Biff and Rosemary are honeymooning in Sorrento.They meet Konrad and Anna, a charming couple who also happen to be newlyweds.They seem to have so much in common — Biff is a pilot in the RAF and Konrad is in the German Navy. Soon things will be very different. . .They tour the Amalfi coast, and visit the ruins at Pompeii. When their holiday comes to an end, they swear to meet again in a year’s time.But their countries and their allegiances will be torn apart by war.Konrad and Anna seem so nice. They can’t possibly be the enemy, can they?Each of them is drawn further into the chaos of conflict. Who will survive? And what will fate hold for these couples?ONE LAST HOLIDAY BEFORE THE WAR THAT WILL CHANGE THEIR LIVES FOREVERA breathtaking wartime saga perfect for fans of Josephine Cox, Kate Eastham, Dinah Jefferies, Pam Howes and Tania Crosse.

    A crowd of onlookers gathered around a slave driver. The wondrous plenty of banquets where flamingos are roasted whole and wine flows like rivers. The silence of the baths and the boisterous taverns . . . Many books have dealt with the history of ancient Rome, but none has been able to bring its readers so near to daily life in the Imperial capital. This extraordinary voyage of exploration, guided by Alberto Angela with the charm of a born story- teller, lasts twenty- four hours, beginning at dawn on an ordinary day in the year 115 A.D., with Imperial Rome at the height of its power. The reader wakes in a rich patrician home and discovers frescoes, opulent furnishings and richly appointed boudoirs. Strolling though the splendors of the Roman Forum, one overhears both erudite opinions from learned orators and local ribaldry floating out from the public latrines. One meets the intense gazes of Roman matriarchs strolling the streets, looks on as a banquet is prepared, and is afforded a peek into the sexual habits and fetishes of Roman patricians and plebs. For all those who have ever dreamed of traveling back in time, Alberto Angela's narrative style will come as a welcome change to dry historical tomes. Rich in atmosphere and historical information, A Day in Ancient Rome is a voyage into a world both distant to us in time and surprisingly near in its habits, mores, and passions.

    Here are authors ranging from Kathy Acker to James Baldwin, Truman Capote to Stanislaw Lem and George Orwell to Shirley Jackson; essays radical and inspiring; poems moving and disturbing; stories surreal and fabulous; taking us from the deep South to modern Japan, New York's underground scene to the farthest reaches of outer space.

    Now an old woman, she waits to be reunited after sixty-two years with her son, fathered by an S.S. officer and stolen from her by the German authorities during the War as part of Himmler's clandestine 'Lebensborn' project, which strove for a 'racially pure' Germany. Haya's reflection on her Catholicized Jewish family's experiences deals unsparingly with the massacre of Italian Jews in the concentration camps of Trieste. Her obsessive search for her son leads her to photographs, maps and fragments of verse, to testimonies from the Nuremberg trials and interviews with second-generation Jews, as well as witness accounts of atrocities that took place on her doorstep. A broad collage of material is assembled, and the lesser-known horror of Nazi occupation in northern Italy is gradually unveiled. Written in immensely powerful language, and employing a range of astonishing conceptual devices, Trieste is a novel like no other. Dasa Drndic has produced a shattering contribution to the literature of our twentieth-century history.

    Almost immediately, a sneak attack leads Pietro into his first battle.

    . . . With the motor cut out, I could hear the whispered splash of the sea against the hull as we knifed through the Mediterranean. The calming noise, along with the gentle rocking, lulled me into a Zen calm as I went about preparing the crew’s lunch. . . . By keeping just a couple of miles offshore, we had some beautiful sights to our starboard side: the harbor towns of La Napoule and quaint Théoule-sur-Mer, . . . the sensational coastline of the Corniche de l’Estérel. . . . All of this I could see through the porthole in the galley. . . . Italy was only a week away.”La Dolce Vita at sea. . .An alluring, evocative summer voyage on the Mediterranean and into the enchanting seaside towns of France’s Côte d’Azur and Italy’s Costa Bella by a young American chef aboard an Italian billionaire couple’s spectacular yacht. Having begun his cooking career in some of New York’s and San Francisco’s best restaurants, David Shalleck undertakes a European culinary adventure, a quest to discover what it really means to be a chef through a series of demanding internships in Provence and throughout Italy. After four years, as he debates whether it is finally time to return stateside and pursue something more permanent, he stumbles on a rare opportunity: to become the chef on board Serenity, the classic sailing yacht owned by one of Italy’s most prominent couples. They present Shalleck with the ultimate challenge: to prepare all the meals for them and their guests for the summer, with no repeats, comprised exclusively of local ingredients that reflect the flavors of each port, presented flawlessly to the couple’s uncompromising taste— all from the confines of the yacht’s galley while at sea. Serenity’s five-month journey starts on the French Riviera, continues along Italy’s western coast to Amalfi, crosses the Tyrrhenian Sea to Sardinia, up to Corsica, and back to St. Tropez for the season-ending regatta. Shalleck captures the glittery Riviera social scene, the distinctive sights and sounds of the unique ports along the way, the work hard/play hard life of being a crew member, and the challenges of producing world-class cuisine for the stylish and demanding owners and their guests. An intimate view of the most exclusive of worlds, Mediterranean Summer offers readers a new perspective on breathtaking places, a memorable portrait of old world elegance and life at sea, as well recipes and tips to recreate the delectable food.

