3 comments about Atavismo!: My Home in Italy.

1. I initially met the author in the Rome airport struggling to find change to pay for parking. Realizing she was speaking English, we had a small discussion and she handed me her card as she told me she had just published a book about Italy and my husband and I and my sister and her husband were just beginning our trek through much of Italy. I purchased her book and enjoyed reading about her ancestors, home, and her little corner of Italy. I have since returned to Italy and my next trip will definitely include a stop in Anna Maria's corner....of Italy.



2. Such an interesting story and because it is a true adventure, all the more meaningful. Could relate to so many thoughts of the author. One just hasn't lived until experiencing a visit to Italy or to Sicily. Having done both, I suggest that everyone try it just once; you will never be the same! I found this book to be a great read and I know that all book lovers will enjoy it, too .
   G. Villalba,
   Idaho



3. I've read several books on personal memories of Italy but this is the best that I've found! It reminded me of the happy childhood days I spent in my Italian Grandma's kitchen watching her cook while she told me stories of the old country. It is the perfect blend of "feel good" family stories and descriptions of food that make you want to run out to your local Italian restaurant--or even better, try the family recipes that Ann lists at the end. I admit that I'd love to have an experience like this. Read it and you'll understand! It definitely appeals to all of your senses!
   It's written as though the author were right there telling you her story in her own words without a lot of other stuff that you don't care about.
   Anyone with Italian roots or wanted to be Italian should read this book.

2 comments about Sardinia (Eyewitness Travel Guides).

1. I went to school in Rome for a semester, and during a four day weekend I decided to go to Sardinia b/c I saw some pics of it on the 'net and it looked and sounded awesome. As I read this book I became very excited at all the cool things one could do and see.The book listed many of the best beaches, festivals, scenery, and archaeological sites of the island. It was very hard to decide what I should do first!
   The book was a huge help and gave me lots of great ideas. However, I did have some trouble finding some of the things mentioned in the book, despite what seemed like very detailed directions. That may have had more to do with the very old and poorly maintained roads and signs than the book though. I have found some pictures online of places that I don't think were mentioned in the book that I want to see the next time I go, so I wouldn't rely exclusively on one source when planning your trip.



2. Sardinia travel guide is as good, clear and concise as all the DK travel guides. It is ideal for those tourists who do not have the time to learn a long history, or simply do not want to do so. Ratio of photos/texts is perfect, maps are clear not filled with useless details. Quality of paper again is ideal, so can take it out from and put it back to your bag 100 times a day without transforming it into a pellet.

No comments about Village Walks: Tuscany: 50 Adventures on Foot (City Walks).

3 comments about Time Out Naples: Capri, Sorrento and the Amalfi Coast (Time Out Guides).

1. This is a thorough neighborhood-by-neighborhood guide of Naples. The food recommendations are all excellent, as are the maps and the suggested itineraries. The sections on historical and cultural background are also very informative and well-written. I stayed in Naples for over a week and was pleased to find that this book provided enough in-depth recommendations to go beyond the usual rapid-fire tourist itineraries. I have sought out other Time Out city guides based on my experience with this book.



2. Very informative book. Maps are included which always helps....and has good info on day trips outside of city.



3. Naples is the latest addition to my Time Out guides. Including New York, Paris, Frankfurt, Bombay and Madrid, I've found all of Time Out's publications to be highly dependable for what's happening.
   
   Not only does the Naples guide provide highlights of Naples area history, its recommendations for the must-see eateries and sights are spot on. My recent trip took me to the area for 7 days for a wedding, but using this guide let me make the most of every free moment I had.
   
   Only thing that is ever short-changed(as is the case with many guides) are the little out of the way places that one simple stumbles upon, are incredibly cool and actually make the tourist feel like they've stepped out of the controlled Disney-theme presentation of many cities by many guides.
   
   This being said, I find that Time Out is always a reliable source for a well rounded experience, particularly if one wants to get a feel for what the local life is like.

5 comments about The Tuscan Year: Life and Food in an Italian Valley.

1. I found this book very disappointing. It could even be said to be boring. I guess I didn't read the description/reviews properly as I was expecting more of a story line, perhaps like Frances Mayes in Under the Tuscan Sun or Peter Mayle in A Year in Provence.



2. Don't expect this book to be another "Year in Provence" or travel in the Italian wilderness book. Elizabeth Romer documents the reasons the Tuscans -- and their predecessors -- eat like they do, plant like they do and live like they do. It carries us back to Roman times and tries to explain why Tuscans consider somone from the next valley to be a foreigner. A fascinating read for more than just cooks.



