Showing titles in Italy

If you're traveling to Florence, Italy, you want to go home with a special souvenir: a leather bag, a gold bracelet, or a beautiful set of stationery. But selecting which wallet or jacket to buy can be an intimidating experience. How do you know if you're buying something authentic, made locally and in a traditional way? How do you determine if you've fallen prey to one of the city's many tourist traps?

From a political and military point of view, the Partisan Diary provides firsthand knowledge of how the partisans in Piedmont fought, what obstacles they encountered, and who joined the struggle against the Nazis and the Fascists. The mountainous terrain and long winters of the Alpine regions (the site of many of their battles) and the ever-present threat of reprisals by German occupiers and their fascist partners exacerbated problems of organization among the various partisan groups.

La caduta dell'Impero Romano è stato un processo lento e complicato, iniziato - ben prima del sacco di Roma - con l'avvicinarsi ai confini di quelle stesse tribù che avevano invaso la Cina, e proseguito attraverso gli anni di Costantino e Teodosio. Comincia così per l'Italia un lungo periodo oscuro: le città vengono abbandonate, eserciti barbari percorrono il Paese depredandolo, devastandolo e seminando terrore. Fino al fatidico Anno Mille si susseguono secoli di ferro e di sangue, di lutti e di invasioni. È il momento più difficile da raccontare nella storia italiana.

Surprisingly neglected in accounts of Allied wartime triumphs, in 1941 British and Commonwealth forces completed a stunning and important victory in East Africa against an overwhelmingly superior Italian opponent. A hastily formed British-led force, never larger than 70,000 strong, advanced along two fronts to defeat nearly 300,000 Italian and colonial troops.

Some 250 years after its first publication, Gibbon's Decline and Fall is still regarded as one of the greatest histories in Western literature. In Volume III (XXVII-XXXVI), Gibbon charts the fall of the Western empire. Starting with the reign of Emperor Gratian (d. 383) his survey moves to political and religious issues in the East and West before covering the increasing military power of the Barbarians.

Il Pieno Medioevo (detto anche 'classico' o 'centrale') è il periodo intermedio che collega l'Alto Medioevo e il Basso Medioevo e si estende nei secoli XI, XII e XIII. È un'epoca di rinnovamento, di ripresa economica e di espansione dei commerci, che nell'Alto Medioevo erano quasi del tutto assenti. Cambia completamente il volto dell'Italia e dell'Europa: nascono i comuni e le banche, si affermano le repubbliche marinare.

Prosegue e termina, con questo quarto volume, il nostro viaggio nella storia dell’omicidio attraverso le età contemporanea, rinascimentale, medioevale e antica. In particolare “Nero come l’Abisso” tratterà del crimine violento durante il periodo delle grandi civiltà: assiri, egizi, greci, romani. Un lungo viaggio dalle origini dell’uomo fino alla caduta dell’Impero Romano, nel 476 dopo Cristo: la chiamano tutti l’età antica, dove affondano le radici della nostra cultura, delle nostre usanze e delle nostre paure più ancestrali.

The Brandenburgers were Hitler's Special Forces, a band of mainly foreign German nationals who used disguise and fluency in other languages to complete daring missions into enemy territory. Overshadowed by stories of their Allied equivalents, their history has largely been ignored. First published in 1984, de Giampietro's highly-personal and eloquent memoir is a vivid account of his experiences. In astonishing detail, he delves into the reality of life in the unit from everyday concerns and politics to training and involvement in Brandenburg missions.

Venetian gondola-maker Luca Vianello considers his whole life arranged. His father charted a course for his eldest son from the day he was born, and Luca is positioned to inherit one of the city's most esteemed boatyards. But when Luca experiences an unexpected tragedy in the boatyard, he believes that his destiny lies elsewhere. Soon, he finds himself drawn to restore an antique gondola with the dream of taking a girl for a ride.

If you want to discover the captivating history of Italy and Rome, then this audiobook is for you. It includes two books: History of Italy and History of Rome. It covers topics ranging from the founding and early settlements to the modern history.

The word “mafia,” Sicilian in origin, is synonymous with Italy, but Italy is home to several different mafias, with three being particularly notorious. While the Cosa Nostra of western Sicily is the most infamous, other powerful groups include the ferocious ‘Ndrangheta of Calabria and the Camorra, the third-largest mafia, which is active in Naples and the Campania region.

The name Borgia is synonymous with the corruption, nepotism and greed that were rife in Renaissance Italy. Notorious for seizing power, wealth, land and titles through bribery, marriage and murder, the dynasty’s dramatic rise from its Spanish roots to its occupation of the highest position in Renaissance society forms a gripping tale. Erudite, witty and always insightful, Hibbert removes the layers of myth around the Borgia family and creates a portrait alive with a superb sense of character and place.

The year 1815 marked the beginning of a time of repression in Europe. Napoleon Bonaparte had been defeated at Waterloo and sent to the remote South Atlantic island of Saint Helena, the torrent of blood unleashed by the French Revolution had finally run dry, and the dispossessed princes were returning to their thrones. Bourbon King Louis XVIII returned to Paris, King Ferdinand VII was restored in Madrid, and the numerous petty princes of Germany and Italy took back power in their localities.

If you want to discover the captivating history of the Renaissance, then pay attention.

Galileo Galilei began his career as a mathematician. Yet as fate would have it, he became far more than a numbers whiz. Here was a true Renaissance man; one who was greatly educated and a genuine lover of the arts. He was a fan of poets and a fine lute player. When in 1609 Galileo created his first telescope and turned his attention to the skies, everything changed.

The Lombards originated in Scandinavia before migrating slowly through central Europe, and as the Western Roman Empire collapsed and the Byzantine successor state in Constantinople attempted to reestablish order, the Lombards took advantage of the chaos and planted themselves firmly on Italian soil.

Did you know that the Balkan Peninsula is often referred to as the “powder keg of Europe?” It was a term devised in the early 20th century to describe the unstable political situation in the region just before it exploded into a conflict known as the First World War. The Balkan Wars were a series of conflicts fought between the Balkan League (Bulgaria, Serbia, Greece, and Montenegro) and its allies and the Ottoman Empire. But, these wars didn’t involve any of the great European powers such as Germany, France, or the United Kingdom.

Using first-hand accounts from pilots and other aircrew, Tom Cleaver describes how the USAAF units that landed in Morocco were forced to learn their own lessons in combat with veteran Luftwaffe units, and how the experience gained in the skies over North Africa and Sicily was invaluable in developing the air forces that would dominate the skies over Europe in the latter years of the war.

In 1884, Otto von Bismarck, the German chancellor, brought the plenipotentiaries of all major powers of Europe together, to deal with Africa's colonization in such a manner as to avoid provocation of war. This event—known as the Berlin Conference of 1884-1885—galvanized a phenomenon that came to be known as the Scramble for Africa.

Le due date hanno segnato la caduta dell'impero romano d'Occidente e la scoperta dell'America, eventi tradizionalmente intesi come l'inizio e la fine del Medioevo. Un'era che già nel nome sconta una sorta di peccato originario: essere una cesura tra la gloria dell'Antichità e lo sfavillio speranzoso del Rinascimento. Non fu così. Questo saggio si concentra sulla penisola italiana, il fulcro di gran parte delle vicende di quel millennio. L'Italia fu infatti la culla del papato, e al contempo zona di conquiste e cadute di grandi condottieri e imperatori.