Italy for The Gourmet Traveller

Written by an American opera buff who went to Italy to study and hung on in there.
A great read – even if you’ve never been to Italy and don’t intend to go the book will get under your skin and might persuade you. Checked it out on three towns I know – Alba/Siena/Ravello and its pretty sound especially on the latter – not surprised as this man. 40-odd bonus recipes. Covers: restaurants, markets, food fairs, bookstores, gourmet shops, cafes, vineyards, farms, producers, cookery schools etc, rambling narrative by a guy who’s an even bigger glutton than me.
Where it doesn’t hang together is, if he doesn’t like a place he restricts it to two or three lines – he must really hate Sorrento it gets line and a half. Overall pretty good though.
Kyle Cathie, stg14 Buy it when it hits the street in early April. Mind you, it’s a bloody big heavy book – you wouldn’t want to be taking it backpacking – it weighed 3lbs plus on my kitchen scales!
RATED ****