Mission Florence by Catherine Aragon

Another winner from the family-owned and run company that makes these wonderfully engaging and entertaining spy-games for young tourists. The books are designed to accompany tourist visits, with hunts for art, architectural elements, clocks, etc. Points are warded by the “Case Officers” (the parents or guardian), to the “Future Special Agents” (the children).

Attention: Future Special Agents (you) and Case Officers (grownups)

This book is for Florence, Italy, and it covers the city's top eight sights. The text is clear and engaging, never speaking down to the children. It is accompanied by lots of images to help the “Special Agents” with tasks. The tasks are actually lots of fun, and the children get to select codes names, decode messages, track down bonus sightings on their own. Lots of information about history and art is shared along the way in bite-sized chunks.

I can't think of a better way to educate young tourists while keeping them happy and entertained during the sometimes tiring outings that make up a family vacation abroad. Jet-lag will be kept at bay with “Mission Florence”, and the “Case Officer” may even learn a few things too!

From the book's description:

Headed to Florence with kids? Want to ensure your young explorers get the most out of their incredible opportunity to experience this Tuscan treasure? Then you've come to the right place!

Mission Florence takes your young travelers through the famous sights of Florence, engaging them in an exciting scavenger hunt as you explore city landmarks together.

Say “arrivederci” to a trip filled with the stress of keeping everyone entertained. Instead, say “buon giorno!” to a memorable family vacation. Imagine - your kids will be excited to sightsee (yes, even at museums!) as you discover the wonders of Florence as a family.

Get Mission Florence today for your young jet-setters…and make sure it’s in their bag when they take off for Italy!

Mission Florence offers a fun vacation for everyone - with a captivating, spy-theme scavenger hunt packed with entertaining activities. When your kids set off on their “mission,” with the goal of earning enough points to become a “special agent,” they’ll gain points as:

-Art Sleuths: They’ll search for clues in the treasures of the Uffizi , Accademia, and Bargello.

-Culture Detectives: They’ll discover the fascinating stories behind landmarks like Santa Maria del Fiore and Piazza Signoria, and sample Italian treats like gelato and gourmet pizza.

-Monument Investigators: They’ll uncover clues on the façade of the Palazzo Vecchio, the square of the towering Duomo, and the details of the Ponte Vecchio…and many more engaging activities.

Experiencing this Renaissance wonder is an amazing opportunity for anyone, especially a young person. Make your kids’ trip one to remember. Get Mission Florence today for your young explorers…and be sure it’s in their suitcase when they set off for Italy!

Here is a direct link to the book at Amazon.com:

Their website offers more content, and a free e-book, so be sure to visit it!  I've reviewed their Mission Rome book too.

Return to Glow by Chandi Wyant

The subtitle of this book is A Pilgrimage of Transformation in Italy, and it falls in the genre “Women traveling to get over divorce/breakdown/depression/and or mid-life crisis”, within the sub-genre “Travel to Italy”. Actually, the book is less the purported memoirs of a walk along Italy's ancient pilgrimage route, the Via Francigena, and more an autobiography that includes the childhood, adolescence and adulthood of the author, and even background on the author's family.

The writing is educated and well-edited, with beautiful quotes from literature and poetry to illustrate many important points. At times the writing rises to the romantic lyricism of Marlena di Blasi in her famous A Thousand Days in Venice. At other times the subjects covered by the author seem less for romantics and more for fans of schadenfreude, or for armchair-analysts. Those latter parts were my least favorite. They always make me cringe and say a silent prayer that the author has at least changed the names of the people she exposes.

 Siena's Cathedral

As a pilgrim along part of the Catholic religious route of pilgrimage, the Via Francigena, we learn a lot from the author about the places she visits during her ill-conceived trip of healing, which leaves her physically worse off than at the start. Psychologically, she feels she has healed quite a bit through her ordeal, and the time it gave her to reflect critically on her life choices. We are given a front row seat to her ruminations and remembrances. Honestly, too many of them brought back bad memories of my own, so I can recommend the book only to those readers who won't suffer the same upsetting flashbacks.

So what exactly happened to set the author out to conquer her demons and rediscover her lust for life (her glow)? First, she did the very modern-day thing for worldly, well-educated women: she married down. It is such a common phenomenon these days that it is even a major plot element of the popular TV show “Modern Family”. The author belatedly realized her mistake and ended the ten year marriage. Second, she had a near-death experience coupled with a horrific, trauma-inducing stay in an Italian hospital that left her with lasting poor health. (If you have a hospital phobia, as I do, those parts of the book may be unreadable!)