    From the award-winning author of The Shell Collector and About Grace comes an evocative memoir of the timeless beauty of Rome and the day-to-day wonderment of living, writing, and raising twin boys in a foreign city.

    Inspired by a small group of writers, intellectuals, and politicians, Italy struggled in the first half of the nineteenth century to unite all Italians under one rule, throwing aside a multitude of corrupt old rulers and foreign occupiers. In the midst of this turmoil, Italian politicians felt compelled by a “force of destiny” hideously at odds with Italian reality. After great sacrifice Italy was finally unified -- and turned out to be just as fragile, impoverished, and backward as it had been before. The resentments this created led to Italy’s destructive role in World War I, the subsequent rise of Mussolini and authoritarianism in the 1920s and ’30s, and the nation's humiliating defeat in World War II. This haunting legacy deeply informs the Italy of today.Christopher Duggan skillfully interweaves Italy's art, music, literature, and architecture with its economic and social realities and political development to tell this extraordinary European story. The first English-language book to cover the full scope of modern Italy, from its origins more than two hundred years ago to the present, The Force of Destiny is a brilliant and comprehensive study -- and a frightening example of how easily nation-building and nationalism can slip toward authoritarianism and war.

    One lonely Christmas Eve, however, she realised what was missing: excitement, work she was passionate about and, most of all, love. So, Carla packed up her life and boarded a plane.Italy was her first port of call and became her true destination. With a camera and nothing to lose, she found herself immersed in Florence, tasting the food, learning the language, meeting the people, discovering a new career and country - and photographing her new life.Carla's evocative text and rich photographs bring alive the laughter, warmth and passion of Italy. We meet the people who have embraced her; we see the streets, bars, churches and markets that have enchanted her; and we feel her gioia (joy).Italian Joy will make you yearn to follow in Carla's footsteps and discover the true beauty of life in a magical place.

    The brilliant poet, Vittoria Colonna, whose longing is buried beneath her grief, ignites the spirit of the artist Michelangelo and challenges him with both the profound terror and fierce beauty of love.To her father, the warrior Fabrizio Colonna, she was the daughter whose marriage sealed a political alliance.To Costanza D'Avalos, Duchess of Francavilla, she was the young girl Costanza educated to be a woman molded after herself--independent, curious and passionate.To her husband, Ferrante D'Avalos, she was the woman who adored him and whom he betrayed.To the literary aristocracy in Italy, she was the most accomplished and most famous poet of her age.To four popes and the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, she was a voice of wisdom and influence to whom they turned in times of conflict.To the community of reformers within the Church, she was a powerful force--and the only woman--giving voice to their fervent message.To the Italian Inquisition, she was a suspected heretic.But to Michelangelo, she was the only woman he ever loved.

