No comments about Turin (Footprint - Pocket Guides).

No comments about Authentic Trentino-Alto Adige (Authentic Italy).

3 comments about Tuscan Light, Memories of Italy.

1. Mark just wants you to be in Italy forever. He sees things that a lot of us go unnoticed. Hopefully there will be a third book.
   Connie Bozovich



2. The sequel to "Tuscan Echoes: A Season in Italy", Tuscan Light: Memories of Italy continues author and seasoned European traveler Mark Gordon Smith's reflections upon the culture and society of Italy, a nation that has remained robustly stable despite tremendous modern economic and social upheaval. Told in first-person perspective and present tense, chapters evoke the varied sights, sounds, people, and flavors of the Italian nation, with a connoisseur's eye for detail and a gourmet's palate. "When Renaissance scribes created their manuscripts and printers made hand-printed books, they used paper created by artisans not unlike Anna, women and men who carry a deep passion for their craft. The culture of Italy unfolds in a special way when we open a leather-bound journal and write on pages that have been lovingly sewn together. Quality, time, and care all meet when an object of such beauty comes into our lives." As much a tribute to Italy's refined wonders as it is a travelogue and memoir, Tuscan Light is especially recommended for armchair travelers and anyone seeking to experience fond memories of a beautiful and passionate nation.



3. In this, the second of a planned trilogy, Mark Gordon Smith shares even more of his insights and passions for Italy. He is clearly in love with the country, and readers will want to get on the next plane to have their own wonderful adventures.

4 comments about Designer Bargains in Italy.

1. Designer Bargains in Italy made my holiday!I stocked up on cashmere sweaters, silk ties and hand made shoes and had tremendous fun talking to those clever Italian artisans.



2. While this book does provide a fairly comprehensive list of factory outlets, it is poorly organized and not designed for the short-term visitor to Italy. For exaple, Prada is listed under "I Pellettieri d'Italia", which is fairly useless for the average visitor.

   If you are planning on doing some serious shopping and will be in Italy for some time, this book is great. If you are only going for a short while, I would recommend doing an Internet search (you'll get the major outlets and much better directions.)




3. This is the real thing, very well researched, it is obvious that the author knows her subject. Straightforward directions, correct information and a refreshing lack of cute remarks about Italy. I visited Venice, wonderful, but also splurged on Jimmy Choo shoes and Gucci scarves, very good deals.
   Noor van der Horst, Amsterdam



4. It's a very rich book to help us to shop in italy with less money , buy it don't late

2 comments about The Xenophobe's Guide to the Italians.

1. This book points out most of the italians habits (both the bad and good ones) with respect to family, food, love affairs, etc., giving a good picture of the italian people in an objective, but funny, way. I am Italian and I must admit that most of the attitudes described in the book are real, even if, sometimes, they are a bit exaggerated. I suggest this book to the people who already visited Italy and, therefore, they can easily understand what is a caricature and what is real. Finally, the book can be read in just a couple of hours (I read it during a flight from Holland to Italy).



2. The Xenophobes guide to the Italians is a concise, humorous and informative look at the Italian people and their way of life. Among the topics that are mentioned are the importance of regional identities, the North/South divide, and the importance of the family in Italian life, as well as many other things.
   The book uses stereotypes and generalizations to describe the people, so it cannot, and should not, account for all Italians. An example of this is in the section writing about how the rest of the world sees Italy - "The typical stereotype of the Italians is that of a noisy, passionate, scheming Mediterranean people, whose brilliance and inventiveness are unfortunately marred by laziness and unreliability".
   Another interesting point noted in the book is how the national identity of Italian immigrants is stonger than in other nations, and as a result people such as Robert De Niro, Frank Sinatra, and Diego Maradona are considered to be as much Italian as their newly adopted country.

5 comments about The Wildest Place on Earth: Italian Gardens and the Invention of Wilderness.

