This is a completely new kind of book—a short, lively picture-history—a fascinating travel story—a perfect introduction to Italy for anyone interested in that beautiful land and its colorful life story.
This is history made real and alive by being keyed to the actual, tangible evidences of the past that still exist. And those treasures—buildings, paintings, sculptures that the visitor sees—are given meaning by being set in the time to which they belong and described with the men who made them.
In imagination we walk through the centuries with soldiers, emperors, painters, sculptors, saints and sinners, from one city to another, as each in turn comes to its Golden Age, seeing places and things in their logical order. The Colosseum in Rome, the Grand Canal in Venice, the "Last Supper" in Milan, the Leaning Tower of Pisa, Vesuvius, St. Peter's—all the important names and places you have heard about are here.
In this book, surprisingly small to hold so much information, are facts for which you would have to search through countless volumes, and then not have in usable order. Here all have been carefully selected, illustrated by the author-artist, who has a gift for sparking your imagination with words and drawings.
And so as you read and look, you see the assorted facts, like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, fall into place and re-create a picture of over 2600 years that is clear and bright. It is a unique experience, an adventure in understanding, that you will want to repeat by reading it over again.
—From the dust jacket
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