Bringing Italy Home: Creating the Feeling of Italy in Your Home Room by Room

If you actually read this book and don't just glide, sighing and salivating, from one gorgeous photo to the next, you can understand the Italian character as well as the different Italian styles of living and decorating. The author tells us it is impossible to become Italian but she focuses immediately on the things Italians consider important: proportion, balance, smooth surfaces, natural materials, food, family (and not necessarily in that order...) and she also explains the many influences over the centuries (Greek, Roman, Ottoman, and more) and you learn a bit of History, Archeology, Art (and now I've made it sound stuffy and boring, and it is just the opposite!). She very, very wisely includes a whole chapter on "regional flavor" and points out the vast differences between the different regions (confuse a Neapolitan with a Venetian at your own peril) and their living styles. She gives wonderful explanations of the differences between loggias, porticoes and pergolas, shows ten kinds of pasta, four kinds of cheese, six ways to prepare coffee and even gives menu plans and recipes!

The focus of this book is "creating the feeling of Italy in your home room by room". The author takes us on a tour of each of the major rooms of a typical home: the living room, the bedroom, the dining room, and the kitchen. In each section she goes into great detail about what the Italian style of decor is and how you can replicate that for your own home. The book is full of many colorful photos, which go a great way in helping to visualize what your home might look like. The book also helps to capture through side stories very aspects of Italian life ("warm and stylish homes, irresistible food, simple elegance of Italian entertaining") that make the thought of turning your interior into this type of theme all that more appealing. She talks about regional (Tuscany, Venice, etc) design influences and also a full chapter on food and wine. She also provides a list of resources from which you can find some of the materials that can turn your home into that dream Tuscan villa or Venetian apartment. If you are looking to remodel your dwelling and thinking that you want to be surrounded by the grace of Italian living then you should definitely check out this book.

I enjoyed the book tremendously. If you're looking to furnish your home the Italian way, this is a good start. Gives lots of pictures.