abroad - book. It describes the personal experiences of one family in a very captivating way. The books deals with the emotions, the differences in mentality, and not so much with detailed technical aspects of moving to a different continent. Food for thought and fun to read.



3. I'm surprised no one else mentioned this. The type-face is extremely small throughout this book. In fact, it is so small that I find it completely exhausting to read.
   
   I don't even have glasses, yet feel like I need them every time I sit down and read 10 pages of this book.
   
   Strange decision by publisher. I'm enjoying but have decided to give up on this one.



4. So far, I find it very humorus and well written. I have been very busy and unable to complete the book but I am anxious to complete.



5. I give the man credit: he uproots his family from his wealthy East Coast job to move to Cork, Ireland. He describes the scenery and the Irish in straight-forward objectivity, yet I got the feeling half-way through the book (by then the family had been in Cork three months) that they were a little sad about Ireland. Were they truly happy being foreigners in such a cold and reclusive country?
   
   He doesn't hold back. If the local teens were thugs toward their three kids, he wrote about it. If the locals were a bit leery of the new American neighbors, he didn't hold back, either. But what kept bothering me during this read was wondering if the three kids were happy in their new country? The boys seemed a little homesick and troubled.
   
   The descriptions of the terrain and towns in this book are very good. I could feel the fog, rain and sadness in every page. I could envision the mountains and the craggy cliffs when he wrote about the ocean. He gave Ireland the mystical image we have heard and read the world over.
   
   This book is somehow sad, but a very worthy read. I can see why the Irish drink as much as they are known to drink. I can also see why so many immigrated to the US for a better life. It's good to see the country of one's parents but one must also understand why our parents left their country to start anew.