By Antonio Tabucchi

Within the sweltering summer season of 1938 in Portugal, a rustic lower than the fascist shadow of Spain, a mysterious younger guy arrives on the doorstep of Dr Pereira. So starts an not likely alliance that may lead to a devastating act of uprising. this can be Pereira's testimony.

By Hendrik W. Dey

This booklet explores the connection among town of Rome and the Aurelian Wall in the course of the six centuries following its building within the 270s advert, a interval whilst the town replaced and reduced in size virtually past reputation, because it developed from imperial capital into the non secular heart of Western Christendom. The Wall grew to become the one so much admired function within the city panorama, a dominating presence which got here physically to incarnate the political, criminal, administrative and non secular barriers of urbs Roma, at the same time it reshaped either the actual contours of town as an entire and the psychological geographies of 'Rome' that prevailed at domestic and in the course of the identified global. With the passage of time, the circuit took on a lifetime of its personal because the embodiment of Rome's previous greatness, a cultural and architectural legacy that dwarfed the quotidian realities of the post-imperial urban up to it formed them.

By Millicent Marcus

The final decade has witnessed an outpouring of Italian movies that care for Fascism, anti-Semitism and the Holocaust. this is able to seem to mark a unique swap from the postwar reluctance to symbolize such an notorious heritage. Roberto Benigni?s well known Life is Beautiful (1997) is an noticeable instance, yet there were a few different works that experience now not been exported that still attest to a unique tendency inside of Italian family construction to handle the difficulty. Millicent Marcus?s Italian movie within the Shadow of Auschwitz appears to be like at this improvement, attributing the hot attractiveness not just to a global movie sensation, yet to a family cultural weather instantly receptive to Holocaust illustration, and able to produce its personal different types of ancient testimony.

Throughout the ebook, Marcus brings various views ? psychoanalytical, ideological, mass cultural ? to undergo at the query of the way Italian filmmakers are confronting the Holocaust, and why now given the sparse output of Holocaust movies produced in Italy from 1945 to the early Nineteen Nineties. What emerges is an interesting examine how movie is getting used to confront a very damning point of cultural history.

Marcus?s examine good points in-depth analyses of 5 contemporary Italian motion pictures: Ricky Tognazzi?s Canone inverso, Ettore Scola?s Concorrenza sleale, Andrea and Antonio Frazzi?s Il cielo cade, Alberto Negrin?s Perlasca, and Ferzan Ozpetek?s La finestra di fronte. As an additional function, the booklet contains a DVD of Scola?s brief movie ?43??97, which has been unavailable outdoors of Italy until eventually now.

By Reid Bramblett

Frommer’s Dollar-A-Day courses assist you to go back and forth in style–without breaking the financial institution. You’ll locate low-cost lodgings that don’t skimp on convenience. reasonable eating places the place locals opt for an outstanding meal. And the entire top sightseeing and buying values. Frommer’s Dollar-A-Day guidebooks. top notch go back and forth on the cheap. every thing you would like for an Unforgettable–and Affordable–Trip! fascinating locations to stick, from antique-filled palazzi to family-run pensiones–for as low as $30 in step with individual an evening! real eating at unbelievably low costs, from $12 multi-course nutrients at a Florentine trattoria to Neapolitan pizza for as low as $6. an entire advisor to Italy’s points of interest, from Tuscan hill cities and the astounding surroundings of the Amalfi Coast to historical Roman ruins and masterpieces of the Renaissance–plus the lowdown on what to work out and do at no cost. the place to buy neighborhood crafts and locate haute couture you could particularly find the money for. inexpensive nightlife: wine bars, cafes, opera, and extra.

By Claudio Pavone

“Among the few undeniable masterpieces of up to date history.” –Financial Times

A Civil War is a historical past of the wartime Italian Resistance, stated by way of a historian who took half within the fight opposed to Mussolini’s Fascist Republic. considering that its booklet in Italy, Claudio Pavone’s masterwork has develop into fundamental to an individual looking to comprehend this era and its carrying on with significance for the nation’s identity.

Pavone casts a sober eye on his protagonists’ moral and ideological motivations. He uncovers a multilayered clash, within which type antagonisms, patriotism and political beliefs all performed an element. a transparent realizing of this complexity permits him to give an explanation for many information of the post-war transition, in addition to the legacy of the Resistance for contemporary Italy. as well as being a enormous paintings of scholarship, A Civil War is a folks background, taking pictures occasions, personalities and attitudes that have been at the verge of slipping completely out of recollection to the detriment of Italy’s knowing of itself and its earlier.