    ItalyA Geographical Expression 2. The Question of Sovereignty 3. The Crusades and Italian Wealth 4. VeniceA Maritime Republic 5. The Terraferma Empire 6. Genoa, La Superba 7. Bankers and Dukes 8. Pisa 9. Christians vs. Turks in the Mediterranean 10. RomePapal Authority 11. Papal Ambition 12. Papal Reform 13. NaplesA Matter of Wills 14. Naples and the Threat to Italian Liberty 15. Milan and the Visconti 16. The Sforza Dynasty 17. Mantua and the Gonzaga 18. Urbino and the Montefeltro 19. Ferrara and the Este Family 20. Siena and the Struggle for Liberty 21. Florence and the Guild Republic 22. Florence and the Medici 23. The Italian MosaicE Pluribus Gloria 24. CampanilismoThe Italian Sense of Place

    Featuring France, Germany, Russia, Latin America, Scandinavia, Great Britain, Italy, and the United States, every spread is packed with delights: a luxurious central pop-up image, plus removable booklets, pullouts, mini pop-ups, and more. The text illuminates unique Christmas traditions, gift legacies, and portraits of mythic figures, such as England's Father Christmas and Italy's Le Befana. Like Christmas in New York, CHRISTMAS AROUND THE WORLD is destined to become a treasured keepsake and a bestseller for years to come.

    . . . This is, I think, a special way of being in contact with reality.” Or so says Michelangelo Antonioni, the legendary filmmaker behind the stark landscapes and social alienation of Blow-Up and L’Avventura, who here reveals his idiosyncratic relationship with reality in The Architecture of Vision. Through autobiographical sketches, theoretical essays, interviews, and conversations with such luminaries as Jean-Luc Godard and Alberto Moravia, this compelling volume explores the director’s unique brand of narrative-defying cinema as well as the motivations and anxieties of the man behind the camera. “The Architecture of Vision provides a filmmaker’s absorbing reflections and insights on his career. . . . Antonioni’s comments . . . deepen and humanize a sometimes cerebral book.”—Publishers Weekly “[Antonioni’s] erudition is astonishing . . . few of his peers can match his verbal articulateness.”—Film Quarterly “This valuable resource offers entrée to material difficult to gain access to under other circumstances.”—Library Journal

    It is about cucina povera, the name Italians give to traditional cooking, the kind that is more likely to be found in humble trattorias, homes and farmhouses than in fancy restaurants.As cookbook author Loukie Werle explains, cucina povera has no adequate translation–it can mean “poor cook” or “country food”–but it truly represents some of the most spectacular, affordable and satisfying Italian food that exists. It employs simple cooking methods, seasonal fare and only a small range of ingredients at a time (a few sausages, for example, or cheaper types of fish or meat), so that even the most novice cook can turn out delicious results. Italian Country Cooking, as you’ll discover when you try it, means eating with a warm heart–quite possibly better than you’ve ever done in your life. As a Roman proverb says: Più se spenne e pejo se magna ... the more you spend, the worse you eat.

    The first comprehensive collection in thirty years to translate this master European poet for an English-speaking audience, The Selected Poetry and Prose of Andrea Zanzotto includes the very best poems from fourteen of his major books of verse and a selection of thirteen essays that helps illuminate themes in his poetry as well as elucidate key theoretical underpinnings of his thought. Assembled with the collaboration of Zanzotto himself and featuring a critical introduction, thorough annotations, and a generous selection of photographs and art, this volume brings an Italian master to vivid life for American readers.“Now, in [this book], American readers can get a just sense of  [Zanzotto’s] true range and extraordinary originality.”—Eric Ormsby, New York Sun“What I love here is the sense of a voice directly speaking. Throughout these translations, indeed from early to late, the great achievement seems to be the way they achieve a sense of urgent address.”—Eamon Grennan, American Poet

    Living in a small provincial town, he and his wife spend their time planning journeys to faraway places - journeys they never take. Dino's only passion is billiards, and he spends his evenings in the local billiards hall honing his technique. One day, however, Dino's quiet life is interrupted - his wife falls pregnant. This the first in a series of events that shake him from his slumber and force Dino to test himself for the first time. As in his widely praised Fists, Pietro Grossi's stripped-down prose brings out the epic human drama in a tale of everyday life.

