"The rise and fall of Venice's empire is an irresistible story and [Roger] Crowley, with his rousing descriptive gifts and scholarly attention to detail, is its perfect chronicler."—The Financial Times  The New York Times...

Every week on a Thursday evening, a group of four Italian rural women gather in a stone house in the hills above Italy's Orvieto. There—along with their friend, Marlena—they cook together, sit down to a beautiful supper, drink the...

A provocative, entertaining account of Italy's diverse riches, its hopes and dreams, its past and presentDid Garibaldi do Italy a disservice when he helped its disparate parts achieve unity? Was the goal of political unification a mis...

"This magnificent love letter to Rome" (Stephen Greenblatt) tells the story of the Eternal City through pivotal moments that defined its history—from the early Roman Republic through the Renaissance and the Reformation to ...

One of the defining moments in Western history, the bloody and dramatic story of the battle for the soul of Renaissance Florence. By the end of the fifteenth century, Florence was well established as the home of the Renaissance. As ge...