 Cinqueterre, a detour for the author

Who comes off badly in the book? Airlines, doctors, the ex-husband, some friends and family, the hole-riddled U.S. social net, and the U.S. jobs market that can't provide secure, good-paying, full-time jobs with benefits for highly educated people. Italy comes off the best in the book. The sections set in Italy clearly show the author's love of the country, the Italian people and the culture. The author admits:

Learning Italian is the greatest gift I have given myself.

For Italophiles, there is much to enjoy in the book. You'll need to be a fan of this genre of book, Female Travel Therapy, however, to really enjoy the whole book. This is not a guide to the Via Francigena. This is an autobiography of an Italophile who endured the pilgrimage route, ill-prepared for its challenges, while attempting to jump-start her life.

 San Gimignano

From the book's description:

In her early forties, Chandi Wyant’s world implodes in the wake of a divorce and traumatic illness. Determined to embrace life by following her heart, she sets out on Italy’s historic pilgrimage route, the Via Francigena, to walk for forty days to Rome.

Weakened by her recent illness, she walks over the Apennines, through the valleys of Tuscany, and beside busy highways on her 425-kilometer trek equipped with a nineteen-pound pack, two journals, and three pens.

Return to Glow chronicles this journey that is both profoundly spiritual and ruggedly adventuresome. As Chandi traverses this ancient pilgrim’s route, she rediscovers awe in the splendor of the Italian countryside and finds sustenance and comfort from surprising sources. Drawing on her profession as a college history instructor, she gracefully weaves in relevant anecdotes, melding past and present in this odyssey toward her soul.

This delightful, transporting tale awakens the senses while inviting readers to discover their own inner glow by letting go of fixed expectations, choosing courage over comfort, and following their heart.

Here is a direct link to the book at Amazon.com:

Please visit the author's website where she offers great advice to those who wish to emigrate to Italy. 

Here's a short video to give you an idea of the route and travelers, made in English by a Dutch couple who start at the Via Francigena's beginning, in Canterbury, England.

Mission Rome Scavenger Hunt Adventure by Catherine Aragon

This very clever book of roughly 60 pages is a perfect gift to give a child traveling to Rome, Italy.  It will keep them happily occupied as they visit Rome's most famous sites, and they'll come home knowing a lot about what they've seen.  Accompanying adults are the "case officers" for the "intelligence operative" child.

The child earns points for locating things shown in the book (lots of photos) which are also explained succinctly.  I liked that the child did not compete against the other "intelligence operatives" but instead competed against him/herself, to qualify with enough points to get "hired" for the job after the "test" was over.

There are also Special Missions too, which are designed to encourage the child to try new foods, to learn to speak some Italian, and to understand the money and culture and history better.  All in all, I could see the teacher behind it all, and I heartily approve!

While it is sold as an e-book, I think the paperback is the best option, since the child is supposed to fill in information along the way, and it can make a nice souvenir later in life to recall their trip.

From the book's description:

Planning to travel to Rome with kids? Want to ensure your young explorers get the most out of their travel experience in the Eternal City ? Then, you've come to the right place! 

Mission Rome guides your young travelers through the famous sights of the Eternal City, engaging them in an exciting scavenger hunt as you explore Rome's landmarks together as a family.

Say "arrivederci" to a trip filled with the stress of keeping everyone entertained. Instead, say "buongiorno" to a memorable family vacation - and to your children excited to discover the wonders of Rome with you, with this book as their guide.

Imagine, not only will your kids want to sightsee; but together you'll uncover the intriguing histories of sights like the Pantheon, Roman Forum, Colosseum, St. Peter's Basilica, and many more.

Not your typical travel guide, Mission Rome ensures a fun vacation for everyone with a captivating, spy-theme scavenger hunt packed with fun activities and the fascinating stories behind the city's landmarks.

Mission Rome is a must-have book for kids visiting Rome, Italy!

Here is a direct link to the book at Amazon.com:

I suggest a visit to the publisher's website where they offer extras and after "mission" support, like a certificate for the child.  They also offer bulk discounts on orders of the paperback books. I've reviewed their Mission Florence book too.

