1 comments about Venice and the Grand Tour.

1. What I like about this book is that it touches on all of the most interesting parts of the Grand Tour and things connected with the tour without belaboring any of them. It covers anxieties about the tour; the influence of the tour on art and architecture; the differences in the tour in Venice and Rome as reflected in portraiture; and the development of the tour over time as reflected in poetry and prose. It is an even-handed and fair explication of the vast body of literature, poetry, art and architecture connected with the tour. Instead of trying to force a narrow thesis on this wonderful diversity, it leaves the reader to draw many conclusions for herself. It is written in Bruce Redford's inimitable and impressive style. Every time I read a book by Bruce Redford, my vocabulary increases by at least 100 words, and my appreciation for the english language and english heritage increases 100 fold. This book contains beautiful paintings-- especially the magnificent Cannalettos. I highly recommend reading and owning it to anyone interested in the Grand Tour, scholar and layperson alike. This book would be especially interesting to a young person embarking on their own grand tour to study abroad in Europe.

No comments about Alps/French Riviera//Northern Italy (International Map).

No comments about Walking in Sicily (Cicerone International Cycling).

1 comments about Inside Out Venice (InsideOut City Guides).

1. a nice little map book that is small enough to take with you. I used it more as a study guide to be prepared. The maps that they give you at any hotel or tourist booth are bigger and more current. The best way to navigate wonderful Venice is by using a GPS device. We assisted several map readers that way. Still, I liked the little map book and would probably buy others of different places.

5 comments about A Summer in Tuscany.

1. Grazie mille. An Italian American who didn't speak Italian before, now I am. Wonderful trip with you by my side.



2. Like one of the previous reviewers said, this reads like a dear diary. Just as background I've read a whole slew of books on travels in Tuscany -- from "Under the Tuscan Sun" to "One Thousand Days..." I love them. Every one I'd give a 4 or 5. So, based on similarity, I picked this one out. It's a fast read, in part because half the book is stuff like "We got on the 3:00 flight..." or "I told Robert to go to the store to get bread and cheese..." Clearly this was based on a journal the author kept while in Tuscany. That's a fine basis to start a book. But the problem is, the author seems to have no understanding of an audience. Next time please PAY AN EDITOR to edit this stuff before you try to pass it off as a book for general readership. In the meantime, I can't recommend this to anyone other than the author's immediate family that were on the trip with her... In my initial write up I gave it 2 stars, but now I wish I could change it to 1 or 0!



3. My book club ultimately chose this book for our winter reading, preparing for our summer vacations. It also gave us the impetus to take group Italian lessons. When our club chair asked us to write a category for the book, we came up with "Chick lit." It's what Martha Stewart might have written if she wrote a travel book. We came up with a new category, "Martha lit." A Summer in Tuscany is all about what women love, food and wine and tips for finding a villa, and shopping and gardening and art. We loved it. Go for it.



4. I wish there was a way to give this book a negative number of stars. Not because it was that bad (although it was pretty awful) but because it seems that friends of the author have given less than accurate reviews to put it mildly. This self published book is very amateurish and downright annoying. How many times do you need to explain how to pronounce San Gimignano (Sahn-Jim-ee-NYAH-noh). After about the twentieth time you will be ready to scream, not to mention when she switches to calling it San Gim and feels the need to explain that pronunciation also. The story goes something like this - Our villa was near San Gen (San JIM). It had a pool and a terrazzo (tair-AHT-sah); terrace. There was a ristorante (ri-store-AHN-tay); restaurant nearby. You had to pay in lire (LEE-ray) plural of lira. We were very hungry. The waiter said "Va bene?"
   (vah-BEN-ay). We said "Si, Va bene" (See Vah-BEN-ay)... You get the picture.
   
   And if you are a novice to foreign travel, please don't take advice from a woman who makes lunch reservations from the U.S. six months in advance, and paid $210 to ship a box to Italy with disposable cameras, a pillow, plastic wrap, soap, detergent, candles, writing paper and "reliable" pens. She learns how to say "taste", degustazione in Italian and when she sees grape vines, goes and knocks on people's door and asks to taste their wine. When they look at her like she's crazy she asks to buy some and is accommodated. If she had been able to laugh at herself and her faux pas, this could have been a hilarious book; however she seems to think she is extremely clever to have planned this trip and learned a few words of Italian.
   
   I love travel, Italy, and travel narratives. I adored 1000 Days in Tuscany, The Reluctant Tuscan, Extra Virgin and was hoping for a similar read with A Summer in Tuscany but instead got a poorly written journal that never went any deeper than "got up, went swimming, ate a pastry, read a book".



5. As someone here said, "she's no Frances Mayes". If she was, the book would have been published by a mid-sized to large publishing house. This author self-published. The fact that the author went this route probably means that no publishing house felt it worthy......I guess her book appeals to wealthy tourists who don't speak Italian and want to shop, and who aren't bothered by a badly written, un-edited book. The book's audience is limited and there are much better books out there on experiencing Italy.

1 comments about Eating Up Italy.

1. If you seek to understand the minute subtleties and regional differences of Italian food, this is a wonderful, lovingly written book. But if your head is turned by the subtitle, "Voyages on a Vespa," save your money. You will be disppointed that the two Vespas he uses for months and thousands of miles barely get mentioned. There is one small, generic photo of a scooter at the beginning of the book, and one of an odometer towards the end. When he returns the rental scooter at the end of his journey, he sums it up by saying, "It was a brisk, unsentimental parting." As a Vespa enthusiast, that will also sum up how I react to my parting with this book.

5 comments about The Seasons of Rome: A Journal.

