1 comments about A Voice from the Mountains.

1. Voice From The Mountains by sculptor and educator Anthony Caponi is a personal memoir of a remote village in the Apennines Mountains of central Italy, where Caponi spent his boyhood in the 1920s. Traditions handed down through the centuries and pride in the heart of day-to-day living mark the reflections and remembrances. Black-and-white photographs add an extra touch to this powerful account, which is written largely in an unusual style that strongly resembles free-verse poetry. Voice From The Mountains is a unique and superbly presented memoir.

No comments about Milan City Map (Travel Reference Map).

No comments about Florence In Detail Revised and Updated Edition: A Guide for the Expert Traveler.

No comments about Florence Spiral Guide (Aaa Spiral Guides).

2 comments about The Cats of Venice.

1. This is a sweet little book with wonderful pictures. Makes a great gift for a cat person or someone who likes to travel to Italy. The pictures really are great!



2. If you like cats, or if you like Venice, you are sure to like this little gem of a book. Course, if you're like me and like em both...well, this book is a must! Highly recommended.

No comments about About Italy: Puglia to the Po.

No comments about Italy's Most Wanted: The Top 10 Book of Roman Ruins, Wonderful Wines, and Renaissance Rarities (Most Wanted Series).

5 comments about Italy Fever: 14 Ways to Satisfy Your Love Affair with Italy.

1. This slim volume should have been a nice little personal website and I suppose makes a nice gift for the right person but is not much of a book. There is something embarassingly amateurish about the book that nearly raises it to the level of camp. The author has never lived in Italy, does not speak the language, doesn't seem to know any Italians personally, and does not appear to have ever experienced the most obvious way to "satisfy your love affair with Italy" (or if she has, doesn't want her husband to know about it).

   Italophiles who don't really know the country might enjoy this book. It is not exactly harmful, and in its own naive way rather charming and entertaining. It is fun for example, to see which "Italian" movies immediately come to mind but don't make her list ("Miracle in Milan" and "The Comfort of Strangers" are two that I don't see her mention).




2. This book was an absolute waste of time and , ... also a waste of money. My husband bought it for me as a gift. This is the only reason I felt compelled to read the book. The author drones painfully on and on about her husband's packing problems and bike fetishes. There is very little useful or interesting information about Italy in this book. For those of you who have been to Italy there is NO reason to read this book. For those of you planning a trip for the first time , please read something else. This book is not well written, offers the reader nothing and is a total waste of time!!!



3. How did I miss Italy Fever until today? As a feverish Italophile/bibliophile myself, I have an extensive collection of books on Italian history, travel, cookery, and fiction. Darlene Marwitz is my newest "find", a must-have reference. As a frequent traveler to Italy from Bergamo to Roma and all wonders inbetween, I either own or have evaluated every possible source to plan my trips and further my romance with this land and its people. Having been a mental traveler long before a realized one, I commend Marwitz for her finely honed lists on travel through books and films.

   The reason I neglected to discover Italy Fever sooner could be my immersion in such pursuits as organizing my next trip, struggling with Italian language course, serving up Florentine timballo di maccheroni, hasseling everyone to "go there," faxing and phoning Italian friends and baking too many foccace. Darlene would approve, she outlines all such pursuits in her book and many more with an irrepressible style and a bubbling sense of humor, all founded on scholarly knowledge. She has done her homework. Remember the words of St. Catherine of Siena: "The more you know, the more you love, and by loving more, the more you enjoy."

   This author could have been me. I have experienced all of her passionate revelations. Like her, "I like details not found in typical publications . . .I want to read about and travel to places where sightseers seldom wander, locations best discovered by accident." Recalling the afternoon I drove on up a narrow lane after failing to find the villa of Iris Origo, pulled to the edge to turn around and found myself at the tall iron gates of her family burial ground and chapel. Inscribed on her tombstone is the quote from St. Catherine.




4. Having Italian ancestry, I have grown up with so many stories and pictures of Italy, and the relatives that my grandparents left behind to come to America for a better life. Darlene's book was wonderful...to ready over a cup of tea and dream about the day when my husband and I will visit Italy. And I had to laugh out loud so many times, as she tried convince her husband that he, too, had a love affair with Italy! I've been trying to do that for several years, and I've heard my husband utter the same words that Darlene's husband did on many occasions! I know that someday I'll get my trip to Italy, and my husband will try to be enthusiastic about it...we'll see how that goes! But in the mean time, Darlene's book has given me so much pleasure and to know that others share my passion of Italy is wonderful!