This review is by Candida Martinelli, of Candida Martinelli's Italophile Site, the author of the crime-romance novel THE HAGUE, a traditional murder mystery novel AN EXTRA VIRGIN PRESSING MURDER, and the young-adult/adult mystery novel series THE VIOLET STRANGE MYSTERIES the first book of which is VIOLET'S PROBLEM.

Strolling Through Rome by Mario Erasmo

The subtitle of this book is The Definitive Walking Guide to the Eternal City.  The 15 walking tours are varied through era and location, and include:

• a small map and a things of interest,
• as well as the opening hours of the monuments and museums,
• bus and public transport information,
• ticket purchasing and lining up info, and
• other bits of practical information.

The book has tours for the day tripper, with a Rome in a Day Tour.

There is the obligatory Vatican Tour.

Then the Tombs and Catacomb Tour.

Ostia gets a tour of its own.

The eras have tours:  Renaissance, Byzantine, Ancient Rome.

And special locations have tours:  Capitoline Hill, certain Piazzas, Vias and hills.

To get an idea of what it is actually like walking in Rome, and what you can see in two days, here is a 6 minute video:  Walking Tour Guide for 48 Hours in Rome:

I've always struggled to get a grip on Rome because the city is so big.  Public transport can bring you around to the starting points for your tours, but the crush of humanity, smells, sights and traffic always leaves me exhausted, too exhausted to enjoy what I’m seeing.  Traveling in off-peak seasons can help.

The historical significance of what you will see in Rome is pretty much left for you the reader to discover someplace else, and over time, since Rome's history is about 3000 years old.  The author is an experience tour guide, and he knows his history, so the tours are complete and comprehensive.

A dream would be to have all the time to prepare for the 15 tours, and then all the time and stamina to do all 15 tours.  It just might make the bucket list of a few people.  I imagine the book would make a good accompaniment for repeated visits to the Eternal City, doing a few tours each time.

From the book's description:

Rome, the Eternal City - birthplace of western civilisation and soul of the ancient world - has a history that stretches back two thousand five hundred years. It is also one of the most-visited places in the world. But where does one begin to delve into two millennia of history, culture, art and architecture, whilst also navigating the vibrant modern city?

Mario Erasmo here guides the traveller through Rome’s many layers of history, exploring the streets, museums, piazze, ruins and parks of this ‘city of the soul’. Punctuated with anecdote, myth and legend, these unique walks often retrace the very steps taken by ancient Romans, early Christians, medieval pilgrims, Renaissance artists and aristocrats on the Grand Tour.

Including 15 Walking Tours with maps and guides to the well-known and the less familiar sites, here is a rich cultural history of Rome that brings its epic past alive, illuminating the extraordinary sights and fascinating secrets of one of Europe’s most beguiling cities.

Here is a direct link to the book at Amazon.com:

This review is by Candida Martinelli, of Candida Martinelli's Italophile Site, the author of the crime-romance novel THE HAGUE, a traditional murder mystery novel AN EXTRA VIRGIN PRESSING MURDER, and the young-adult/adult mystery novel series THE VIOLET STRANGE MYSTERIES the first book of which is VIOLET'S PROBLEM.

Rome The Biography of a City by Christopher Hibbert

This book attempts to cover 3000 years of history in 400 pages, so you can't blame this writer for suffering a sort-of history-whiplash.   Hundreds of years are compressed into a single page, over and over again.  Tidbits and trivia are sprinkled throughout to try to keep the reader's interest, and to differentiate the book from a Wikipedia entry on The History of Rome, Italy.  I'm not sure the trivia actually works.

The author works hard to focus his story on the city of Rome, but that is difficult since the city was once the capital of an empire, and is now the capital of a country, and it is the capital of a religious faith.  Take any name, date or event mentioned in this compressed history book, and you will find dozens of books in print about it.  The history of Rome and her citizens and invaders is so rich that this books sometimes feels more like an Index than a book.

The book boasts a detailed Notes and Index section.  In fact, the Notes section feels like a book in its own right.  Perhaps the book that the author should have written?  I don't know, but in the Preface the author states that the book is intended for those who may tour Rome.  The book hopes to offer some historical background to what visitors to modern Rome may see.  The Notes section points out just what bits and pieces are still to be seen, and includes some teasing information about them.

Sadly, modern Rome is like ancient and medieval Rome after they have been put through a blender and mashed with a potato masher and then buried in your back garden.  There is not much left where it originally stood, or in its original condition.  Tourists to Rome have to deal with traffic, pollution, filth and graffiti, lines and crowding, to see collections and buildings that are like jigsaw-puzzles made up of bits and pieces, or missing bits and pieces.

