Tino and the Pomodori by Tonya Russo Hamilton and Britta Nicholson

Intelligently thought out, Tino and the Pomodori (Tomatoes), a children's book, begins with six illustrations depicting how a tomato seed becomes a seedling, then a plant, then a flowering plant, then the plant growing the tomatoes, and lastly, a crate of harvested tomatoes.  The child gets an overview of what he is about to learn, showing that the author and illustrator are experienced educators!

The sun woke Tino early this beautiful morning in his small Italian village.

The first line of the book introduces Tino, a young boy who lives in Italy.  I like that Italy's most famous produce is linked in a child's mind to the country.  Tomatoes come originally from Latin America, but no other country has made tomatoes their national produce the way Italy has, using it to make the famous pasta sauce and so much more.

Tino, from a watercolor illustration for the book by Britta Nicholson

The era depicted in Italy seems from a generation ago, or perhaps from today in some areas of southern Italy.  We learn in a Note To Reader at the end of the book that the story of Tino is true, and is about the childhood of a grown man (the author's father).  The Note is accompanied by a lovely map featuring the sort of landmarks a child would note.

Italian phrases and words are integrated into the book's text, presenting a child with the concept of another country having another language.  The language is easy to understand, with translations incorporated into the text.  This book is ideal for starting a child off learning Italian, or for continuing a child's study of Italian as a second language.  A Glossary of Italian Terms used in the book is provided at the back of the book.

Detail of one of Britta Nicholson's watercolor illustrations for the book

The full-page watercolor illustrations, by illustrator Britta Nicholson, are rich with authentic details characteristic of the Italian countryside, and of the basic houses and their contents.  The plants mentioned are correctly depicted, and correct for each time of year.  The art style is naïve, simple and clear, colorful and endearing.

Children can be prompted to spot different details in the illustrations, with each subsequent reading of the story:  the views from the open windows and doors, the cured meats drying overhead, basic cooking ingredients like flour (farina) and olive oil (olio d'oliva), the time on a clock.

Even the pages with the book's text are illustrated with growing tomato plants (this is a detail)

The text, together with the illustrations in Tino and the Pomodori, which I received as a review-copy, teaches children about the full growth cycle and the necessary care of tomato plants.  There is even a description of how the seeds are harvested from the tomatoes for the following year.  Today's urban children are too often disconnected from the sources of their food.  Tino and the Pomodori goes a long way to correcting that lack of education. 

The text and illustrations in Tino and the Pomodori complement each other perfectly.  The basic, practical Italian words are effortlessly integrated into the story.  Tino and the Pomodori is the perfect book to broaden a child's education, and to start a child off on learning the Italian language.  It is 56 pages long, and available in hardback, to better withstand the multiple readings.

From the book's description:

Tino and the Pomodori explores, through the eyes of a child, the magic that is the life cycle of a tomato plant.

Tino takes the reader on a journey starting in the piazza of his small village in Italy, to his farm where he learns to work the land. He explains how the tomato starts as a seed drying in the sun and grows to be, la bella frutta - the beautiful fruit, that would eventually make the family’s sauce and bruschetta to go with Nonna’s thick, hard-crusted bread.

Visually engaging with vibrant watercolor illustrations, Tino and the Pomodori celebrates simplicity and the beauty of growing, harvesting, and preparing one's own food.

Tino and the Pomodori is published by  Gemelli Press LLC.

Gemelli Press is a boutique publisher based in Seattle, Washington and Calabria, Italy, combining twin passions for books and Italy.

Just like an Italian nonna choosing the perfect pomodoro, we too hand select our authors so that we can produce high quality books that touch and inspire our readers.

Our unique collection of Italian-inspired publications includes fiction, memoirs, travelogues, and other nonfiction focused primarily on food, wine, and Italian life and culture. At this time, we are not interested in publishing books entirely in the Italian language or English translations of Italian books.

 

Direct link to the Tino and the Pomodori page at GP

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

Please visit the author's website: Tonya Russo Hamilton's website

Here is a two-minute video tour of an Italian tomato garden, giving a bit of history and culture.