1. John Hanson Mitchell has spent the past two decades prowling a square mile or so of suburban woods and fields in Eastern Massachusetts, searching for its past and speculating on its future, and in the process producing 4 books (Ceremonial Time, Living At the End of Time, Walking Toward Walden, and Trespassing) dealing with the nature of place and its affect on the people who live there. His latest book, The Wildest Place on Earth, may at first glance seem, if not exactly a detour, at least a stroll down a side street, away from his favorite square mile of land known as Scratch Flat, but read on and you will find that Mitchell is once again exploring in small spaces.

   In The Wildest Place on Earth, Mitchell sets out to discover the nature of the American wilderness and the influence of Italyýs tamed landscapes on the American experience. In a series of rambles that span decades and move effortlessly from the history of Renaissance gardens to American conservationists, and the Hudson River school of landscape painters to encounters in Americaýs overcrowded and over-loved wilderness parks, Mitchell pokes and prods and writes of the past. This book is part travelogue, and part informed speculation as Mitchell comes to realize that wilderness is perhaps more a concept than a true reality for most of us, and that the wildest place on earth may be his own somewhat haphazardly planned backyard garden that has grown over the past decade into a lush and relaxing presence.

   Mitchell writes much in this book about the Greek and Roman myths and how they influence, even to this day, what we see and feel as wilderness. The god Pan is always present, and the history of mazes and labyrinths makes for some fascinating side trips through Italy. If you are looking for a few good modern-day gardening stories, he supplies those as well.

   The editor of the Massachusetts Audubon magazine Sanctuary and the winner of the 1994 John Burroughs essay award and the 2000 New England Booksellerýs Award, Mitchell is a graceful stylist who will win you over as he rambles an speculatesýmuch like a close friend who you may not always agree with, but you canýt stop listening to those provocative opinions.




2. Like a ramble through a garden, or through the twists and turns of a maze, Mitchell takes the reader on a casually structured walk through memory, opinion, and speculation. He jumps from topic to topic in an engaging manner without exploring in any great depth his subjects -- the history of gardening in Italy and America, a few favorite writers (Thoreau, Wharton), his own large garden, his personal history, encounters with interesting people, the American conception and use of wilderness, urban encroachment, mazes and monsters, some colorful myths and stories. Nor does he need to go deep. His attempt in these related essays seems to be to introduce the reader to a great variety of ways of thinking about gardens, to provide different pathways through the subject, different perspectives. And he succeeds. Despite his overly ambitious subtitle ("Italian Gardens and the Invention of the Wilderness"), which suggests a strong unifying theme that the book is not disciplined enough to provide, he continually evokes the beauty and mystery of gardens as places of internal as well as external discovery. Constantly on the lookout for an iconic, sexless Pan, Mitchell finds the demigod in humans, goats, decorative statues, the center of a maze, and, ultimately, in the enduring metaphor that survived the arrival of Christianity not just to exist on its own, but also to inform the imagery of Satan. There are several startling moments as he gently guides us on his personal journey, such as the fact that in the 1960s scientists discovered lead from auto exhaust embedded in Arctic ice, or his encounters with an unnerving hiker in one of our national parks. Throughout, Mitchell's abiding faith in the garden, in the importance of human contact with the earth, sustains the book's meditative and thoughtful tone.



3. This book is a pilgrimage. Not a linear pilgrimage that sets off from a given point and progresses towards a distant goal, but a pilgrimage through a labyrinth or maze - a circular pilgrimage, if you will.

   The writer, a naturalist with a home and garden in eastern Massachusetts, is at home also in the wilderness of the western United States as well as in thr historic gardens of Italy. He traces for the reader the influence that the great gardens of Italy, part cultivated, part bosky wilderness, have had on the development of both the gardens and the wilderness of the U.S. But the book is not so simple and direct. Through it runs the theme of the labyrinth, its symbolism of the complexities of nature, its paradoxes, twists and turns.