I cringed right at the beginning of this book when I read the author thank his wife solely for her Index-making skills.  Ouch.  Cold.  The male-of-a-certain age feeling remained throughout the reading of the book, especially when mentions of women resorting to prostitution in order to survive were treated as moments of amusement or curiosity. 

Wouldn't the readers find it so amusing to hear Samuel Johnson's Boswell's precise words about how he abused Roman women resulting in his infamous venereal disease?  No, this reader did not find it amusing, as I suspect no female readers found it amusing, and perhaps many men did not find it very nice either.  The diary quotes were not uninteresting per se, but they seemed too many and too much of another era to be entertaining.  Actually, some things about that other era provoked my envy:  Rome was open, inexpensive and often free for well-educated tourists.

The author has a fluid prose style and a command of his subject matter, although he his fond of historical gossip and probable invented innuendo.  He also has an academic's studied disdain for religion, which will annoy if not offend those of faith.  That was an odd thing to indulge when writing a book that would surely interest religious pilgrims to the home of Catholicism and the Christian faiths, and to the sites of so many religious martyrs, including two apostles of Jesus.  

The author keeps the 3000 years moving along at a quick pace.  We retrace Rome's long history of bloodshed and sadism, ruinous ambition, rampant misogyny, aristocratic destructive narcissism, invasion by thugs, looting by everyone and anyone.  It does become tiresome after a while.

The overall feeling from reading the book, for me, was this is too much history in too short a book.  3000 years in 400 pages; do the math and that is an average of 7.5 years per page.  That would be the history of Fascist Italy on one page.  You see what I mean?  Actually, the author allows a chapter to cover Royals and Fascists, but that means some pages cover hundreds of years of history.  All of post WWII Rome is summed up in the Epilogue.

The book chapters briefly cover:

• Romulus and Kings
• Roman Republic and Empire
• Christians
• Anarchy and the Fall of Rome
• Papal Rome, Charlemagne, Aristocrats
• Renaissance Excess
• Sack and Recovery
• Baroque and 1700s
• Napoleon
• Unification
• Royals and Fascists
• Today

From the book's description:

This beautifully written, informative study is a portrait, a history and a superb guide book, capturing fully the seductive beauty and the many layered past of the Eternal City.  It covers 3,000 years of history from the city's quasi-mythical origins, through the Etruscan kings, the opulent glory of classical Rome, the decadence and decay of the Middle Ages and the beauty and corruption of the Renaissance, to its time at the heart of Mussolini's fascist Italy.  Exploring the city's streets and buildings, peopled with popes, gladiators, emperors, noblemen and peasants, this volume details the turbulent and dramatic history of Rome in all its depravity and grandeur.

Here is a direct link to the book at Amazon.com:

The author has several books in print about Italy.  Here are links his other books at Amazon.com:

This review is by Candida Martinelli, of Candida Martinelli's Italophile Site, and the author of the cozy-murder-mystery novel AN EXTRA VIRGIN PRESSING MURDER, and the young-adult/adult mystery novel series THE VIOLET STRANGE MYSTERIES the first book of which is VIOLET'S PROBLEM.

101 Places in Italy, A Private Grand Tour by Francis Russell

This very personal guide to Italy is ordered by region, from north to south and west to east.  It harks back to the days of the Grand Tour, when wealthy families would tour Europe's top sights, learn as much as possible about the art, history, architecture and languages as possible, buy some paintings and souvenirs to remind them of the once-in-a-lifetime trip, and then head home, edified and ready to settle down in Britain, Canada, Australia, the U.S.A., ....

The author's voice is conversational and engaging.  He has a perspective that many tourists lack today:  he began traveling through Italy before the age of mass-tourism, when it was still possible to find a cicero, a private Italian guide at a place of interest.  The reminiscences about a time when Italy's treasures were easily accessible and her streets were passable seems like from another century rather than from just a few decades ago.  Such is the newness of the mass migration to enjoy Italy's riches that occurs each year.

Florence's Piazza Santa Trinita during the classical Grand Tour.  Note the space to walk without crashing into cars, scooters or people?  Ah, those were the days. 

The sights selected are personally meaningful to the author, and rigorously selected to give the most pleasure to the most people.  They favor art, churches, buildings, small towns, monasteries, Roman Ruins, and Medieval towns.  The region sections are fronted by simple maps of the region, marked by the general locations of the sights described.  The text is accompanied by many images.  All of Italy's history is covered, from tribal era, to Roman era, to the many conquerors.

