Works in Progress
ITALY:
ART, ARCHITECTURE, RELIGION, FOOD, SEX, LOVE, POLITICS, AND CRIME
Project begun in 2005 and continuing.
Fortuna atop a globe supported by two atlases. The weathervane atop the old customhouse in Venice executed by Bernardo Falcone in 1677. Today the Punta della Dogana houses Francois Pinault's outstanding collection of contemporary art.
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These three volumes — Rome and Environs, Northern Italy, and Southern Italy and Sicily — are the fruits of fourteen explorations of the peninsula and Sicily that I've made since 2005. They began as travelogues written as I systematically explored Italy’s cities and regions. That manuscript ballooned to 632,944 words, about four times bigger than a big book. So I took that manuscript apart, edited it and rearranged it into the present three-volume format of center, north, and south. This structure reflects the geographical, historical, and cultural patterns of the highly varied peninsula, which, after the waning of the Roman Empire, devolved into a patchwork of independent city-states and separate principalities, including the Papal States stretching from Rome to Bologna. Italy has only been a unified nation-state since 1870. The old divisions are still evident in the physiognomies, landscapes, customs, crops, industries, economies, politics, dialects, architecture, art, culinary traditions, subtle variations in Catholicism, and in the relative sway of criminal syndicates in her diverse regions. All of Italy’s provinces have their own strong urban center, enduring cultural capitals of long-lost city-states and principalities, famous or obscure. This book explores and interprets many of the most interesting of them and makes for both leisurely armchair travel and as a guide to places to experience on your first -- or next -- visit to the bel paese.
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ITALY SAMPLE: TABLE OF CONTENTS
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ITALY SAMPLE: ROME & CELIO
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