    Men wanted to be him. And one hot summer he roamed the Italian seaside breaking hearts throughout Sardinia, Sicily and along the Amalfi coast. Racy, loud and an incorrigible show-off, he was the epitome of Italian machismo. He showed Peter, his less flamboyant companion, another side of Italy tourists rarely see. His name was Marcello and like Sophia from Vroom with a View he was a Vespa, one the same shade of orange as Donatella Versace. Two years after riding from Milan to Rome in search of la dolce vita, Peter Moore's life has changed dramatically. He has married Sally and she is pregnant with their first child. With fatherhood only five months away Peter reacted the way some men facing nappies and travel systems do, he panicked. But man, Peter sure found an understanding wife. Sally gave him the opportunity to go off, just once more, to be irresponsible. For Peter this was a wild, final, two-stroke powered fling - with permission - through some of the most beautiful coastal scenery in the world on a Vespa with white go-fast stripes that brought a smile to peoples' faces everywhere it went. From the wild, untouched corners of Sardinia and Sicily to the faded fifties glamour of the Amalfi coast, it is a journey that reveals Italy's obsession with the sea - and getting a great tan. Like Vroom with a View this is another laugh-out-loud whilst grinding your teeth with jealousy travel memoir and they can sell its go-fast stripes off.

    Title: Big Green Book of Italian Verbs Binding: Paperback Author: Maes-Christie, Katrien Publisher: MCGRAW-HILL Professional

    Using established methods, you build your vocabulary through exercises that work with your newly acquired words.

    By transforming and adapting herself with each new epoch while steadfastly holding on to her glorious past, Rome brilliantly features the Pantheon, the Colosseum, the Spanish Steps and many more amazing sights, while showcasing some of today's best shops, restaurants and hotels in the world.This 9th edition of ACCESS Rome will be the indispensable guide to discovering the city's every regal sight and romantic ruin.

    The monumental gilded bronze doors (each more than 15 feet tall) were designed for the Baptistery in the Piazza del Duomo in Florence. Centuries of admirers have considered “The Gates of Paradise” one of the great masterworks of Western art. This extensively illustrated book displays the full glory and elaborate details of many of the newly restored bronze panels, the extraordinary work of the conservators and restorers who cleaned the priceless doors. In a series of fascinating chapters, expert contributors capture Ghiberti’s world, his remarkable talent at representing human emotion in rich illusionistic settings, the relationships between Renaissance patrons and artists, and the collaborations and rivalries among artists. Other chapters explore the challenging craft of bronze sculpture, Ghiberti’s casting and finishing techniques, and the painstaking process involved in documenting and restoring the treasured doors. A chronology of Ghiberti’s life completes this lavishly produced volume.

    Messina’s stories reveal a world in which women are shuttered in their houses, virtual servants to their families, and working men immigrate to the United States in fortune-seeking droves. It is also a world of unstated privileges in which habits and implied commands perpetuate women’s servitude.A cultural album that captures the lives of peasant, working-class, and middle-class women, this volume will appeal to millions of Italian descendants and readers everywhere fascinated by Italian history.Maria Messina (1887–1944) wrote short stories, children’s tales, and novels about her native Sicily until she died of multiple sclerosis. In recent years, her work has been rediscovered in Italy, where she has been compared to Luigi Pirandello and Giovanni Verga.Fred Gardaphe is the director of Italian American Studies at the State University of New York at Stony Brook and the president of MELUS (The Society for the Study of the Multi-Ethnic Literature of the US).Elise Magistro holds a doctorate in Italian from UCLA and is a lecturer in Italian at Scripps College in Claremont, California.

    These superb photographs celebrate its rustic charm, brilliant autumn colors, and romantic tranquility. Each scene—enriched by the writings of Dickinson, Thoreau, Frost, and more—brings a moment of private discovery and awakens a sense of home.

    But until now, students of the Inferno have lacked a suitable resource to guide their reading.Welcome to Danteworlds, the first substantial guide to the Inferno in English. Guy P. Raffa takes readers on a geographic journey through Dante’s underworld circle by circle—from the Dark Wood down to the ninth circle of Hell—in much the same way Dante and Virgil proceed in their infernal descent. Each chapter—or “region”—of the book begins with a summary of the action, followed by detailed entries, significant verses, and useful study questions. The entries, based on a close examination of the poet’s biblical, classical, and medieval sources, help locate the characters and creatures Dante encounters and assist in decoding the poem’s vast array of references to religion, philosophy, history, politics, and other works of literature.Written by an established Dante scholar and tested in the fire of extensive classroom experience, Danteworlds will be heralded by readers at all levels of expertise, from students and general readers to teachers and scholars.