1. The author prefaces his diary of day-to-day life in Rome with the comment that some of his journalist friends wished that they lived in Rome. It struck me that his object then was to show that Rome was really just a dull, hodunk kind of town, not really worth pining for, and that the romantic perceptions of the tourist were all in their heads. (which is probably true)

   So perhaps for this it is useful for those of us tourists who thought it would be nice to live in Rome. This book seems to say we are just as well off staying in whatever dull place we already inhabit.

   The selections from the reviews overstate his writing. The writing most often reminded me of the musings of a columnist in some small town paper (it's definitely journalistic prose). His ability to express complexities seems limited. Lots of exclamation points in the first half of the book! (He tends to be bemused by certain aspects of life in Rome, but often resorts to expressing this bemusement with exclamation points.) At worst it struck me as pedestrian and irritatingly banal (but perhaps this is because he chose to write of the banal aspects of life in Rome).

   The book is generally very topical, that is, current as of the late '90s. Some recurring content are reports on the pope's health and the days of Mussolini. The latter I found interesting, the former I did not. He also discusses the Etruscans here and there in a way that is insightful and knowledgeable.

   On the whole, the book has a nice, low-key, meandering style, which I found readable and pleasant enough to finish. However, I don't think the author put a great deal of effort or thought into its content and design--it just follows the calendar year, like a diary.

   I compare Hoffman's travel writing to that of Mathew Spender's Within Tuscany, which is lighter, richer, with more content, and which shows a remarkable facility with English that Hoffman's prose lacks.




2. Paul Hofmann writes about his hometown the way any native would, with equal parts admiration and frustration. Sure, he describes the great trattorie, touches on the sordid histories of Rome's luxury hotels, and is continually mesmerized by the city's ancient ruins. But, anecdotes about such topics as the irregularity of the postman's visits, motorino pollution, municipal strikes, and lousy restaurant service, make the book come alive. Thank god this isn't another tired, old, tourist piece about how great it is to live abroad ("A Year in Provence," anyone?) Hofmann's grouping of chapters by month is also innovative and helpful to travelers who want to know what goes on in the city the REST of the year. The book tends to be a bit dull in some places, owing probably to the fact that Hofmann wrote this book in his 70s or 80s. He knows little about hip, modern Rome. Nevertheless, his "diary" makes for a good read and a good history lesson.



3. This is old-school journalism at its best. Hofmann takes the year as it comes, and, journal style, writes a few sketches every month. Having lived in Rome for thirty years, he knows a lot about it, and he draws on his wealth of information, memory, impressions, and connections to give vivid pictures of the holidays that roll around or reflections prompted by chance events. His range is delightful -- from the pope to Vespa-riding robbers, from diplomats to gypsies, from horse shows to opera, from the mafia to the gattare [stray cat feeders]. If he needs statistics, he knows how to get them and unobtrusively adds them. He is not coy about using addresses, so I read with a map. I knew little about Rome when I began this book, but by the end I felt I knew where things were, what the flavor of the city is. It's not a travel guide, it's deep background for a visit.



4. As usual, before a trip to other country, I searched for a book that would give me a feel for the cities I visit, rather than a tour guide. This book excelled in this task and made my visit to Rome even fuller and more enjoyable. If you are looking for a book about Rome, its people, their habbits and a little glimpse into their rich history, this book is a rare find. The pace is calm, the subjects are simple, but the experience is great.



5. The word "journal" is part of this book's title, and it doesn't pretend to be anything else. After all, Paul Hoffman is a journalist. I've had the great good fortune to visit the Eternal City a few times, and reading Seasons is like taking another stroll along back streets and famous venues. It brought back happy memories and also reminders that Rome is a huge, noisy metropolis that is difficult to traverse. Hoffman also highlights that fact that Rome is populated by, well, Romans, as well as millions of other Italians, and conveys a sense of what it is like to live an ordinary life in an extraordinary place. The city described by this author is modern and genuine, and Hoffman's essays are devoid of the self-congratulatory tone of many other travel writers. This book is real.

1 comments about Flash Of Art, A.

1. It is a visual feast for people interested in celebrity, photography, the glamourous style of the late 50's and 60's, and of course Rome in its heyday (well, after the Empire and the Renaissance.) One can see where all the cliche's of celebrity were set up: photographers hotly in pursuit of "scandal" and celebrity loathing of invasion of privacy but also using the photographers for publicity. I saw this exhibition in Rome in 2004 and the publication is a beautiful recreation of the exhibition.

No comments about AAA Essential Guide: Naples & Amalfi (Aaa Essential Travel Guide Series).

2 comments about Karen Brown's Italy: Exceptional Places to Stay & Itineraries 2006 (Karen Brown's Italy Hotels).

1. My aunt loaned me one of Karen Brown's books so I could read it prior to my husband and I leaving for Italy. I liked her book so much I ordered two other's on Italy. I find her books very helpful and at this point we are staying at two of her Inn's that she suggested. One near Florence and one in Tuscany. Both Inn's are described in detail and look wonderful, we can't wait to check everything out. Both of her books that I purchased have so much helpful information and suggest many points of interest to visit. I know our trip will be wonderful. Very easy to read, I highly recommend her books.
   Chris



2. If you have an extended budget, like to drive (or use public/private trains and boats), and want to explore the culture and history of Italy this may be a good choice for you.
   
   This travel book is different than the rest in that it presents several travel (rather driving) itineraries to experience differnt parts of the country. It is well priced, with lots of good tourist information on all the major towns covered on the selected beautiful routes and also very good lodging information (not for the travelers on a shoe-string budget).