Customer Reviews

Italy from Above

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

For those legions of people for whom Italy is the special place in the heart this new book will serve as a feast. Imagine riding in a low flying glider from the north to the south and everywhere in between, swooping down for intimate views of lakes, cottages, villas, cities, ruins, and landscape: reading and viewing this book is very much like that quietest of all transportation modes and equally as thrilling.

Alberto Bertolazzi, and experienced travel writer, has worked with Marcello Bertinetti and other outstanding photographers to create this romantic journey to his beloved Italy from the vantage of the sky. After a warm introduction by Franco Zeffirelli, and an equally impressive preface by Giuliano Urbani, Bertolazzi and his photographers take us from volcanoes, the Alps, the lakes, and vineyards, the ruins many have never seen, the majestic palaces and villas, a perspective of Venice that is surpassingly beautiful, the cities as seen form above, to the small treasures unknown to the casual visitor. This is an insider's view of Italy and all its flavors and people.

The quality of the photographs is stunning and we are treated to page after page of splendid sites and surprising treasures, from the mundane to the internationally significant. This is simply a magnificent volume that promises, and gives, an Italy never before seen in books. Highly Recommended. Grady Harp, November 05

First - I guess I'm glad to have the book rather than not having it.

But for the price and the hype about it - plus the OPPORTUNITY - it is a great disappointment.

You will find oodles of pictures of the tops of Alpine mountain ranges - oodles of uninhabitated or slightly inhabitated capes - but none of similar landscapes with HOW ITALIANS HAVE INTERACTED with the environment. If you are looking for villages nestled in the Dolomites, fishing villages near the capes, etc. - forget it. Much of the book has been taken up with repeat after repeat of something you already looked at - or almost.

But probably the worst part of the book is the totally INFERIOR PRINTING (or picture quality). Take a rather normal magnifying glass and you will see why the pictures do NOT look good to the normal eye - there are just blotches - were they digital pictures you would see nice square PIXELS. I really suspect they have not bothered to print at 1200 dpi - OR - the original pictures are horrible - OR both! (I compared the pictures - with the glass - with many other books and the difference is STARTLING - if the originals were taken from a satellite, it might be a reason - but they surely weren't).

Another aspect of this poor printing/poor photography is that MANY of the pictures are just dark blobs with no definition - no contrast - no detail - no 'color.'

There has been a pretty bad job of editing -- just look at the ridiculous picture of the piazza in Trieste - it wouldn't even fit on your average San Marino postage stamp!

So - if you are a fan of Italy - you may appreciate the book in a very general way - but you surely will still be on the lookout for a good book which might actually cover the material you might have been hoping for in this book.

As a frequent visitor and lover of Italy, I was excited to get this book. I'm still happy that I have it as it does give a birds eye view of many cities that I love, but it also has a tremendous amount of mountain photos that are pretty but redundent. I also found that the quality of the prints was not terrific. Many border on blurry and have a grainy appearance.

This book has beautiful aerial photographs. It's perfect for a coffee table book--that way you can absorb a little at a time. You can also view familiar places in an entirely new way, which gives you plenty of ideas for exploring once you're back on the ground. The angles are practically mouth watering.

It's big and impressive, but not without flaws. I suspect that some pictures has been enlarged in order to make a part of the original make a big splash on the pages. But that is in my eyes not the largest trouble with this book. Much worse is that some editor must love Alpine peaks and coastline more than anything else. These two subjects are given a large chunk of the space, I would have liked to see places eerie för other reasons: historic places of battles, settlements and such, there's no shortage in Italy. But only at the end there are a few pages on the subject, what a shame. But still, you find views of many cities and villages to enjoy. It's hard to resist for an Italophile.

Perfect wedding present for a couple who were engaged in Italy! Great price, immediate shipment, and impressive book! This was a wedding present, so we never took it out of the wrapper, but we're confident that the couple enjoyed it thoroughly!