Central Italy: The Collected Traveler: Tuscany and Umbria [Paperback]

Barrie Kerper (Compiler)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 26, 2000 | Series: The Collected Traveler

Each edition of this unique series marries a collection of previously published essays with detailed practical information, creating a colorful and deeply absorbing pastiche of opinions and advice. Each book is a valuable resource -- a compass of sorts -- pointing vacationers, business travelers, and readers in many directions. Going abroad with a Collected Traveler edition is like being accompanied by a group of savvy and observant friends who are intimately familiar with your destination.

This edition on central Italy -- tuscany & umbria features:

Distinguished writers, such as Muriel Spark, Gerald Asher, Erica Jong, Jason Epstein, Pope Brock, Nancy Harmon Jenkins, and David Downie, who share seductive pieces about the side roads of Tuscany, wines of Montepulciano, renting houses in Tuscany and Umbria, cooking schools, outdoor markets, and the Festa dei Ceri in Gubbio.

Annotated bibliographies for each section with recommendations for related readings.

An A-Z "informazioni pratiche" (practical information) section covering everything from accommodations, hiking, and pazienza (patience) to the Italian yellow pages.

Whether it's your first trip or your tenth, the Collected Traveler books are indispensable, and meant to be the first volumes you turn to when planning your journeys.

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

Each edition of this unique series marries a collection of previously published essays with detailed practical information, creating a colorful and deeply absorbing pastiche of opinions and advice. Each book is a valuable resource -- a compass of sorts -- pointing vacationers, business travelers, and readers in many directions. Going abroad with a Collected Traveler edition is like being accompanied by a group of savvy and observant friends who are intimately familiar with your destination.

This edition on central Italy -- tuscany & umbria features:

Distinguished writers, such as Muriel Spark, Gerald Asher, Erica Jong, Jason Epstein, Pope Brock, Nancy Harmon Jenkins, and David Downie, who share seductive pieces about the side roads of Tuscany, wines of Montepulciano, renting houses in Tuscany and Umbria, cooking schools, outdoor markets, and the Festa dei Ceri in Gubbio.

Annotated bibliographies for each section with recommendations for related readings.

An A-Z "informazioni pratiche" (practical information) section covering everything from accommodations, hiking, and pazienza (patience) to the Italian yellow pages.

Whether it's your first trip or your tenth, the Collected Traveler books are indispensable, and meant to be the first volumes you turn to when planning your journeys.

About the Author

BARRIE KERPER is an avid traveler and reader who has lived abroad and previously worked for the travel book division of the original Banana Republic. She is also the author of Paris and the forthcoming Provence.

Product Details

• Paperback: 624 pages
• Publisher: Fodor's; 1 edition (September 26, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 060980443X
• ISBN-13: 978-0609804438
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.5 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #622,770 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #32 in Books > Travel > Europe > Italy > Umbria
  • #33 in Books > Travel > Europe > San Marino & Umbria

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

36 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A must for the Italian bookshelf, December 27, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Central Italy: The Collected Traveler: Tuscany and Umbria (Paperback)

This is a lovely, evocative book that's also extremely useful and is a necessity for anyone who loves Tuscany and Umbria. A collection of little odds and ends about the area, this is a book to dip into or read from cover to cover. Leaning more heavily toward Tuscany than Umbria and omitting Le Marche (the only reason it didn't get 5 stars from me, because Tuscany has been covered so much already), it covers the major sights as well as hidden treasures, and chapters on the food, the people, and the art of Central Italy are especially fine. Many books include bibliographies, referring readers to other books on Italy, but Kerper's is especially comprehensive. The compiler's love for Italy comes shining through on every page. Nice photos, too! Because it's such a pretty book, this is also a pretty neat gift selection.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great compilation!, June 19, 2001

By 

Tuscanwino (Greenville, SC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Central Italy: The Collected Traveler: Tuscany and Umbria (Paperback)

A guidebook without maps? A guidebook you can curl up and read cover-to-cover? Yes, this is it. As one who has vacationed in Tuscany for a total of 36 weeks in the past 11 years, I found this book not only evocative of fond memories but instructive by pointing me to places, eateries, and certain facts of Italian life of which I was unaware. The early sections covering tipping, car rental, trains, etc. are of particular help to the first time traveler. There's even a little Frances Mayes in there for the 1% of the people interested in Italy who have not read her books on Tuscany. But after reading this book, you'll have to get a map or two anyway...because you'll have booked a flight to bella Italia.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good for browsing, bad for pinpointing, May 3, 2007

By 

Cate (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Central Italy: The Collected Traveler: Tuscany and Umbria (Paperback)

I have always enjoyed Barrie Kerper's Collected Traveler anthologies, and own three of them. They are the ultimate guidebooks for inveterate readers: rather than names and addresses and prices and museum hours, they contain a wide variety of essays and travel pieces on the place in question. While I certainly wouldn't travel without one of those more specific Fodor's or Eyewitness guidebook, these are priceless for giving the flavor and the feel of the place, as well as providing history and folklore that more practical hand books don't have space for. This particular volume on Central Italy contains, among many others, a really charming essay by William Zinsser on Siena; a wonderful and detailed account by Lis Harris on Siena's annual Palio; and a piece on market day in Cortona by Frances Mayes of Tuscan Sun fame. You don't even have to leave your chair to have a purely enjoyable experience.

My one complaint is that there's no index, and only a ve-e-ery general table of contents, so once you find an article you like, you have to thumb through 600-plus pages to find it again. Where's the piece on garlic bread? Who knows. Why do people say renaissance Florence contributed as much to music as it did to art and science? Can't find it. I don't believe in over-regimentation, but in this case, a little cataloguing would be a very good thing.