Best of
Italy

1999

The Miracle of Castel di Sangro: A Tale of Passion and Folly in the Heart of Italy


Joe McGinniss - 1999
    But soon he finds himself embroiled with an absurd yet irresistible cast of characters, including the team's owner, described by the New York Times as "straight out of a Mario Puzo novel," and coach Osvaldo Jaconi, whose only English word is the one he uses to describe himself: "bulldozer."  As the riotous, edge-of-your-seat season unfolds, McGinniss develops a deepening bond with the team, their village and its people, and their country. Traveling with the miracle team, from the isolated mountain region where Castel di Sangro is located to gritty towns as well as grand cities, McGinniss introduces us to an Italy that no tourist guidebook has ever described, and comes away with a "sad, funny, desolating, and inspiring story--everything, in fact, a story should be" (Los Angeles Times).

Top 10 Rome (DK Eyewitness Top 10 Travel Guides)


Reid Bramblett - 1999
    Take the work out of planning any trip with DK's Eyewitness Top 10 Travel Guides. Branded with DK's trusted and familiar "Eyewitness" style, these compact guides make finding the best every destination has to offer easier than ever before! Perfect for business travel and vacation, searching for the finest cuisine or the least expensive places to eat, the most luxurious hotels or the best deals on places to stay, the best family destination or the hottest nightspot, Eyewitness Top 10 Travel Guides provide current, useful information based on the insight of local experts to find the best of everything that each destination has to offer.

Siena Summer


Teresa Crane - 1999
    When Poppy arrives, she finds a disturbing undercurrent in Isobel and husband Kit’s relationship, then accidentally uncovers a terrible secret.Against the backdrop of a verdant 1920s Tuscany, Poppy’s own journey into love is overshadowed by the insanity of a war long-ended, and a desire for revenge that, with tragic consequences, inevitably damages the innocent… Perfect for readers of Rosanna Ley and Lucinda Riley, and brimming with atmosphere, this is an enthralling and dramatic story of romance, war and jealousy. ‘A writer of great skill and vitality’ Sarah Harrison‘A moving, passionate and treacherous tale’ Essex Chronicle‘A wonderful storyteller’ Daily Mail

The Italian Country Table: Home Cooking from Italy's Farmhouse Kitchens


Lynne Rossetto Kasper - 1999
    Written by Lynne Rossetto Kasper, author of The Splendid Table: Recipes from Emilia-Romagna, the Heartland of Northern Italian Food (winner of both the James Beard and Julia Child/IACP Cookbook-of-the-Year Awards), it is every bit the equal of its celebrated predecessor.Read its exuberant pages, eat its lusty dishes, and you enter a landscape vibrant with rural life. You are one with the terrain. In some sense, you are home. That, of course, is the miracle of Italy—no matter where we come from, we want to be a part of it. And the miracle of The Italian Country Table is its ability to take us there.And what a journey! You will never be as impatient to get into your kitchen as when you are planning a meal from this book. Two hundred recipes, personally collected from home cooks throughout the length and breadth of Italy, will keep calling you back.Who could resist the “Gatto” di Patate, a mashed-potato “lasagna” from the Neapolitan countryside? Or a Tuscan Mountain Supper of warm beans tossed with an herbed tomato sauce and eaten with tart greens? Or Pasta of the Grape Harvest, a Sicilian dish of grapes, red wine, orange zest, spices, pistachios and linguine? Or Chocolate Polenta Pudding Cake?Kasper, host of Public Radio's The Splendid Table, is a master teacher who thinks about cooking in a way that is radically distinctive. Her chapter on tomatoes and tomato sauces, a treasure by itself, will change the way you think about them—and cook them—forever. Her guide to buying and saucing pasta contains more useful facts than many books that devote themselves to pasta exclusively.Kasper, the grandchild of Italian immigrants, describes herself as someone with a love of lingering “in places where life changes slowly.” This personal book abounds with stories of artisans, farmers and family. It is a portrait of Italian country life.Where you read The Italian Country Table, cook from it or use it to plan a trip (there is an appendix that lists guest farms, country hotels, restaurants and museums), you have only to turn its pages to be transported to a rustic Italy that few of us know, but all of us long for.-16 pages of finished dishes in full color-50 black-and-white photographs of country life

Artemisia


Alexandra Lapierre - 1999
    Born to the artist Orazio Gentileschi at the beginning of the 1600s, when artists were the celebrities of the day, Artemisia was apprenticed to her father at an early age, showing such remarkable talent that he viewed her as the most precious thing in his life. But at the age of seventeen Artemisia was raped by her father's best friend and partner. The Gentileschi name was dragged through scandal, for Artemisia refused, even when tortured, to deny it happened. Indeed, she went further: she dared to plead her case in court. All of Rome was riveted by the trial. Artemisia won the case, but lost the love of her father and of all of Rome. Artemisia sought revenge through her art, portraying women liberating their fellow citizens from tyrants. Her stunning works took Rome by storm, overturning the prejudices of her time and winning the admiration of patrons, courtesans, and monarchs. Lapierre brings the historical Artemisia Gentileschi to vivid life, capturing the sights, sounds, and smells of Baroque Italy as well as the life of this remarkable woman.