3. A few months ago I reviewed two books on Tuscan life and cuisine, `Ciao Italia in Tuscany' by PBS series host Mary Ann Esposito and `Simply Tuscan' by New York City restaurant chef / owner and curio shop impresario Pino Luongo. Neither book impressed me as giving a genuine picture of life in Tuscany, especially as it was before EuroAmerican homogenization took over. This book, `The Tuscan Year', Life and Food in an Italian Valley' by textile artist and Tuscan resident Elizabeth Romer is the real deal. The venue is an isolated valley in the southeastern corner of Tuscany, genuinely rural in that it is several dozen miles from the large cities of Florence and Sienna. The feeling the author gives about this lovely environment reminds me of the admittedly artificial feeling of lyric isolation from the cares of the world in the very obscure movie `The Hidden Valley' based in an isolated Swiss valley community surrounded by the ravages of the 30 years war.
   
   The major text of the book is in twelve chapters, one for each month of the year, beginning with January and ending with December. There are very few illustrations, limited to a few simple line drawings opening each chapter. The text is divided roughly equally between culinary information and recipes and non-culinary tales of the domestic, agricultural, and animal husbandry. The highest praise I can give this book is that it has a strong kinship in the style and quality of its content to Patience Gray's great culinary journal `Honey from a Weed' which I have been attempting to accurately review for over six months now.
   
   The main characters of the story are not the author and her family, but a native Tuscan family of Orlando and Silvana Cerotti "of the remote mountain area between Cortona and Castiglion Fiorentino. They have a single son and they run their estate and live their lives in a traditional manner. They do this from choice not necessity. Their lives are bounded by the land, which they use to its fullest extent, and in this way they are virtually self-sufficient. Their property is extensive, stretching over 400 hectares, and includes acres of forest and arable land, streams, vineyards, many small houses and their own imposing fattoria with its surrounding walled kitchen garden, olive groves, chapel and outbuildings."
   
   The most enheartening part of this story is the fact that the Cerotti's and their family and farm hands have been successful in maintaining a lifestyle that has the feel of dating back to the Renaissance, if not earlier. This is not a story of an agricultural estate in irreversable decline, although the family has cut back on some farm resources such as the herd of pigs. Rather than maintaining 100 swine, the family buys a pig each year and has it slaughtered and butchered by a professional travelling butcher. All the `charcuterie' is done on the premises by the butcher or the family. The hams are cured by Silvana and hung to dry in the attic. Orlando takes care of sausage making with the butcher.
   
   All the recipes are given `in context' in the month when their ingredients are in season and, where appropriate, in the liturgical season most appropriate for the dish. There are precious few culinary tips in the recipes and all are written in a narrative fashion, with no neat lists of ingredients and careful quantities, well-defined prep instructions, and numbered steps in the preparation. This is as much a book on anthropology as it is on things culinary. That is not to say the recipes cannot be made by an American suburbanite. If you have basic cooking skills and good instincts, you should have no problems with these recipes. Just be sure to read the author's notes on measuring at the end of the book. She is very much the student of Elizabeth David when it comes to weights and measures, using the proper Englishman's teaspoon, tablespoon, soup spoon, and teacup as measuring devices. The author gives some correlations of these devices to our shiny stainless steel measuring devices, but as Ms. Romer points out, Silvana used no measuring devices at all, so if I were you, I would get the lay of the land and proceed to measure things out by the seat of your pants. You will probably get a much more desirable result than if you try to exactly translate the measurements into the metric or something equally precise and irrelevant.
   
   My only reservations about the culinary contents of the book are in the recipes for brodo (stock) and in the absence of a recipe for the salt-free Tuscan bread. The brodo recipe calls for boiling the stock for three hours, which violates absolutely every single stock recipe I have ever read, in that stock ingredients are to be just brought to the edge of a boil, then simmered. Also, the rationale for the saltless Tuscan bread is given in great detail, but there is no recipe for same, and, I suspect you may have a very hard time finding true saltless bread in an American suburb. My local megamart carries a Tuscan loaf, but I will bet more than a few lire (or euros) on the fact that salt was used in the recipe.
   
   This book is first and foremost a delight to read. At the same time it is a valuable scholarly source document for a lifestyle which seems to be disappearing from around the world. Grab onto it and savor it while you can.
   
   Highly recommended to readers and cooks alike.