    Commissions for poster art creation were given to well-known artists of the time, such as Mario Puppo, A.M. Cassandre and Mario Borgoni, among others.

    to the early fourth century A.D.from the most famous to some with new significance resulting from new information. Themes such as religion, urbanism, war, imperial expansion, funerary practices, intellectual life, and family are vividly represented in mosaics, frescoes, bronze and terracotta statuettes, monumental sculptures, sarcophagi, reliefs, and glass and metal vessels. The catalogue also covers the careful procedures of cleaning and repair that took place during the collection's restoration. The resulting reincarnation of the Louvre's pieces transforms the contemporary view of early Roman public and private life, conveying a novel perspective and understanding of these ancient masterpieces. With comprehensive essays by a team of scholars on emperorship, citizenship, archit

    For centuries, Venice has enchanted visitors with its magnificent architecture and romantic canals. As a lone republic amid mostly monarchical Europe, Venice equally amazed philosophers and poets, leading Wordsworth to hail this floating city of more than one hundred islands as “the oldest Child of Liberty.”Yet it is the imprint Venice left in the realm of painting, not only as a subject that inspired visiting artists from Europe and beyond, but more importantly as the seat of a new school of painting, for which Venice should best be remembered. The Venetian School of painting was developed during the Renaissance, featuring such celebrated painters as Bellini, Mantegna, Giorgione, and Titian. Emphasizing Venice’s pervasive sunlight and glowing color in their works, these painters influenced centuries of painters to come. The authors of The History of Venice in Painting explain how the Venetian School, in addition to other attractions like Carnival, attracted legions of tourists to Venice, making it an obligatory stop on the “Grand Tour” that should complete any eighteenth-century gentleman’s cultural education. Visitors also came to Venice to paint the city’s famous light for themselves, most notably J.M.W. Turner and Claude Monet. Sun-soaked Venice, with light reflecting off the waters of its many canals, was indeed an Impressionist’s dream.This vibrantly illustrated text traces the history of the Republic of Venice through its artistic heritage, from medieval mosaics to twentieth-century Futurist paintings. Including 350 full-color images, as well as 4 breathtaking gatefolds, The History of Venice in Painting is a treasure-trove of art, history, and culture. Here such panoramas as religious processions and gondolas criss-crossing the Grand Canal are displayed in a size befitting the subject’s grandeur. Protected in a silkbound slipcase, this gorgeous tribute captures the history and indelible legacy of Venice.

    From the time of Dante and Petrarch, ideals of beauty have informed artists’ work. This intriguing and gloriously illustrated book investigates the many debates this topic has provoked in modern Italy.Radicals and monarchists, Catholics, Fascists, and Communists have all championed specific ideas about female beauty. First theater and the press, then, later, cinema and television inherited from literature and art the task of articulating ideals. Gundle examines Fascism's failure to mold the ideal modern Italian woman, the rise of beauty pageants after World War Two, the professional and public roles of television actresses, the election of the first non-white Miss Italy in 1996, and the careers and images of beautiful women who have been seen to embody the country—Queen Margherita of Savoy, the opera singer Lina Cavalieri, and movie icons Gina Lollobrigida, Claudia Cardinale, Monica Bellucci, and Sophia Loren, who remains the living symbol of Italy and one of the most beautiful women in the world.

    Peter’s Basilica to the Capitoline Hill, this unique resource—part biography, part history, and part travel guide—provides an intimate portrait of the relationship between Michelangelo and the city he restored to artistic greatness. Lavishly illustrated and richly informative, this travel companion tells the story of Michelangelo’s meteoric rise, his career marked by successive artistic breakthroughs, his tempestuous relations with powerful patrons, and his austere but passionate private life. Providing street maps that allow readers to navigate the city and discover Rome as Michelangelo knew it, each chapter focuses on a particular work that amazed Michelangelo’s contemporaries and modern tourists alike.

