Between Salt Water and Holy Water A History of Southern Italy [Paperback]

Both the Romans and the Greeks were attracted to the dramatically beautiful coasts and fertile plains of the region later known as The Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. In fact, all myriad influences that shaped modern civilization in the Mediterranean come together in Southern Italy and Sicily. The world's first secular university was founded in Naples. Many of the elements of Italian culture as we now know it in the rest of the worldfrom comic opera to pizzawere born in the South. Art and music flourished there, as did progressive ideas about education, tolerance, and civic administration. Lucid, evocative and richly detailed. Jay Parini, author of