Italian Pleasures [Hardcover]

David Leavitt (Author), Mark Mitchell (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 1996

An anthology of fifty witty and engaging essays and reminiscences captures the delights of Italy, sharing thoughts on such topics as cappuccino, window shopping, pasta, umbrella pines, and other aspects of the Italian landscape, people, and culture. IP.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 143 pages
• Publisher: Chronicle Books; First edition (May 1, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0811812278
• ISBN-13: 978-0811812276
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,057,604 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars PLEASURABLE EXPERIENCES, July 29, 2003

By 

Exarch (Venezia, Italy) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Italian Pleasures (Hardcover)

A gem of a book, illustrated delightfully and with short excerpts form the authors' favourite writers, inclding Mary McCarthy, D.H. Lawrence, Carlo Levi and Edith Wharton -- all waxing lyrical on Italy and its beauties.
This evocative little book -- pocket sized, but elegantly bound for travelling with you everywhere whilst in Bella Italia -- contains personal essays by expatriates (they live in Rome, naturally!) David Leavitt and Mark Mitchell. They variously describe the multiple delights of this peninsula, rendering the joys and surprises of their adopted homeland, including iced cappuccino, umbrella pines on the Riviera, the expressive nuances of language, window shopping, the many pictoresque names and shapes of healthy pasta, sidewalk art made of flowers.

If you love Italy, this book will caress and enhance your Italian tastes. If you still have to discover Italy's pleasures, then this book will be the right chaperon.

As Goethe said in his 'Letter from Naples': "...it is a strange sensation for me to keep company with people who live only for pleasure."

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars NOT AN ORDINARY TRAVEL BOOK, March 4, 2001

By 

MOVIE MAVEN (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Italian Pleasures (Hardcover)

I am very sorry to learn that this small, beautifully put together
book is out of print. If you have ever vacationed in or worked in or
simply visited Italy or if you have dreamed about doing it, you'll
want to, somehow, find this book. Leavitt and Mitchell have collected
famous writers thoughts on Italy (D.H. Lawrence, Nellie Melba, John
Ruskin, Mark Twain, etc.) and then written down their own wonderful
musings: (What makes an Italian ragu?, The thing that Italian boys do
better than any other boys in the world, Is there a cure for chicken
pox?, Speaking "opera" Italian, et al).This is a charming
& fascinating book which ... is definitely not an ordinary Travel
book. This is a book about living in Italy and loving and relishing
every moment and sharing those moments with us. I hope Chronicle
Books is smart and generous enough to reprint it or, perhaps, publish
a paperback edition.