Customer Reviews

Italy: The Places in Between

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A woman that is passionately in love with Italy and all things Italian writes this review. Once I traveled to Italy, there was no reason to vacation anywhere else. I have been to Italy many times and covered much of the country by car. Once you have gotten your fill of the major cities and you want to branch out into unfamiliar territory, this is a great book to have. The author gives you a little history and description of many of the towns that are off the normally tourist beaten path. If you are the type that likes to venture off the trail, you will enjoy this book.

The book is not a typical travel guide with tables, charts and pictures. It is written more like a novel. The author paints pictures of the towns with her descriptions. I find this book to be just a relevant today as it was when it was written.

The author subdivides the book as follows:

1. Rome to Tuscany and Florence
a. Sienna
b. Sienna - Environs
c. Volterra
d. Lucca
2. A long, Long Weekend North of Rome
a. Cerveteri, Tarquinia, Tuscania, Caprarola, Sutri and Nepi
b. Viterbo and Environs
c. Orvieto
3. To Venice through Umbria
a. Todi
b. Spoleto
c. Trevi
d. Poor Relations
e. Gubbio
f. Arezzo and Cortona
g. Assisi
h. Ascoli Piceno
4. Zigzag from Florence to Lombardy and Venice
a. Ferrara
b. Mantua and Sabbioneta
c. Bergamo
d. Brescia
e. Verona
f. Vicenza
g. Bassano del Grappa and Asolo
h. Villa Maser
i. The Friuli
j. Treviso
k. Padua
5. Southern Adriatic Coast from Rome or Naples

The late author also provides chapters on the following topics not city specific
a. The Subject is eating
b. Knowing the people and the language
c. For women
d. Travel reminders - which are mostly cultural notes

If you are looking for smaller towns and cities to visit while in Italy this book gives you are nice flavor of the culture of these towns so that you can decide if you are interested in making a stop. I find the smaller towns to have a unique Italian charm that can sometimes be missing in the larger cities.

I have owned this book for years and found this page only because I was looking to see whether I could find another copy.

Why do I describe this as a truly marvelous book? Combine these elements: The author's 'day job': she was a very fine novelist, and it shows. This novelist-author writes like an angel and appreciates every aspect of life in Italy, every subtlety of gesture and of intonation, making the most wonderful observations here, there, everywhere. There is one paragraph which alone is worth the $65 you will probably have to shell out for the book. From memory, it is under the sub-heading 'ON LEARNING ITALIAN' and is undoubtedly the very best paragraph ever written on that subject. Her intimate knowledge of the language is on display in this explanation of why she found it all too hard, threw up her hands, and reverted to tourist, pigeon Italian (which, of course, she did not).

Oh, incidentally, it also works as an excellent guide to the secondary towns and cities of Italy. I never go to Italy without it, but that really does seem incidental.