Primo Levi: A Life


Ian Thomson - 1999
    Yet he lived an unremarkable existence, remaining to his death in the house in which he'd been born; managing a paint and varnish factory for thirty years; and tending his invalid mother to the end. Now, in a matchless account, Ian Thomson unravels the strands of an influential life.

Rome


Marco Bussagli - 1999
    The highly readable texts give you concentrated information on accessing well and lesser known sites in the world of art. An image of every piece of art that is described is included, allowing readers to easily recognize the original on site.

Art and Architecture: Florence


Rolf C. Wirtz - 1999
    Even today the visitor feels the unique flair, when strolling through the streets, past the Duomo Santa Maria del Fiore, the Piazza della Signoia, and the treasures of the Uffizi.

Leopardi: A Study in Solitude


Iris Origo - 1999
    Giacomo Leopardi (1798-1837) is widely considered the greatest Italian poet since Dante, He was a scholar and philosopher whose out standing scholarly and philosophical works and superb poetry place him in the pantheon of great nineteenth-century writers.

Truly Italian


Ursula Ferrigno - 1999
    All pages are intact, and the cover is intact (including dust cover, if applicable). The spine may show signs of wear. Pages can include limited notes and highlighting, and the copy can include "From the library of" labels.Some of our books may have slightly worn corners, and minor creases to the covers. Please note the cover may sometimes be different to the one shown.

Passion, Justice, Freedom - Photgraphs of Sicily


Letizia Battaglia - 1999
    This W. Eugene Smith Award-winning photographer demonstrates photography's power to serve as both a weapon and a voice for the silent majority.After years of fighting for the life of her troubled city of Palermo-as a photographer, deputy councilwoman, ecological activist, defender of women's rights, and defender of human rights-Battaglia continues the battle with the fierce passion, intelligence, and vision for which she is known.Letizia Battaglia: Passion, Justice, Freedom juxtaposes iconic pictures of the everyday joy, suffering, and vitality of the Palermitani with images showing the effects of the Mafia predators who have controlled much of the city for so long.Along with an intimate profile of the photographer by Melissa Harris, Alexander Stille chronicles Battaglia's fight against the Mafia, putting her photographs in the context of Palermo in the 1980s and '90s. Renate Siebert addresses the heretofore unexplored role of women and the Mafia in her essay. Magazine editor Simona Mafei contributes an essay about her work with Battaglia.

Knopf MapGuide: Florence


Knopf Guides - 1999
    Discover Florence through 6 districts and 6 mapsACentro StoricoBSanta Maria NovellaCSan LorenzoDSanta CroceESanto Spirito/ San FredianoFSan Miniato al MonteFor each district there is a double-page of addresses (restaurants — listed in ascending order of price — cafés, bars, music venues and stores) followed by a fold-out map for the relevant area with the essential places to see (indicated on the map by a star *). These places are by no means all that Florence has to offer but to us they are unmissable. The grid-referencing system (A B2) makes it easy for you to pinpoint addresses quickly on the map.Transportation and hotels in FlorenceThe last fold-out consists of a transportation map and 4 pages of practical information that include a selection of hotels. A thematic index lists all the sites and addresses featured in this guide.