    Designed for cooks and consumers alike, The Oxford Companion to Italian Food covers all aspects of the history and culture of Italian gastronomy, from dishes, ingredients, and delicacies to cooking methods and implements, regional specialties, the universal appeal of Italian cuisine, influences from outside Italy, and much more.Following in the footsteps of princes and popes, vagabond artists and cunning peasants, austere scholars and generations of unknown, unremembered women who shaped pasta, moulded cheeses and lovingly tended their cooking pots, Gillian Riley celebrates a heritage of amazing richness and delight. She brings equal measures of enthusiasm and expertise to her writing, and her entries read like mini-essays, laced with wit and gastronomical erudition, marked throughout by descriptive brilliance, and entirely free of the pompous tone that afflicts so much writing about food.The Companion is attentive to both tradition and innovation in Italian cooking, and covers an extraordinary range of information, from Anonimo Toscano, a medieval cookbook, to Bartolomeo Bimbi, a Florentine painter commissioned by Cosimo de Medici to paint portraits of vegetables, to Paglierina di Rifreddo, a young cheese made of unskimmed cows' milk, to zuppa inglese, a dessert invented by 19th century Neapolitan pastry chefs. Major topics receive extended treatment. The entry for Parmesan, for example, runs to more than 2,000 words and includes information on its remarkable nutritional value, the region where it is produced, the breed of cow used to produce it (the razza reggiana, or vacche rosse), the role of the cheese maker, the origin of its name, Moli�re's deathbed demand for it, its frequent and lustrous depiction in 16th and 17th century paintings, and the proper method of serving, where Riley admonishes: One disdains the phallic peppermill, but must always appreciate the attentive grating, at the table, of parmesan over pasta or soup, as magical in its way as shavings of truffles. Such is the scope and flavor of The Oxford Companion to Italian Food.For anyone with a hunger to learn more about the history, culture and variety of Italian cuisine, The Oxford Companion to Italian Food offers endless satisfactions.

    Keep the flavors pure and straightforward. Use proper yet simple techniques.” Applying this aesthetic to the Italian tradition, Gina DePalma has created a cookbook of the desserts that have wowed diners at Babbo, New York’s most coveted reservation since it opened eight years ago with DePalma as pastry chef. From her exciting imagination spring desserts such as Sesame and White Corn Biscotti, Little Grappa Soaked Spongecakes, and Chocolate and Tangerine Semifreddo. Recipes for classics like Cassata alla Siciliana join new interpretations of traditional desserts such as White Peach and Prosecco Gelatina. More than just a cookbook, Dolce Italiano reveals the ten ingredients you need to know to make Italian desserts, along with wine pairings to accompany the recipes. Never before has a cookbook given home cooks a chance to experience the full variety and subtlety of Italian desserts. Mario Batali has called Dolce Italiano “pure inspiration.”

    On that day, Swietlan Nicholas Kraczyna, a twenty-six-year-old American artist living in Florence, went out into the flooded streets and photographed the dramatic unfolding events. Kraczyna was awarded the Fiorino d'Oro-the highest honor of the City of Florence-for ten of those photographs. This book presents, for the first time, a selection of eighty-four of Kraczyna's flood photographs, taken on that tragic day and in the days that followed, as the city tried to deal with the immense disaster.

    Not until 1748 did it emerge from its layer of volcanic rock, and the impact of that discovery was immediate and far-reaching. The evocative story of Pompeii's awakening lies not just in its uniquely preserved classical remains but also in the powerful impact it made on Western cultural imagination. Judith Harris brings the doomed city vibrantly to life. In her rich account of those who sifted through its artefacts, we read of Nelson, Napoleon and Mussolini. Of poets who sought melancholy fulfilment from Pompeii's shattered walls. Of tub-thumping Victorian preachers who likened it to Sodom and Gomorrah. And of the many others -- engineers and architects, artists and filmmakers -- for whom the city has never ceased to resonate. Harris has delved into ancient diaries and descended deep underground to assess the latest excavations.  As the sleeping city re-awakens at her hands, Pompeii casts its spell once more, bewitching those who seek to unearth its buried secrets. Her website is: www.judith-harris.com

    The coastline lures visitors, but it is the food that will make you linger. Chef Efisio Farris is poised to become the next great ambassador of Italian regional cuisine. To promote the cooking of his native Sardinia, he has appeared on the Food Network, given demonstrations at food festivals across the country, and even launched his own company that imports Sardinian specialties for his restaurants and for retail. It is Mediterranean cooking at its purest, making liberal use of olive oil, fish, and fresh vegetables. But it’s also distinguished by indigenous ingredients that are becoming hot trends in America: pecorino, flatbread, fava beans, fregula, and bottarga. Farris has pulled together more than one hundred recipes–many of them family secrets. Among them are Watermelon Salad with Arugula and Ricotta Salata; Pannacotta with Bitter Honey; and Bruschetta with Sausage and Pecorino Sardo. More than 150 breathtaking images take you on a tour of the countryside–from the terraced olive groves to the riverbanks full of wild asparagus. In sidebars, the author relates charming anecdotes and Sardinian history. Readers will come away not just with a taste for the island’s flavors but also a sense of Sardinia’s magical beauty and culture.