4. Life and Food in an Italian Valley (subtitle) is a memoir, cookbook and record of a Tuscan farm family. I found the book to be a better read than Mayes' "Under the Tuscan Sun" for it gives a more comprehensive look at daily family life rather than one person's experiences. The tweleve chapters--January through December--provide the reader a glimspe of the monthly activities of the Cerotti estate offering a look at their lives including their food, work, family and celebrations. Romer gave me a sense of being a part of the Cerotti household for I became engaged with them as if I were a family member. Sitting at Silvana's kitchen table allowed me to learn much about traditional Tuscan food which has been handed down from one generation to the next.



5. Elizabeth Romer chronicles a year in Tuscany. As someone who lived in Italy and even honeymooned in Tuscany, I looked forward to this book. I wasn't really sure what it was. Part cook book and part story of a year in Tuscany, I felt it lacked focus. More importantly, it lacked romance. Her characters seemed distant, almost cardboard figures. I wasn't drawn into their lives. Say what you will about Frances Mayes, but her book brought alive the magic of Tuscany.

No comments about The Gluten-Free Guide to Italy.

5 comments about Rick Steves' Paris 2007 (Rick Steves).

1. Rick Steves is an expert on European travel.
   I am a great fan of his PBS show, "Rick Steves in...".
   His information is as complete as one might want; he covers the basics plus some: how to go, where to stay, dine, explore, etc.
   There is also the in-depth information on the people, the customs, the "inner side" of Paris that gives one more than
   the "typical touristy" perspective.
   His book is well organized and easy to read...I'm still reading it and enjoying my "chairside travel" in preparation for the real thing.



2. My husband and I used this book on our recent eight-day trip to Paris. It was a very helpful guidebook, giving several insights into how to get around Paris--such as where to buy the Museum Pass most efficiently, to navigating the Metro, to saving some money, etc. I found it very easy to use, with a good index that led us immediately to the information we needed. I would definitely recommend reading the book before you leave in order to maximize its information. We appreciated his starred ratings of sights big and small, which were helpful in planning our time. We didn't find his restaraunt and cafe suggestions too helpful, as "cheap" to him was "pricey" to us. Particularly of note were the tours of some of the major sights. We had our iPods with us, and we were able to download the audio versions of the written chapters as we toured the sights. At Versailles, we rented the audioguide, but in the end we found the Rick Steves tour (in the book and downloaded from his Web site), to be more interesting and informative than the palace's audioguide. I feel that we got a thorough and wonderful "tour" of Paris with this book--coupled with a good map of Paris, it's really all you need to enjoy your trip.



3. I really have to compliment Rick Steves for making a tour guide book fun and informative at the same time. There were moments when I was reading a description of something and started laughing out loud from humorous description he would give. Besides being fun, there is plenty of information in here...I would recommend trying to get the 2008 version after 10/07 because the Euro has jumped up in value (or did the dollar drop?) and some prices went up also. But I would certainly recommend this book to friends and family because you will be enthused to get informed.



4. The maps and insider tips are Great. I will take a current copy every time I go to Paris.



5. Rick Steves' Paris had great information and wonderful tips. It was very helpful to have organized vacation plans, but also had enough ideas and favorite destinations that it allowed us to pick and choose which would work with our schedules. I especially liked the walking tour guide. It made getting from place to place fun, informative, and a good use of time.

5 comments about Michelin Green Guide London (Michelin Green Guide: London English Edition).

1. If you are spending more than a few days in London to "see the sights", then you must have this book. All other tour guides to London are superficial in their coverage of the major museums and tourist sights. This book offers the details the others lack, with well written descriptions of the collections of the major museums including their highlights. The strength of this book is when you want to know more about a particular museum or sight than where it is and when it is open; it is actually most useful when you are in the particular sight. This book does NOT cover hotels, restaurants, etc.; for that information, try any of the other guide books on the market.



2. this book has great maps and many, many suggestions about places to dine. in conjunctions with rick steve's london 2006 all you could possibly need fora great week in london



3. This guide has nice, detailed histories of the all the sights but is so poorly organized and indexed that it is almost impossible to use. God help you if you know you want to visit the War Museum but don't happen to know that its full title is "Imperial War Museum"... you'll never find it in the index or book. Want to go to Hampton Court? That is in the index, but finding the map which shows where it is (mentioned in text but missing from index and table of contents) is difficult. Oh, well, just flip through the book for 15 miniutes, you'll eventually find it, but only a cryptic two words on how to get there. Organization by neighborhood is not, in itself a bad idea, but requires careful indexing. Also, the book seems to assume you will drive through London on your Michelin tires (not advised in London's insane traffic) and provides almost no information on public transport. Pass this one by!



4. This is a premature general review. I am currently going through the guide, the visit in London is projected for end-September.
   