Malaparte: A House Like Me


Michael Mcdonough - 1999
    Often called the most beautiful house in the world, Casa Malaparte in Capri, Italy, is dramatically sited on a promontory overlooking the Mediterranean Sea.  It was home to Curzio Malaparte (1898-1957), the Italian writer who designed the building. A perpetual enigma, he still confounds nearly all who care to look. Actor, novelist, poet, filmmaker, soldier, playwright, journalist, political figure, prisoner, composer, charmer -- inventor and revealer of truths -- Malaparte associated with Mussolini and Stalin, vilified Hitler, and admired Mao. He was a journalist in London, a collaborator with the Surrealists in Paris, and a war correspondent in Berlin and on the Russian front. "Casa come me," he called the building -- "house like me" -- inviting endless speculation as to what meaning lay within.Much as Picasso, Breton, Pound, Eliot, and Godard discovered the house and its legendary owner earlier in the century, such international personalities as Robert Venturi, Emilio Ambasz, Willem Dafoe, Steven Holl, Michael Graves, Peter Eisenman, Arata Isozaki, Louis Cha, Carla Fendi, James Wines, and Karl Lagerfeld have created this special portfolio embodying unique insights into the controversial artist and his provocative home. A work of art in itself, Malaparte: A House Like Me includes a series of photographs produced especially by the renowned Italian photographer Mimmo Jodice, archival materials and documents, poetry, original art, letters, memoirs, commentaries, and an original musical score. Organized and edited by noted architect, designer, and writer Michael McDonough, this remarkable book ultimately celebrates Casa Malaparte's enigmatic contradictions, seeing it as a "living literary work, an autobiography, and a mysterious tabula rasa; a house that lives in myth."

Duccio, the Maesta


Luciano Bellosi - 1999
    The Maesta was painted between 1308 and 1311 by Duccio di Buoninsegna for the high altar of Siena Cathedral. The volume contains photographs of the different sections of the great altarpiece, both the front, showing the Virgin in glory, and the back, with the stories of the Passion of Christ taken from the gospels. The narrative sequence of the Maesta moves from the enthroned Virgin and Christ to the figures of the angels, saints and apostles who surround her. The scenes of the Passion, from left to right, follow the chronological order of the Gospels.

Venice (Art & Architecture)


Marion Kaminski - 1999
    The highly readable texts give you concentrated information on accessing well and lesser known sites in the world of art. An image of every piece of art that is described is included, allowing readers to easily recognize the original on site. Insets on cultural-historical topics and illustrated glossaries, summaries, and timelines supplement the body text - leaving a deeper, more lasting impression of the material that is covered. Convenient compact format makes these books particularly handy to take along as a guide while viewing the great works featured within.

What Life Was Like at the Rebirth of Genius: Renaissance Italy, AD 1400-1550


Richard Stapleford - 1999
    Drawing on art, artifacts, and literature that was left behind, these richly illustrated volumes recount captivating tales of everyday life in long-ago vanished worlds.

Casa Malaparte


Karl Lagerfeld - 1999
    There are only a few buildings which illustrate antique beauty and mystical charm like Casa Malaparte. In this book, Karl Lagerfeld has photographed this most elegiac of structures. Lagerfeld worked for five days in November 1997 to produce these photographs of architecture and nature. He used a special technique to reproduce his pictures -- Polaroid transfers on a particular paper. The results are stunning. The first part of the book shows the perfect integration of the house into the environment, and the second part documents the interior decoration and furniture of the house.

Courage Alone: Italian Airforce 40-43-Op: The Italian Airforce 1940-1943


Chris Dunning - 1999
    Using research from a mass of original documentation, including personal accounts and combat diaries, the author takes an objective view and shows that the men who flew the Macchis, Fiats, and Savoias were no less skilled or determined than their opponents.The book discusses area commands, theaters, squadron allocations, anti-shipping operations, aircrew, and details of the top fighter aces. Comprehensive tables provide information on aircraft equipment, squadron allocation, and unit histories.With drawings from original aircraft handbooks, almost 250 photographs, more than 100 color profiles, and unit badges, Courage Alone provides a detailed reference source for historians, modelers, and enthusiasts alike.

Brunelleschi's Cupola: Past and Present of an Architectural Masterpiece


Giovanni Fanelli - 1999
    Part One, which is richly illustrated with iconographic material, traces the design and construction phases of this magnificent building and explores its impact on figurative and literary culture down the ages. With the aid of original charts and diagrams, Part Two provides a thorough analysis of the structure, construction and static equilibrium of the Cupola, including a description and assessment of the current state of the cracks. This provides a solid basis for predicting the likely future behaviour of the monument and for suggesting possible conservation measures.

Open City : Seven Writers in Postwar Rome : Ignazio Silone, Giorgio Bassani, Alberto Moravia, Elsa Morante, Natalia Ginzburg, Carlo Levi, Carlo Emili


William Weaver - 1999
    Ignazio Silone, author of one of the great novels of the 1930s, Bread and Wine, returned from exile. Alberto Moravia, who helped define the modern conscience with his novel, The Time of Indifference, left the mountains outside Rome where he had been hiding from the Germans. Rome filled with veterans of the partisan war, of the underground, of the anonymity and silence of the Italian police state. The suffering of the war, the bold hopes which blossomed after Fascism's overthrow, were described in a torrent of films, stories and novels, bringing a kind of climax to one of the great national literatures of the twentieth century. American William Weaver also arrived in Rome in the late 1940s. Open City is an anthology of the writers Weaver admired most, and they all come to life in the pages of his long introductory memoir.

