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1 comments about Uffizi Gallery: Galleria Degli Uffizi (Great Discoveries Personal Audio Guides: Florence).

1. The Uffizi gallery is a huge place and I really appreciated they way this tour guided me through the museum. They picked the most important artifacts from each room and really gave me an appreciation of renaissance art. Rather than following someone around in a big group holding a sign, this tour allowed me to enjoy the entire museum at my own pace. I especially enjoyed the music provided throughout the tour. This is without a doubt the best way to see the Uffizi Gallery

No comments about Karen Brown's Tuscany & Umbria 2009: Exceptional Places to Stay & Itineraries (Karen Brown's Tuscany & Umbria. Exceptional Places to Stay & Itineraries).

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.

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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!

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