The author provides tips on access to the sights, the history, the main attractions, some walking routes, and some quick descriptions of the art.  For art lovers, other sources need to be consulted to provide further details about the many, many pieces of art to be seen at the many churches and museums.  The book seems aimed at people planning a driving-tour of Italy, and is directed at British tourists in particular.

Verona has long haunted the English imagination.

Classical Grand Tour amateur artists studying perspective in the Roman Forum without police, guards, tour groups, or barriers.

Many of the author's descriptions convey his deep love for Italy.

La Verna remains a place of rare beauty, not least in September when the woods are carpeted with pale cyclamen.  It has, too, an unexpected magic when mist shrouds the unpretending buildings.

The author does not shy away from pointing out that modern Italians too often lack appreciation for the beauty that their ancestors reveled in.  Democratization has led to much ugly-fication of Italy.

Like so many ancient cities, Perugia has long outgrown her early walls, and much of the new town is remorselessly ugly.

But even since I first knew it in 1966, the valley below Assisi has been horribly scared by unsightly development.

 

A Grand Tour view of Rome from the Tibur River.

Many of the sights described in the book are virtually impossible to reach during the tourist high season.  The author admits as much, and recommends travel to Italy from November through February, to avoid the crush.  From personal experience, even traveling in winter is not going to overcome the impossibly congested Italian roads in the cities, both large and small.  We gave up on Bergamo, for example, after spending an hour and an half stuck in a traffic jam in the city's periphery in the middle of the day in mid-winter!

The author, however, often paints a nicer picture of Italy than is the reality today.  There is little mention of the traffic, graffiti, pollution, inconveniences of service and opening times, and rudeness of many Italians to tourists.  The author assumes you will put up with it all to view Italy's amazingly vast treasures.  Having been to Italy many times, I actually found the book a wonderful replacement for all the inconveniences and grime and insults.  This is a great book for the armchair traveler!  It even includes a Glossary with Italian, historical, and art terms, and there is a full index.

A Dutch family planning their Grand Tour.

From the book's description:

This personal, and wonderfully well-informed, selection of the most rewarding towns, cities, villages, and individual monuments in Italy is the definitive guidebook for the discerning traveler. The author has been visiting Italy, for study, for work, and for pleasure, for over fifty years, and is the perfect companion for those who want to know about more than the obvious attractions.

As well as comprehensively covering the finest sights in the major tourist centers of Rome, Florence, Venice, and elsewhere, Francis Russell discusses and describes the neglected, or little-known, masterpieces that are still to be found the length and breadth of the Italian peninsula. In a book that will educate and astonish the expert as surely as it will guide and inform the first-time visitor, the author chooses and explores palaces and gardens, city squares and lonely churches, frescoes and altarpieces, great museums and tiny ruins that together provide a richly textured portrait of a country where the history and patterns of civilization lie more thickly than anywhere else on earth.

This book will immeasurably enhance and enrich the visitor's experience of the most visited country in the world, by virtue of its sensitivity, its wisdom, and its deep knowledge, and by means of its vivid, eloquent, and entertaining exposition.Francis Russell was educated at Oxford. He is deputy chairman of Christies and specializes in Old Master and Italian paintings.

The Grand Tour era views of the Colosseum and the Triumphal Arch were very different from today's views!  Animals still grazed in the grass covered Forum.

101 Places in Italy is published by Wilmington Square Press, an imprint of Bitter Lemon Press.

Wilmington Square Press:  A non-fiction list dedicated to writing about culture and society. It includes works on the visual and plastic arts, literature, history, philosophy and travel, by such authors as Francis Russell, Ian Hamilton Finlay and Raymond Tallis.

Books chosen for their originality, their quality and their contribution to knowledge and to debate.

Direct Link to 101 Places in Italy at the Publisher's website

Here are direct links to the book at Amazon.com, as paperback and e-book:

When the original still stood in place in Rome.

This review is by Candida Martinelli, of Candida Martinelli's Italophile Site, and the author of the cozy-murder-mystery novel AN EXTRA VIRGIN PRESSING MURDER, and the young-adult/adult mystery novel series THE VIOLET STRANGE MYSTERIES the first book of which is VIOLET'S PROBLEM.