Cannibal Holocaust and the Savage Cinema of Ruggero Deodato


Harvey Fenton - 1999
    Full filmography, interview, reviews, and packed with ultra-rare gore-drenched color photos, posters and video covers.

The Oxford Color Italian Dictionary


Debora Mazza - 1999
    Covering the vocabulary the user really needs, it includes the newest terminology from areas such as business, computing, and current affairs. It provides thousands of examples drawn from real speech and written sources, coverage of idiomatic phrases, as well as pronunciation guidance and full verb tables.

Partisan Wedding: Stories


Renata Viganò - 1999
    Renata Viganò was an active member of the Italian Resistance during World War II, and, like many of her male counterparts, she depicted the actions of the brave people who contributed to and participated in the partisan movement. Unlike her counterparts, however, Viganò vividly portrayed the experiences of women, notably women on the front line, in her posthumously published Matrimonio in brigata, here translated for the first time in English as Partisan Wedding."If it had not been for them, the women . . . who got used to `men's business,' . . . the partisan army would have lost a vital, necessary force." The women in Partisan Wedding joined the struggle for many reasons; some for their husbands, others for their fathers, brothers, or sons; some for a sense of justice and the desire to do what was right. Whatever the cause, Viganò demonstrates that women maintained the ability to nurture and to care, to preserve their female qualities in the face of war.Because of her own role as a partisan, the stories in Partisan Wedding are based on Viganò's personal experiences. Two stories in the collection are specifically autobiographical: "Acquitted" and "My Resistance." Relating her own plight to find her husband, a partisan commander, after his sudden arrest, "Acquitted" aptly conveys Viganò's struggle to maintain her strength in the face of complete helplessness. "My Resistance" is a personal account of her own experiences during the war and the women she met along the way.Partisan Wedding is an invaluable contribution to the literature of the Second World War, completing the picture of those involved in the struggle for freedom. Viganò's remarkable prose, equally beautiful and terrible in its description of the minute details of human suffering and sacrifice, opens a window to a world that has rarely been seen, and a world not easily forgotten.

The Cathedral: The Baptistery And The Campanile


Gabriella Di Cagno - 1999
    This English edition gives a very detailed history and description of the art of the three buildings.

Capitalists in Spite of Themselves


Richard Lachmann - 1999
    He identifies, in particular, conflict among feudal elites--landlords, clerics, kings, and officeholders--as the dynamic which perpetuated manorial economies in some places while propelling elites elsewhere to transform the basis of their control over land and labor.Comparing regions and cities within and across England, France, Italy, Spain, and the Netherlands from the twelfth through eighteenth centuries, Lachmann breaks new ground by showing step by step how the new social relations and political institutions of early modern Europe developed. He demonstrates in detail how feudal elites were pushed toward capitalism as they sought to protect their privileges from rivals in the aftermath of the Reformation.Capitalists in Spite of Themselves is a compelling narrative of how elites and other classes made and responded to political and religious revolutions while gradually creating the nation-states and capitalist markets which still constrain our behavior and order our world. It will prove invaluable for anyone wishing to understanding the economic and social history of early modern Europe. Capitalists in Spite of Themselves was the winner of the 2003 Distinguished Scholarly Publication Award of the American Sociology Association.

Tintoretto: Tradition and Identity


Tom Nichols - 1999
    Critics and writers such as Vasari, Ruskin and Sartre all placed him in opposition to the established artistic practice of his time, noting that he had abandoned the values that typified the venerable Venetian Renaissance tradition, even being expelled as an apprentice from the workshop of Titian.This generously illustrated book offers a long-overdue re-evaluation of Tintoretto. Tom Nichols charts the artist's life and work in the context of Venetian art and the culture of the Cinquecento. He shows how the artist created a new manner of painting, which for all its originality and sophistication made its first appeal to the shared emotions of the widest-possible viewing audience. The book deals extensively with Tintoretto's greatest works, including the paintings at the Scuola di San Rocco in Venice.

Risotto!: 80 Recipes and All the Know-How You Need to Make Italy's Famous Rice Dish


Valentina Harris - 1999
    Shows how to make a basic risotto, and includes recipes for variants flavored with a wide range of ingredients, including cheeses, vegetables, herbs, mushrooms, fish and other seafood, meats, fruits, and alcohol.