By Maurizio Viroli

In Redeeming "The Prince," one of many world's best Machiavelli students places forth a startling new interpretation of arguably the main influential yet broadly misunderstood publication within the Western political culture. Overturning well known misconceptions and difficult scholarly consensus, Maurizio Viroli additionally presents a clean advent to the paintings. noticeable from this unique standpoint, 5 centuries after its composition, The Prince deals new insights into the character and chances of political liberation.

Rather than a bible of unscrupulous politics, The Prince, Viroli argues, is basically approximately political redemption--a publication inspired by means of Machiavelli's patriotic wish to see a brand new founding for Italy. Written within the kind of an oration, following the foundations of classical rhetoric, the e-book condenses its major message within the ultimate part, "Exhortation to free up Italy from the Barbarians." There Machiavelli creates the parable of a redeemer, an incredible ruler who ushers in an period of peace, freedom, and cohesion. opposite to students who retain that the exhortation used to be additional later, Viroli proves that Machiavelli composed it besides the remainder of the textual content, finishing the total via December 1513 or early 1514.

Only if we learn The Prince as a thought of political redemption, Viroli contends, do we ultimately comprehend, and correctly review, the book's such a lot arguable pages on political morality, in addition to positioned to relaxation the cliché of Machiavelli as a "Machiavellian."

Bold, transparent, and provocative, Redeeming "The Prince" may still completely swap how Machiavelli and his masterpiece are understood.

By Richard A. Goldthwaite

Richard A. Goldthwaite, a number one monetary historian of the Italian Renaissance, has spent his occupation learning the Florentine economic climate. during this magisterial paintings, Goldthwaite brings jointly a life of study and perception at the topic, clarifying and explaining the complicated workings of Florence's advertisement, banking, and artisan sectors. Florence was once some of the most industrialized towns in medieval Europe, because of its thriving fabric industries. The importation of uncooked fabrics and the exportation of accomplished fabric necessitated the production of industrial and banking practices that prolonged a ways past Florence's obstacles. half I situates Florence inside this wider overseas context and describes the economic and banking networks in which the city's merchant-bankers operated. half II specializes in the city economic system of Florence itself, together with a variety of industries, retailers, artisans, and traders. It additionally evaluates the function of presidency within the economic system, the connection of the city financial system to the zone, and the distribution of wealth through the society.While political, social, and cultural histories of Florence abound, none focuses completely at the financial historical past of town. The economic climate of Renaissance Florence bargains either a scientific description of the city's significant monetary actions and a entire evaluation of its monetary improvement from the overdue heart a long time in the course of the Renaissance to 1600.

By Grace Lees-Maffei

Items made or designed in Italy get pleasure from a profile which a long way outstrips the country's modest production output. Italy's excellent layout history and recognition for sort and innovation has 'added worth' to items made in Italy. on account that 1945, Italian layout has commanded an expanding quantity of recognition from layout reporters, critics and shoppers. yet is Italian layout a sufferer of its personal famous person? Made in Italy brings jointly top layout historians to discover this question, discussing either the heritage and value of layout from Italy and its overseas impact. Addressing a variety of Italian layout fields, together with vehicle layout, photo layout, commercial and inside layout and ceramics, famous designers comparable to Alberto Rosselli and Ettore Sottsass, Jr. and iconic manufacturers comparable to Olivetti, Vespa and Alessi, the booklet explores the historic, cultural and social affects that formed Italian layout, and the way those iconic designs have contributed to the fashionable canon of Italian-inspired items.

By Jhumpa Lahiri

From the best-selling writer and Pulitzer Prize winner, a strong nonfiction debut—an “honest, enticing, and extremely relocating account of a author trying to find herself in words.” —Kirkus reports (starred)

In different phrases is a revelation. it truly is at center a love story—of a protracted and infrequently tough courtship, and a fondness that verges on obsession: that of a author for an additional language. For Jhumpa Lahiri, that love used to be for Italian, which first captivated and capsized her in the course of a visit to Florence after collage. even though Lahiri studied Italian for a few years later on, actual mastery continually eluded her.

Seeking complete immersion, she comes to a decision to maneuver to Rome together with her kin, for “a trial by means of hearth, a kind of baptism” right into a new language and international. There, she starts to learn, and to write—initially in her journal—solely in Italian. In different phrases, an autobiographical paintings written in Italian, investigates the method of studying to precise oneself in one other language, and describes the adventure of a author looking a brand new voice.

Presented in a dual-language structure, it is a totally unique ebook approximately exile, linguistic and another way, written with an depth and readability now not obvious when you consider that Vladimir Nabokov: a startling act of self-reflection and a provocative exploration of belonging and reinvention.

By Zaho Margaret Ann