    Her fathers work has brought the family overseas to a countryside estate in Tuscany. Kate spends much of her time with her younger brother, nine-year-old Michael, roaming the beautiful estate grounds, filled with moss-covered statues, cypress trees, and olive groves. But when Kate and Michael find a lost baby griffin--a strange, fantastical creature with colorful downy feathers and tufts of fur-- they enter into a magical adventure marked by danger, fear, and a sinister, beckoning presence named Prince Eduardo. The two try to keep Grifonino safe and his existence a secret, but pursuit by greedy paparazzi and eager scientists threatens the creatures safety. Now, with the help of their older brother Stephen, the siblings set out to solve the mystery of where the magical creature came fromand how to get him back there once and for all.

    Now don't be put off by the "G-word." What you won't find in this book is a lot of repetitive drills. Instead, you get an original, step-by-step approach to learning Italian based on the way people naturally acquire language.From the very beginning, you are introduced to the most essential structures--allowing you to communicate in Italian almost immediately. Gradually, through a series of interconnected "steps," you logically progress to more common concepts that govern how Italian is spoken and written. And along the way you are introduced to hundreds of carefully selected verbs and vocabulary words presented on the basis of how often they are used in everyday Italian.Guaranteed to get you quickly up and running with the knowledge and skills you need to communicate in Italian with confidence, "Easy Italian Step-by-Step" features: A unique "building-block" approach to mastering essential grammar, verbs, and vocabulary Down-to-earth explanations of important rules and concepts Hundreds of frequently used verbs and key terms a beginner should know Exercises to test what you've learned and measure progress Engaging readings that help you hone your skills in everyday contexts

    In Publishing Women, Diana Robin finally brings to life this story of women’s cultural and intellectual leadership in early modern Italy, illuminating the factors behind—and the significance of—their sudden dominance.Focusing on the collective publication process, Robin portrays communities in Naples, Venice, Rome, Siena, and Florence, where women engaged in activities that ranged from establishing literary salons to promoting religious reform. Her innovative cultural history considers the significant roles these women played in tandem with men, rather than separated from them. In doing so, it collapses the borders between women’s history, Renaissance and Reformation studies, and book history to evoke a historical moment that catapulted women’s writings and women-sponsored books into the public sphere for the first time anywhere in Europe.

    In doing so, she explores all the ways that identity was constructed through newly formed attachments, voluntary and otherwise, to the young nation. Featuring deft readings of the period’s most important Italian cultural and social thinkers—including the theorist of mass psychology Scipio Sighele, the authors Matilde Serao and Edmondo De Amicis, the criminologist Cesare Lombroso, and the pedagogue Maria Montessori—Stewart-Steinberg’s richly multidisciplinary book will set a new standard in Italian studies.

    Readers will find shops and workshops that have survived as if by magic, one or two ever-popular classics and lots of exciting new ventures. The 160 pages contain 600 illustrations and 300 addresses where shoppers can browse and purchase everything from pearls to lamps and gondolas, as well as cakes, cloaks, soft-shell crabs and door knockers. It is a tour of sounds, fragrances and everything else the city has to offer. Each entry is accompanied by a commentary and illustrations. There are also twelve pages of detailed maps to guide the self-assured shopper around the city's most labyrinthine corners.

    At the Shield's center lay two walled cities, one at war and one at peace, surrounded by fields and pasturelands. Viewed as Homer's blueprint for an ideal, or utopian, social order, the Shield reveals that restraining and taming Nature would be fundamental to the Hellenic urban quest. It is this ideal that Classical Athens, with her utilitarian view of Nature, exemplified. In a city lacking pleasure gardens, it was particularly worthy of note when Epicurus created his garden oasis within the dense urban fabric. The disastrous results of extreme anthropocentrism would promote an essentially nostalgic desire to break down artificial barriers between humanity and Nature. This new ideal, vividly expressed through the domestication of Nature in villas and gardens and also through primitivist and Epicurean tendencies in Latin literature, informed the urban endeavors of Rome.