   This seems to be a very comprehensive guide, providing a great deal of historical information.
   Insofar as museums are concerned, I would have preferred more details on artists' works of particular importance and interest, at the expense of the quite extensive background and general information provided in this guide. I cannot imagine being able to take time to absorb such information, even if read on the eve of the visit in the museum itself, certainly not on the spot; I would want then to know what to look for and pay special attention to in specific exhibit.



5. We are just back from a trip which included London. As always, Michelin is the best at having handy maps of districts you are interested in exploring. And the size fits nicely in a coat pocket. But, as my wife said, the descriptions are not inspiring. I find the maps and portability matter while on a trip. But for planning, maybe something else might be better.

1 comments about The Malt Whisky Map of Scotland.

1. If you are a single malt man or woman, you will love having this map! If you are just learning about single malts you will find it very helpful to keep straight the places it's made. If you a re a seasoned single malt fan you may end up using this map to plan your trip to the land of the thistle to see for yourself and to sample a wee dram.
   Happy map reading while you enjoy a tipple.

5 comments about Off the Road: A Modern-Day Walk Down the Pilgrim's Route into Spain.

1. Having just completed the Road to Santiago myself, reading Jack's book again was refreshing and helped me recollect a lot of what I saw. He does a great job describing the life and mind of a pilgrim and the history of the road. I would reccommend this book for people interested in walking the ancient road and for those who have completed it. It captures Spanish culture and history and combines it with the humor and challenges that the Camino brings.



2. Jack Hitt's writing style is endlessly introspective, and so it is with no small surprise that when he set off on a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela, the resulting book would be full of allegory for his own personal travels.
   
   Hitt admits this upfront, however, and the result is a book that is entertaining, but perhaps never quite as deep as he tries for.
   
   Fans of travel accounts will laugh along as Hitt describes his initial travel problems, his incredibly zany and diverse fellow pilgrims, and a host of, well, hosts along the way that make the trip exciting and memorable.
   
   Hitt is at his best when describing his life on the road to Santiago. It is when he tries to decipher the meaning the road holds for himself or others, he falters. Although his introspection is gently self-deprecating, it does not impress the reader any more because of this.
   
   Hitt's book should be a, well "hit" if a person can stomach a little self-indulgence. But, hey, after all, maybe that's one of the things a pilgrimage can be?



3. Jack Hitt writes with honesty and a sense of play that give his perspective a certain type of gravitas. Who is to say that a pilgrim cannot have fun? After having read Shirley MacLaine's account (complete with astral travels and hallucinations)[also available on Amazon.com], Jack Hitt is down to earth, lucid, inspiring, and a breath of fresh air. I really appreciate the self reflexivity he brings into play about being "a true pilgrim." Yes, no matter what -- we are all "tourists" really -- unless we are world travelers without a set itinerary -- pilgrimage does not fall under that rubric. Irreverent, hardly. I think we are past the days when we could excommunicate folks like Hitt for being candid, if not funny. Jack Hitt's book moves at a pace that allows readers to savor the route. I especially enjoyed Chapter 7 which is an extended exploration of the rise and fall of the Knights Templar and subsequently the various explanations of the architecture of the fortress in Ponferrada. Hitt makes me want to start my trek at least before Ponferrada if not Leon. While most books give you the travel monologue and the rest swing the other way -- with deep spiritual musings, Hitt gives it to you like a buddy but also moves along with reflections on the historical that I know will make my planned trip along the Camino richer and fuller. Undoubtedly, Hitt is a wonderful writer and Off the Road is full of interesting personal as well as historical reflections -- and when the two fuse -- it is nothing short of [cough] magical. Hitt's reflections on Romanesque architecture brings it to life and for someone like me who has seen a lot of Gothic, Baroque and Rococo -- I know this sounds crazy but I yearn to smell the animal droppings and then segue into one of these "inviting" Romanesque building as Hitt so deftly describes. A must have (if not must read) for all those considering to do the Camino.
   
   Miguel Llora



4. Well written. Never boring. Gave me a different perspective on the way I think about history.



5. For my recent compilation of pilgrimage quotations ("Ultreia! Onward! Progress of the Pilgrim") I read all 40 or so contemporary English journal accounts available about the various routes. Hitt's is clearly within the first grouping of 8 or so best such books (i.e. largely those written by established authors and/or academics). This was the third or fourth pilgrimage account I read and after plowing through another couple of dozen of such I remained impressed by both the sense of humour and critical eye that Hitt brought to describing his trip. One finds much here about the various characters that one is likely to encounter along the route and Hitt is accurate in his portrait of the moving circus that the camino has unfortunately become.