All Roads Lead to Rome by Charles River Editors

All Roads Lead to Rome:  The History of the Appian Way is an e-book that offers roughly forty-five pages of interesting Ancient Roman history, accompanied by illustrations.

Appius Claudius Caecus initiated the work on the Appian Way in 312 B.C., the road that connected the city of Rome to the port city of Brindisi on the heel of the "boot" of Italy, facing Greece.  Part of the road led to Taranto, another major port city on the "instep" of the "boot" of Italy.  Before reaching those two ports, the Appian Way cut through the farmland that supplied the city of Rome with much of their wine and fresh produce.

 

 

The road made sense back in 312 B.C., just as roads to assist commerce make sense today.  The Appian Way was also used to move armies and supplies into the area south of Rome, where, initially, there were tribes who waged war on Rome.  After the area was conquered, some enemies of Rome used The Appian Way to quickly move their attacking armies from one Roman town to another, leaving plundered, burning towns, and bloody bodies in their wake.

This slight book is an interesting read.  It joins together events and information from diverse time periods to create a "biography" of a feat of civil engineering.  There is a quick history of road systems up to the Roman time (Egyptian and Persian), then we learn of The Appian Way's construction, use, misuse, and its life after the fall of the Roman Empire.

The stones one sees on the old Appian Way are only a lower level of the road, the waterproof cement having all deteriorated after 2000 years.

I have reservations, however, about All Roads Lead to Rome:

• At times I was frustrated when the book touched on something unique and fascinating, but did not elaborate, such as the "portable villas" some wealthy travelers had built by their retinues for overnight stays along The Via Appia.
• There is some awkward English in the book, such as "...you will learn about the Appian Way like never before, in no time at all." 
• There are errors, such as "the Roman history Livy" instead of the correct "the Roman historian Livy"; and a speech that "spurned" people, rather than correctly "spurred" them on a course of action; and the Via Appia goes from Rome to Brindisi, not to Hydruntum. 
• The source references embedded in the text are distracting, and would have been better left out, or footnoted like other books, with the footnotes hyperlinked to the references at the back of the e-book.

 

 

I did enjoy the quotes from ancient Roman and Greek texts.  They are a wonderful addition to the book.  There is no doubt of the scholarship that backs up the text; the editors have clearly searched public sources for all they could legally borrow to create this brief book, including the open-source images that illustrate the text.  If you are not keen on Internet-surfing, then this book could be for you.

From the book's description:

All Roads Lead to Rome:  The History of the Appian Way chronicles the construction and history of Rome’s most important road.

Includes pictures.
Includes ancient accounts of the Appian Way's history and construction.
Explains the Appian Way's role during the Second Punic War and Spartacus' rebellion.
Includes a bibliography for further reading.
Includes a table of contents.

 

 

 

The graves and tombstones and mausoleums along the Via Appia are not mentioned in the book.

All Roads Lead to Rome is a book from Charles River Editors.

Charles River Editors is a digital publishing company that creates compelling, educational content.  In addition to publishing original titles, we help clients create traditional and media-enhanced books.

Here is a direct link to All Road Lead to Rome at Amazon.com:

Wikipedia, the on-line, user-built encyclopedia, has a wonderful page on The Appian Way, which includes many of the same images as in this book, and much the same information.  If you click on the hyper-linked items in the Wikipedia article, you go to other articles that offer more in-depth information.  If you use the links at the bottom of the article, you can learn even more about The Appian Way, for free.

Direct link to the Wikipedia page on The Appian Way

Here is a wonderful six minute video travel guide on The Via Appia:

This review is by Candida Martinelli, of Candida Martinelli's Italophile Site, and the author of the cozy-murder-mystery novel AN EXTRA VIRGIN PRESSING MURDER, and the young-adult/adult mystery novel series THE VIOLET STRANGE MYSTERIES the first book of which is VIOLET'S PROBLEM.

Glittering Promises by Lisa T. Bergren

Glittering Promises is the third book in the author's Grand Tour Series, set in the Europe in 1913.  The young woman who is the protagonist of the series, Cora Kensington, is on the final leg of her tour through Europe.  The first two books in The Grand Tour Series recount Cora's adventures and changing fortunes from Montana to France, Britain, Austria and Venice.  This third book, Glittering Promises, is set all in Italy, which is why I requested a review-copy.

The story begins in Venice, where the action picks up right where the previous book let off.  We are brought quickly up to speed with the situation and the characters.  There are many characters, so I would have appreciated a Cast of Characters list at the beginning of the book.  It is 1913, which I know because I researched the series and found the date in the first book.