    Patrons, artists, and spectators of the period were particularly drawn, Curran shows, to Egyptian antiquity and its artifacts, many of which found their way to Italy in Roman times and exerted an influence every bit as powerful as that of their more familiar Greek and Roman counterparts.Curran vividly recreates this first wave of European Egyptomania with insightful interpretations of the period’s artistic and literary works. In doing so, he paints a colorful picture of a time in which early moderns made the first efforts to decipher Egyptian hieroglyphs, and popes and princes erected pyramids and other Egyptianate marvels to commemorate their own authority. Demonstrating that the emergence of ancient Egypt as a distinct category of historical knowledge was one of Renaissance humanism’s great accomplishments, Curran’s peerless study will be required reading for Renaissance scholars and anyone interested in the treasures and legacy of ancient Egypt.

    Fraioli to take home cooks on a rare odyssey into one of the world's most coveted food & wine cultures. Peek inside the kitchens of celebrity-studded restaurant Trattoria Grappolo and discover a prized collection of delicious, simple-to-prepare recipes from one of Central California's most venerated restaurants. Trattoria Grappolo is the best in Italian cooking with the simplest of ingredients, and also share a long list of suggested wine pairings from over 75 participating wineries. Included are recipes for antipasto, salads and soups, breads and pizzas, handcrafted pastas, entrees, desserts, and more.

    You'll find exquisite handmade lingerie, jewellery inspired by Renaissance paintings, handcrafted leather boxes, beautifully tailored shirts for men and women, vintage French and Italian designer clothing, and much more.

    Using a simple approach to grammar, 30 Days to Great Italian teaches what's really useful without nit-picking or employing technical jargon. The package includes a book and an audio CD, maps, cultural tips, and links to internet sites.

    Tessa Storey uses a range of archival sources, including criminal records, letters, courtroom testimonies, images and popular and elite literature, to reveal issues of especial concern to contemporaries. In particular, she explores how and why women became prostitutes, the relationships between prostitutes and clients, and the wealth which potentially could be accumulated. Notarial documents provide a unique perspective on the economics and material culture of prostitution, showing what could be earned and how prostitutes dressed and furnished their homes. The book challenges traditional assumptions about the success of post-Tridentine reforms on Roman prostitution, revealing that despite energetic attempts at social disciplining by the Counter-Reformation Popes, prostitution continued to flourish, and to provide a lucrative living for many women.

    This volume presents a diverse array of response to the sites, tracing how perceptions of the past have changed over the course of three centuries of excavations, what the editors call "the strata of interpretation." The thirteen essays range in subject from a reassessment of the contents of the library at Herculaneum's Villa of the Papyri to the symbolic appearance of the ancient world in such films as Roberto Rossellini's Voyage in Italy and Jean-Luc Godard's Contempt. Antiquity Recovered explores the complexities of "the reception of the past" and helps enhance our understanding of the roles these cities have played, and continue to play, in Western culture.

    Viana herself, after living on and off in Italy for several years, made an Italian garden of her own behind her San Francisco home filled with fragrant jasmine, olive trees, wild arugula, rampant zucchini, and bright-colored lemons. Ever since, like the best Italian cooks, she has delighted in creating meals that require only a few of the freshest ingredients.In My Italian Garden, La Place brings the earth to the table for readers who want to cook delicious dishes with minimum work and maximum flavor, reminding us that the most satisfying food is the simplest. In 125 uncomplicated recipes, cooks will find four seasons of mouthwatering offerings, perfect for weeknight dinners or entertaining, such as New Fava Bean and Spring Greens Soup, Spaghetti Tossed with Whole Basil Leaves and Lemon Zest, Panini with Grilled Zucchini and Ricotta Salata, Pizza Verde with Artichokes and Herbs, and Meyer Lemon Gelato with Fresh Figs and Pistachios.Illustrated with charming, evocative watercolors, and filled with lyrical passages, My Italian Garden lets readers experience the magic of the Italian garden without leaving their kitchens.From the introduction: "Cooking from the garden is uncomplicated cooking. Why add extraneous ingredients to flavorful produce? In fact, you will want to keep preparations pure and simple to enjoy what you've harvested in its pristine state....An Italian garden is really a state of mind. You do not need an elaborate villa to create your Italian garden. The essence of Italy can be captured in pots on a sunny terrace or a shaded balcony. An Italian garden can be herbs growing on a sunny windowsill or the back steps. You can grow your garden on a large parcel of land or on a tiny patch of earth. I hope you will be inspired by my Italian garden to grow one of your own, no matter what the size, and experience the joys of cooking directly from your Italian garden." --Viana La Place