There are certain surface parallels between author Dominic Smith and his main character, Hugh. Like Smith, Hugh is an academic, enchanted by the crumbling Italian towns and has traveled to Valetto as part of a research effort. But Hugh has not picked just any Italian town; he comes from a long line of local inhabitants and plans to work on his academic research from the small, Medieval cottage in Valetto that his mom left to him as his inheritance.
Read MoreBookseller of Florence: The Story of the Manuscripts That Illuminated the Renaissance is a story about the preservation and attainment of knowledge, seeking modern meaning through ancient philosophy, and the craft of book-making, all told through the story of Florence's Vespasiano da Bisticci (1421-1498).
Read MoreSPQR: A History of Ancient Rome is one of three books we picked up to provide an overview of Roman history in advance of our week-long trip to the city. As I write this, we should have just returned home from that trip; alas, we had to postpone it to an unknown future date as a result of the current pandemic.
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