Italy category: 3604 books

In no other country in Europe has national identity been so closely bound to memories of the war. Italy’s Republic was born of World War II, its constitution defined by anti-Fascism, its parties self-identified with national Resistance. Because of their importance to the nation’s identity, the...

Lonely Planet: The world’s number one travel guide publisher* Lonely Planet’s Naples, Pompeii & the Amalfi Coastis your passport to the most relevant, up-to-date advice on what to see and skip, and what hidden discoveries await you. Meander past orange groves and swaying pines to reach...

About the book A Year In TUSCANY "A tale of reality, history, landscape and art." History, art, gastronomy, monuments, images: these are the elements that dominate the impressions of Barbara Athanassiadis in Tuscany, where she spends the four seasons of the year painting watercolours...

The dramatic story of Mussolini's fall from power in July 1943, illuminating both the causes and the consequences of this momentous event. Morgan shows how Italians of all classes coped with the extraordinary pressures of wartime living, both on the military and home fronts, and how their experience...

A New York Times Book Review Notable Book of the Year A New York Public Library Best Book of the Year From the author of M and A Death in Brazil comes Midnight in Sicily. South of mainland Italy lies the island of Sicily, home to an ancient culture that--with its stark landscapes,...

When we think of the Italian Mafia, we think of Marlon Brando, Tony Soprano, and the Corleones-iconic actors and characters who give shady dealings a mythical pop presence. Yet these sensational depictions take us only so far. The true story of the Mafia reveals both an organization and mindset dedicated...

Fascism was one of the defining experiences of the European 20th Century. Within it many of the economic, political, social and cultural contradictions that had been brewing in the unprecedented transformation that European society underwent in the 19th and early 20th century came to a head. Mussolini,...

Benito Mussolini was a brilliant Socialist journalist who in 1914 declared war, put himself at the head if the anti-Socialist movement in Italy, manoeuvred himself into power by 1933 and ruled the country until overthrown in 1943. He was a dynamic but insecure personality, who appeared dictatorial...

Short excerpt: "Were, then, these Switzers free? Free, these opulent burghers in their little pent-up towns—free, those poor devils on their rocks and crags? What is it that man cannot be made to believe, especially when he cherishes in his heart the memory of some old tale of marvel? Once,...

The story begins, as stories do in all good thrillers, with a botched robbery and a police chase. Eight Apuleian vases of the fourth century B.C. are discovered in the swimming pool of a German-based art smuggler. More valuable than the recovery of the vases, however, is the discovery of the smuggler's...

The life of Savonarola and its place in the history of Italy and the Church has been subject to many interpretations. In this book Pierre van Paassen gives it the most balanced, entertaining, and factual treatment yet. Savonarola and Firenze (Florence) however are so inextricably bound together that...

“One Country under Blood” debunks the myth of a happy unification of Italy. What was made to pass as a struggle for independence, was truly an invasion perpetrated by the House of Savoy and its masonic affiliates with the connivance of the Mafia and Camorra cartels. After the annexation of the...

This book covers one of the more obscure periods of Italian history. What we know of it is presented almost always pejoratively: an unrelieved tale of political absolution, rural refeudalisation, economic crisis, religious repression and cultural decline. But this picture is both incomplete and inaccurate, and in this important new survey Eric Cochrane has at last given the period its due.

If you've ever wanted to backpack in Europe... If you want to relive your adventures... If you love good travel writing... Better than guidebooks, these first-person accounts paint vivid pictures of a traveler's experience in Europe. Like familiar music and favorite scents, they'll awaken a taste for...