This is a completely new kind of book—a short, lively picture-history—a fascinating travel story—a perfect introduction to Italy for anyone interested in that beautiful land and its colorful life story.

This is history made real and alive by being keyed to the actual, tangible evidences of the past that still exist. And those treasures—buildings, paintings, sculptures that the visitor sees—are given meaning by being set in the time to which they belong and described with the men who made them.

In imagination we walk through the centuries with soldiers, emperors, painters, sculptors, saints and sinners, from one city to another, as each in turn comes to its Golden Age, seeing places and things in their logical order. The Colosseum in Rome, the Grand Canal in Venice, the "Last Supper" in Milan, the Leaning Tower of Pisa, Vesuvius, St. Peter's—all the important names and places you have heard about are here.

In this book, surprisingly small to hold so much information, are facts for which you would have to search through countless volumes, and then not have in usable order. Here all have been carefully selected, illustrated by the author-artist, who has a gift for sparking your imagination with words and drawings.

And so as you read and look, you see the assorted facts, like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, fall into place and re-create a picture of over 2600 years that is clear and bright. It is a unique experience, an adventure in understanding, that you will want to repeat by reading it over again. 

From the dust jacket

• WHICH ROMAN EMPEROR SET A FASHION BY WEARING A BEARD?
• WHY IS THE COLOSSEUM SO CALLED?
• WHICH ITALIAN CITY HONORS A FAMOUS POET WHO DURING HIS LIFETIME WAS ITS EXILE?
• WHERE ARE THE MOST CELEBRATED BRONZE DOORS IN THE WORLD?
• WHICH EMPEROR WAS CROWNED WITH AN IRON CROWN?
• WHERE EACH SUMMER IS A MEDIEVAL HORSE RACE HELD?
• WHICH FAMOUS ITALIAN FAMILY'S COAT OF ARMS SUPPLIED THE PAWNBROKER'S SYMBOL?

Genevieve Foster answers these questions and reveals hundreds more fascinating sidelights on Italy's glorious past as she takes you on a chronological tour of the sunny peninsula. And along with her sparkling interpretation of the times and the men who created them, she skillfully combines ILLUSTRATIONS OF REPRESENTATIVE ART TREASURES AND MEMORABILIA—QUOTATIONS FROM CELEBRATED POETS, PHILOSOPHERS, AND HISTORIANS—MAPS OF ITALY AT VARIOUS POINTS IN ITS HISTORY—and PICTORIAL CITY MAPS OF ROME, VENICE, AND FLORENCE, as these cities are today, with the monuments of their Golden Ages located.

A book for the student of Italy and the stay-at-home traveler, or for the actual traveler.

From the back of the dust jacket