   The true spirit of wildness is seldom to be found, the writer says, in our large "wilderness" parks polluted by ATV's, rangers and over-run camp sites. Human connection with the land is most strongly felt in our gardens - not the front yard with its neatly mowed lawn and well-pruned foundation planting but a truly creative garden with wild spaces and vistas that welcome wild creatures. We can save some land from developers, build small parks, add in gardens with their boskyness (lovely word, that) and create our own web of wilderness even in our most built up areas,

   Did the nature god Pan die with the birth of Christianity and the idea of dominion over all the creatures of the earth? The writer is optimistic that he did not and that the true spirit of nature can be revived, one natural garden space at a time.

   This is the work of a respected nature writer who is stringing together ideas about wilderness and gardens loosely and creatively. It is both evocative and provocative, a mental ramble for an open and enquiring mind.




4. This book is a pilgrimage. Not a linear pilgrimage that sets off from a given point and progresses towards a distant goal, but a pilgrimage through a labyrinth or maze - a circular pilgrimage, if you will.

   The writer, a naturalist with a home and garden in eastern Massachusetts, is at home also in the wilderness of the western United States as well as in thr historic gardens of Italy. He traces for the reader the influence that the great gardens of Italy, part cultivated, part bosky wilderness, have had on the development of both the gardens and the wilderness of the U.S. But the book is not so simple and direct. Through it runs the theme of the labyrinth, its symbolism of the complexities of nature, its paradoxes, twists and turns.

   The true spirit of wildness is seldom to be found, the writer says, in our large "wilderness" parks polluted by ATV's, rangers and over-run camp sites. Human connection with the land is most strongly felt in our gardens - not the front yard with its neatly mowed lawn and well-pruned foundation planting but a truly creative garden with wild spaces and vistas that welcome wild creatures. We can save some land from developers, build small parks, add in gardens with their boskyness (lovely word, that) and create our own web of wilderness even in our most built up areas,

   Did the nature god Pan die with the birth of Christianity and the idea of dominion over all the creatures of the earth? The writer is optimistic that he did not and that the true spirit of nature can be revived, one natural garden space at a time.

   This is the work of a respected nature writer who is stringing together ideas about wilderness and gardens loosely and creatively. It is both evocative and provocative, a mental ramble for an open and enquiring mind.




5. Not so often do I come across a recently published work and call it a classic -- something worth preserving and handing down to the next generation -- but this is one. It is an honest man's reexamination of how to relate to nature. He wears his erudition lightly, and one has confidence that his thoughts are his own and hard-won.
   
   Like many classics, one gets the feeling that for every sentence written, there were ten he didn't write. The book reminds me in some deep sense of the old masons who taught me my trade. Their words were few, but long thought out, humble, and worth remembering.

No comments about The Italian Truffle Guide The Ultimate Guide to Italy's Greatest Culinary Treasure.

1 comments about The Architecture of Rome.

1. A wonderful book to carry around with you in Rome. The book provides very detailed maps of the City with brief descriptions of what seems like every building in Rome. It is a great format for wandering and discovering as you go.

1 comments about The Other Venice: Secrets of the City (Reaktion Books - Topographics).

1. I never thought a book on Venice could be a disappointment but this one was. The photos were unremarkable and the accompanying text even more so.
   It does put you into a few spots that aren't well known to visitors but I was bored stiff by it and I am a man who loves Venice, my wife and my children...in that order

2 comments about Insight Guide Southern Italy (Insight Guides Southern Italy).

1. I purchased this book for an upcoming trip to Italy -- particularly the Puglia Region. I spent a year in Rome 20 years ago and traveled to many places in Italy, but never got to Puglia, so I have absolutely no knowledge of this region. This book has a lot of information. It includes a large history lesson, good maps, and great descriptions of locations. I would recommend it to anyone that is looking for a good overall guide to Southern Italy.



2. We purchased this guide as it was the only guide available for Southern Italy and we were travelling to Puglia. There were some great pictures and interesting history section but overall almost no practical information. We tend to go off the beaten path (lots of oppurtunities for this in Puglia) and found very little helpful information in this book. We ended up usin the Rough Guide to Italy instead.