Italian Ways On and Off the Rails from Milan to Palermo [Paperback]

Tim Parkss books on Italy have been hailed as so vivid, so packed with delectable details, [they] serve as a more than decent substitute for the real thing (This mix of piercing social observation and undying affection for Italy is classic Parks.[A] treat equivalent to a ride on the Orient Express&Fascinating [and] droll&. Parks [is] perhaps the most faithful foreign inamorato Italy has ever had.Parks really shines. He gives us a country that is as frustratingas it is endlessly fascinating.[Parks is] a perfect guidean outsider, but one with a deep familiarity and respect (plus a dash of exasperated skepticism)to the countrys celebrated eccentricities. Parks has a charming voice and a novelists eye.Incisive [and] hilarious.Relaxed, humorous, meandering [and] charming.A movable feast to say the least.Presents a picture of Italy you wont get from any tourist board& sympathetic and lively.Tim Parks has reinvented the narrative of the train journey with an epic voyage into the essence of Italy itself. With a novelists keen eye he mines absurdity and deep meaning from small, overlooked moments and gestures.This is the best book Ive ever read about Italy. Never have I encountered a more insightful and hilarious insider/outsider portrait of the country at the center of Western civilization. Tim Parks should be given a villa in Rome and the title of English ambassador.Engrossing, entertaining, and wonderfully revealing about the country and its people. It makes perfect armchair travelling  a delight from beginning to end.Delightful [and] hilarious&. Combining wonderfully evocative prose with a wry analysis, Parks provides local color while continually seeking hidden social meaning&. The result is a fascinating portrait of a society that seems rooted in place no matter how fast it goes.So inviting you might find yourself tempted to give the experience a whirl and ride the Italian trains yourself, book in hand.Liesl Schillinger,