Great books that will help make the trip even more fun. Check them out at your library or purchase from Amazon.com.
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A Traveller's History of Italy by Valerio Lintner- a great book that will give some insight into many of the places that we will visit. This books sorts out the emperors and all the popes that figured so prominently in Italian history. |
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Art for Travellers: Italy by Ann Morrow - an incredible introduction to the art of the Italian Renaissance. Descriptions of architecture, painting, and sculpture are detailed and easy to read. |
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Il Gigante by Anton Gill- the story of twelve years when war, plague, famine and chaos made theirr mark on Italy and when a young erratic genius, Michelangelo, made his first great statue - the David. |
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| Brunelleschi's Dome by Ross King - By all accounts, Filippo Brunelleschi, goldsmith and clockmaker, was an unkempt, cantankerous, and suspicious man-even by the generous standards according to which artists were judged in fifteenth-century Florence. He also designed and erected a dome over the cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore-a feat of architectural daring that we continue to marvel at today-thus securing himself a place among the most formidable geniuses of the Renaissance. (book description) |  |
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| Birth of Venus by Sarah Dunant - "Fifteen-year-old Alessandra Cecchi does not fit the mold of the compliant Florentine woman. She avidly consumes books written in Greek and Latin as she keeps abreast of the art movement, hoping to some day create her own masterwork. The city is teeming with artisans working for the Catholic Church and the ruling Medici family, and sightings of Botticelli in the piazza or the infamous Michelangelo are commonplace incidents in a city that thrives on beauty. The years of Florentine decadence come to a close when the French Army invades Italy and Dominican friar Girolamo Savonarola begins a puritanical crusade. To protect her from the city's tumultuous atmosphere, the Cecchis arrange a marriage for Alessandra, but the man they have chosen has closely guarded secrets and Alessandra's heart also belongs to someone else."(Booklist magazine) | |||||||||
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| Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling by Ross King Almost 500 years after Michelangelo Buonarroti frescoed the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Rome, the site still attracts throngs of visitors and is considered one of the artistic masterpieces of the world. Michelangelo and the Pope’s Ceiling unveils the story behind the art's making, a story rife with all the drama of a modern-day soap opera.(amazon.com) |  |
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