Italy in Mind: An Anthology

I packed this book on a recent tour of Italy, and read most of it on the beach near Paestum towards the end of our two-week vacation. The variety and scope of the selections included in this anthology matched my (characteristically) eclectic itinerary well (Lucca, Padua, Venice, Assisi, Salerno), and the book's size and weight is appropriate to include with the luggage. If, like me, you never quite know what you are going to want to read once you are actually in Italy, this book is not a bad solution to the problem. In some ways I wish I had read the anthology before going, and packed the entire texts from a few of the original sources instead. I particularly enjoyed the selections from Matthew Spender's book "Within Tuscany, Reflections on a Time and Place" and, more surprisingly, Susan Sontag's novel "The Volcano Lover". It's not clear however if something like "The Volcano Lover" would have been nearly so captivating if I hadn't first started reading it near Vesuvius. I know, for example, that Shelley's poem "Stanza's Written in Dejection, Near Naples" probably wouldn't have grabbed me if I hadn't read it after a long lunch on a perfect Summer day, near Naples. Why only 4 stars? The chapters are ordered alphabetically by author's last name, which confused me at first (I'm kind of dumb) and struck me as a bit of a cop-out. It was also confusing trying to figure out when the selections were originally written, which is particularly annoying when reading a non-fiction piece.

I Loved this book. I am a travel writer (Italy Guide, Tusnacy & Umbria Guide, Rome Guide) and thought I knew Italy like the back of my hand, but this volume opened up vistas I could not have imagined. I found myself following in the footstep of literary greats, dogging their posthumous steps through the pages of Italy in Mind, and ended up seeing so much more of the country than I had before. Highly recommended reading before travel and while there. A gem of a book.

There is a new-found wealth of books about Italy available today. "Italy in Mind" is a bit different: Alice Leccese Powers has mined three centuries of great writing to portray the character of Italy from many different vantage points in time and geography. But regardless of the era and the events of the day, the beauty of the land and character of the Italian people always shine through. This is the perfect book to read outdoors, on a warm summer afternoon, with a nice glass of Chianti by your side. I enjoyed the book so much, I just purchased her follow-up works, "Ireland in Mind" and the just-released "France in Mind."

Since visiting Italy this year, I haven't been able to get enough of it. I have read first-hand accounts of Americans living in Italia ("Under the Tuscan Sun" and "The Hills of Tuscany"). Both offered refreshing insider looks at the culture of the country, but "Italy in Mind" is a different breed altogether.As I myself strolled along the shore of Lago Maggiore, wound my way through the narrow streets of Venice, and dodged the whizzing vespas in Florence, I wondered what classic authors and great thinkers had penned as they experienced similar things. In this volume, I have found, at long last, the answer. Filled with poems, letters, essays, and excerpts from well-known classical works (e.g., "A Farewell to Arms" and "A Bell for Adano"), "Italy in Mind" offers a wide scope of authors' experiences and thoughts during their stays in my favorite European country. Helpful also is the table of contents which provides information on which city or region is described in each piece."Italy in Mind" is a manageable but somewhat scholarly approach to a mild obsession with Italy. It would be a great read for anyone who has visited Italy, dreams of visiting Italy, or is interested in finding out more about it. I know I will be looking up some of the complete works which are excerpted in this volume or are mentioned in the informative author biographies.