Tips & Reviews

A Passion for Piedmont: Italy’s Most Glorious Regional Table by Matt Kramer (New York: William Morrow and Company, Inc., 1997) With the winter Olympics coming up in February 2006 in Italy’s Piedmont region we thought we might suggest some reading… Read full article

Food and Culture in Europe – Part II The Culture of the Fork – A brief history of food in Europe by Giovanni Rebora (Translated by Albert Sonnenfeld; Columbia University Press, 1998) Italian Cuisine: A Cultural History by Alberto Capatti… Read full article

Paris to the Moon by Adam Gopnick   New York Times Notable Book of 2000 & New York Public Library Selection as one of the 25 Memorable Books of 2000.   Those who wish to be travelers, not simply tourists,… Read full article

Peter Pezzelli, Home to Italy (New York: Kensington Books, 2004) Peter Pezzelli’s first novel is a delightful tale of loss and grieving, of personal tragedy and of rebirth. A simple, predictable story becomes more complex as it develops. It is… Read full article

Food and Culture in Europe, Part I My first meal with Paola’s family in Italy was memorable. When Paola leaned over to me and said, “the more you eat, the more they’ll like you,” I had no worries. I was… Read full article

Love and War in the Apennines by Eric Newby There is no scarcity of personal memoirs of World War II. Yet Eric Newby’s narrative of war, escape, love, and peasant farmers in Italy’s Apennine mountains in 1944 has lasted thirty… Read full article

Al Young, Shifting Gears, My Global Bike Odyssey (including an interview with the author) Shifting Gears: My Global Bike Odyssey by Al Young   Trafford Publishing, Victoria, 2005 (See the end of the review for details on how to purchase… Read full article

Too Much Tuscan Sun (Confessions of a Chianti Tour Guide) by Dario Castagno Anyone with a foot in two cultures and fluency in two languages is a lucky person. This describes Dario Castagno, author of “Too Much Tuscan Sun.” Born… Read full article

Provence by Lawrence Durrell Lawrence Durrell belongs to a group of travel writers who go back to the British expatriates of the early and mid-20th century. He lived most of his life in the Mediterranean region and has left a… Read full article

Read Any Good Books Lately? We usually try to make sure our book reviews have at least something to do with cycling, or hiking, or the places we visit and their history. But that’s not all we read! At a… Read full article

Beyond Lance   Though I may not be Lance Armstrong’s number one fan, I’m up there. I’ve followed his career since 1990, and I knew of him as a promising young US cyclist before he was diagnosed with testicular cancer.… Read full article

Songbirds, Truffles, and Wolves (An American Naturalist in Italy) by Gary Paul Nabhan Colin Fletcher, one of the great walkers of the 20th century (The Man Who Walked Through Time and The Complete Walker) advised his readers to find something… Read full article

Heft on Wheels: A Field Guide to Doing a 180 by Mike Magnuson Heft on Wheels makes no secret of its subject matter. On the front, we have a photo of author Mike Magnuson, naked, obese and miserable riding his… Read full article

On Italian Politics, Landscapes and Two Movies about the Po Valley The Tree of Wooden Clogs (L’Albero degli Zoccoli)  by Ermanno Olmi, 1978 1900 (Novecento) by Bernardo Bertolucci, 1976 I’ve been observing Italy since 1966 when I first visited this… Read full article

The Tour de France Companion by Bob Roll Bob Roll’s Nuts, Bolts and Spokes on the famous Tour This is a great book, just out, for those of us who haven’t had time to follow the Tour de France every year… Read full article