A chronicle of the author's first four years in Italy, describing her purchase and restoration of an abandoned villa in the Tuscan countryside, her transformation of the overgrown gardens, and her discovery of the many links between the food and culture of the region.

In turn-of-the-century Italy, fourteen-year-old Josephine, sheltered and naïve, is forced into an arranged marriage to a man she doesn't know or love who is about to depart for America, where she later joins him. Bound by tradition, Josephine gives birth to seven children. The last, Valentina, is conceived in passion, born in secret, and given up for adoption. Josephine spends the rest of her life searching for her lost child, keeping her secret...

It was the quiet ones you had to watch. That's where the real passion was lurking.
They came together at Mountainview College, a down-at-the-heels secondary school on the seamy side of Dublin, to take a course in Italian. It was Latin teacher Aidan Dunne's last chance to revive a failing marriage and a dead-end career. But Aidan's dream was headed for disaster until the mysterious Signora appeared, transforming a shared passion for Italy...

Collects short essays from the author that reflect on the changing modern world, touching on such topics as popular culture, politics, being seen, conspiracies, the old and the young, new technologies, mass media, racism, and good manners.

In this prescient essay collection, the acclaimed author of Foucault's Pendulum examines the cultural trends and perils at the dawn of the 21st century. In the last decade of the 20th century, Umberto Eco saw an urgent need to embrace tolerance and multiculturalism in the face of our world's ever-increasing interconnectivity. At a talk delivered during the first Gulf War, he points out the absurdity of armed conflict in a globalized economy where...

In the glittering, vibrant New York City of 1950, Lucia Sartori, an apprentice to an up-and-coming designer, finds herself in the midst of a scandal in which secrets are revealed, her career is jeopardized, and the Sartoris' honor is tested.

Offers one hundred recipes that blend sophisticated ingredients with instructions for such dishes as lamb meatballs stuffed with goat cheese, roast pork with Italian plums and grappa, and honey-flavored pine nut cake.-- Source other than Library of Congress.

"This is the story of pasta. Here -award-winning food writer Rachel Roddy has lived and cooked in Rome for over a decade. She has spent years browsing bucolic Italian markets, cooking with fresh and seasonal vegetables, discovering cheeses, and perfecting the art of making Italy's favorite food: pasta. Now, she has condensed everything she's learned about pasta in a practical, alphabetical, highly entertaining collection of pasta and pasta sauce recipes...