 

 

Not having read the first two books, I was confused at the reference to Cora's parents, and then to her father, who is not included in the "parents", so I would suggest that you read the other books in the series first, and in sequence, or at least read the synopses for the other two books.

The Grand Tour Series consists of three books:

1. Glamorous Illusions:  Montana 1913, When Cora Kensington learns she is the illegitimate daughter of a copper king, her life changes forever.  Even as she explores Europe with her new family, she discovers that the most valuable journey is within.  The first book in the Grand Tour series takes you from the farms of Montana through England and France on an adventure of forgiveness, spiritual awakening, and self-discovery.
2. Grave Consequences:  For Cora Kensington, the journey of a lifetime takes unexpected twists.  And her future—her very life—depends on the decisions she’ll make at each crossroad.  As her European tour with her new-found family takes her through Austria, France, and Italy, an unseen enemy trails close behind.  Meanwhile, a forbidden love continues to claim her heart, putting everyone’s plans in danger.
3. Glittering Promises:  Cora Kensington journeys farther into Italy, wrestles with a terrible ultimatum from her father, and comes to terms with the Father who will never fail her.  America’s newest heiress must decide if her potential fortune is rationale enough to give up her freedom and all that God is leading her toward.  Meanwhile, a charming Italian countess decides that if Cora isn’t going to claim Will’s heart, she might just try.

Cora, it seems, is being threatened from all sides:  kidnapping because she is newly wealthy, courted because she is beautiful and wealthy, hounded by the press because her new-found fortune is fascinating, and manipulated by her domineering father because she is his daughter, not to mention envied by some people very close to her.

Here are Cora's thoughts at the beginning of the book:

I let out a soft scoffing laugh.  My sole inheritance--my claim on a portion of the Dunnigan mine--was in dispute.  Father wished to hold it out before me like a carrot before a horse, forcing me to go in the direction he wished.  I had secured an attorney and discovered I might have a chance at fighting for a portion, whether my father approved of my decisions--continuing the tour, allowing Will rather than Pierre to court me--or not.

Cora is not dealing well with her new wealth and new attractiveness to men.  She is having something of an existential crisis.  She is also afraid that she cannot return to her old life even if circumstances change and she has to.  Luxury can be addictive.  The Grand Tour is more than an education; it is a also a test.  Cora's love interest, Will, notes:

"Nothing like the tour to show people how poorly they fit together."

The point of view varies from Cora's first person account, to a third person limited narrative without Cora present.  We learn that Cora is a devout believer in God's influence in her life.  She strives for honor and loyalty and love and justice.  It is definitely a struggle to attain those high goals, because many of the people around Cora honor more basic values such as financial gain at any cost. 

The Grand Tour Series books are marketed as Adult Fiction, but I think the writing level and the storyline of books are best suited for young girls aged 12+.  There are some awkward phrasings, and some odd paragraphs and some fragmentary sentences, as is the unfortunate trend in books today, but the book is well-crafted and well-edited.  Just so you know, there are frequent mental soliloquies to God.

I would have enjoyed a more complex plot in Glittering Promises to tie the scenes together.  The author leads the reader on a Grand Tour of Italy, along with Cora and her friends and relations.  The reader gets a taste of Italy's treasures of churches, museums, quaint historic towns, villas, villa gardens, Roman ruins, but without a strong plot, at times the book feels more like a travel guide than a novel.  I suspect young girls 12+ would enjoy the book all the same because of Cora and Will's on-and-off again courtship in the beautiful Italian setting.

Here is the book trailer for the first book in The Grand Tour Series:

Glittering Promises is published by David C. Cook, a non-profit Christian ministry.  They have created three beautiful books for The Grand Tour Series, with very attractive book jackets.

Direct link to The Grand Tour Series at DC

Here are direct links to the all three books in The Grand Tour Series at Amazon.com, where they are available as e-books, audio books and paperbacks:

The author has published many book series.  Here are six series that are at Amazon.com:

Visit the author's website and Facebook page. 

This review is by Candida Martinelli, of Candida Martinelli's Italophile Site, and the author of the cozy-murder-mystery novel AN EXTRA VIRGIN PRESSING MURDER, and the young-adult/adult mystery novel series THE VIOLET STRANGE MYSTERIES the first book of which is VIOLET'S PROBLEM.