A travel book and guide to Italy, a country which they both love. Ms. Mayes is a renowned writer of such books as Under the Tuscan Sun and other bestsellers

Tasting Italy: A Culinary Journey by America’s Test Kitchen, Eugenia Bone and Julia Della Croce is a cookbook which has recipes from certain regions of Italy.

Teofilo Folengo (8 November 1491 – 9 December 1544) was an Italian poet, a Benedictine monk, who wrote in Latin under several nom de plumes.

Georg Philipp Harsdörffer (1 November, 1607 – 17 September, 1658) was a German poet and translator from the Baroque period.

Giovanni della Casa was an Italian diplomat, bishop, & poet. He is known for his treatise on polite behavior, despite being an inquisitor

Billy Boyle wakes up in Sicily, with amnesia. He doesn’t remember what happened, or who he is, but he has a yellow silk handkerchief which seems important

William Dean Howells was a novelist, ciritc, and playwright. He is remembered for his novels A Traveler from Alturia and The Rise of Silas Lapham.

Wilhelm Heinse (16 February, 1746 – 22 June, 1803) was a German author, novelist, and art critic who influenced many Romantics.

The book is thought provoking, and beautifully written. I’m very impressed how Ms. Brooks managed to write so much panoramic content in a relatively short book

Grazia Deledda was an Italian writer known as “The Voice of Sardinia”. She was the first Italian woman, and second woman, to be awarded the Nobel Prize