5. Whether you are in love with Italy, an ardent traveller or an armchair traveller you will not fail to be totally caught in Darlene Marwitz's love affair with, and enthusiasm for, Italy.
   I cannot recommend this book highly enough. It made me smile, it made me long for long hot summer days and warm evenings, it made me want to hop on the next flight to Pisa! This is not just a travel book either, it made me smile when I read Darlene's attempts at drumming up enthusiasm for her husband to travel also - now THAT I could sympathise with. A must!

4 comments about Zoe Sophia's Scrapbook: An Adventure in Venice.

1. Excellent for children in the 7 to 10 age group. Makes you want to visit Venice too. Both the story and illustrations are first class.



2. This sweet book captures the adventure of travel and the beauty of Venice through the eyes of a nine-year old girl. The novel scrapbook format of the story simply illustrates the importance and value of documenting our experiences and travels. Zoe Sophia inspired my daughter!



3. If I were a children's writer/illustrator, "Zoe Sophia's Scrapbook: An Adventure in Venice" is the book I would write. But I'm not and I haven't, so I will sing its praises.
   
   Verse 1: What does a child do if she is clever, open-minded, and eccentric? She has a best pal, Mickey, her black dachshund, and her buddy, the doorman, Victor Gonzales. But best of all she has her great-aunt Dorothy Pomander, who lives in Venice and is a famous writer. Thus sets the premise for the book: a trip to Venice. Zoe Sophia, not so surprisingly, holds her aunt in highest esteem: each seems to be the reflection of the other. So, verse 1--a matched pair of eccentric characters.
   
   Verse 2: The artwork is simply incredible. Claudia Mauner uses watercolor and india ink. Watercolor produces soft, glowing colors with a sponged look; the india ink outlines and highlights what is needed, especially those eyebrows.
   
   Verse 3: The paintings within the artwork of the story, Chagall and Tiepolo, and the architecture rendered in watercolor, San Marco Basilica, the Ca'd'Oro (House of Gold), the Piazzetta, and, of course, the Grand Canal on the cover.. Even the gondola repair shop outside DP's apartment window looks like a Durain painting, and a portrait of DP looks like a creation by Andy Warhol.
   
   Verse 4: It is quite clever of Claudia and Elisa Smalley to create a story that includes so many tidbits of Venice: language, key famous places and what happens there, food, customs, famous jobs, architecture, paintings, opera. It all fits in the framework of the story without seeming intentionally educational. Children will learn happenstance.
   
   Verse 5: A tender minor plotline of losing Mickey, the dachshund, presents a less self-assured Zoe Sophia. I love the illustration of Zoe in bed, wide-eyed with worry, hair frazzled, with her glasses and hair twists on the bedside table. Never fear. Mickey is returned, all is well and a large group of new friends attend the opera, including dogs and cats. Another sweet aspect of the book is that Mickey and Pip, DP's marmalade cat, go everywhere with the two adventurers.
   
   Chorus: I love Zoe Sophia. If my calculations are correct, Claudia and Elisa wrote only two Zoe Sophia books. Her first adventure took place in New York with her beloved DP. I want more, nay, I demand more Zoe Sophia books!! This book is so entertaining and charming, as well as educational. More! More! More!....please...



4. I listened to the story through my library...wow what a wonderful book. It makes you want to visit New York (second book) and Venice. I hope the other writes other Zoe adventure stories.

2 comments about Michelin Rome Mini-Spiral Atlas No. 2038 (Michelin Maps & Atlases).

1. I bought this in a bookstore in the Rome training station, and it proved a fantastic resource for navigating the streets of Rome on foot. It put the maps in my Let's Go to shame, and made walking Rome's often confusing streets much easier. It was the best street map of Rome I saw, either in Rome, or in the U.S. since. I like to walk when I travel, and I wanted to be able to walk to the Vatican, and then to the stadium for a soccer game. (The latter turned out to be overly ambitious.)
   
   It includes a map of the metro/subway system, a region overview map, and a grid indicator map showing which page to use. The last is helpful, since this book is in the "Thomas Brothers" guidebook style, with 95 pages of detailed maps, and an approximately 150 page street name index. The maps indicate many of the major tourist sites, though not everything, and so it is probably best used in conjunction with a guidebook of some type.
   
   The legend is in both Italian and English, and as a street map, it's pretty easy to use even if you don't speak Italian. At about 5x8", it's easy to put in a pocket or small bag for walking with, and not too obvious if you need to consult it standing on the street (which I did, regularly.)



2. Michelin Rome Mini-Spiral Atlas No. 2038 was my new best friend in Rome. It is a 5X8 spiral-bound book, and it has an alpha list of seemingly all streets. Each page shows a small section of the city in great detail. It doesn't however offer a city-wide view, so that's what the Insight Map or the Streetwise map can do for you.