Here, in very clear and simple Italian, is an Italian cook showing how Italian tomato sauce is made.

And here is an instructional video on how to make the appetizer Bruschetta, like the ones in the book.  It is in Italian, but you don't need to understand the language to understand how to make Bruschetta, because all the steps are demonstrated.

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.

Not in a Tuscan Villa by John and Nancy Petralia

The text that appears on the cover of this book is:  Not in a Tuscan Villa:  During a year in Italy, a new jersey couple discover the true Dolce Vita when they trade rose-colored glasses for 3Ds.  Quite a mouthful, but actually quite accurate!  This couple, who co-author the book in alternating chapters, really do open their eyes to the real, in-depth Italy, by embracing all the experiences they possibly can in their year of living in Italy.  They readily admit:

Living in another culture, not just visiting it, has reshaped our view of the world.

I enjoyed this book more after all the mechanics of moving to Italy were out of the way.  The "5-Ps" is what I call the mechanics:  preparation, packing, plane, papers, phones (which includes internet access).  These things are tedious for the authors, holding up their enjoyment of Italy.  They can be tedious for a reader, too!  I understand that they wished to convey to others, who might want to make the same journey, what was entailed, but I'm not one of those people, so I found myself reading faster and faster to get past that part.

Sticking with the book was well worth it!  When the authors finally settle in Parma, the writing is more about their growing social circle, their tours around Italy, and the stories of connecting with the ancestors and the living relations of the husband, who is a first-generation Italian-American, or more precisely, Sicilian-American.  The account of their trip to his namesake town in Sicily, Petralia, is especially lovely.  As is the admission:

Our other life exists on a distant planet.  Strangely, I don't miss it.  Italy's dolce vita, sweet life, bewitches me like dark, savory chocolate.

The couple was based for much of their stay in Parma, Italy.  Here is a lovely 2 minute video postcard of Parma to give you an idea of the city.

 

Intelligently, the couple study Italian before moving there for their year-long adventure.  In Italy, they aim to become fluent in the beautiful Italian language, and they plan to travel the country from the Alps to Sicily.  Retired, and able to finance their trip by renting out their U.S. home, these adventurers take the leap with their eyes wide open.  They are well-informed about Italy, the language, the culture, the food, the art, the history, and they strive to become even better informed during their stay in Italy.  They are the ideal Italophiles!

And they are amazingly open-minded, so open-minded that they come to reverse their thinking on two of the most emotive subjects in the U.S. today:  President Obama, and a national healthcare system!  The husband touches on this in his introductory chapter, which immediately caused alarm bells to ring in my brain, along with the words:  Don't say that now!  Half your audience just put the book down!

Changing one's opinions, especially those held emotionally as well as intellectually, is not an easy thing for people to consider doing.  For many people, these sorts of views become part of who they see themselves as being.  To threaten that is something one should do at their own risk.  These authors are not afraid of the risk.  They proceed over the course of the rest of the book to describe their encounters with Italians and with aspects of Italian society that made them question their firmly held views.

I wonder if their account will alter anyone else's views?  Or, perhaps, the mistrust of Americans who have lived outside the U.S., except for soldiers, that I have felt firsthand, makes some readers too wary of what they are reading to really appreciate the 20/20 perception that came to this couple, not from hindsight, but from a distance, from across an ocean, from within a kinder, gentler, more generous system of governance.   

Their 3D vision is not just focused on Italy, but it turns toward the U.S. and to the history of Italian-Americans, and to America's historical relationship with Italy.  I found those chapters of the book to be some of the most interesting chapters, together with the sections that conveyed the husband's experience growing up as a hyphenated Italian.

But, for me, the most fascinating chapter in the book was the one about the investigations and trials that dragged on in an attempt to bring the killer/killers of the young, English student of the Italian language, Meredith Kercher, to justice.  They share the greater details from the investigations that appeared in the Italian media than appeared abroad. 

And the no-nonsense, common sense, clear-eyed view of the murder suspects and their behavior is refreshing, especially when one considers the hype that accompanies the reporting in many countries, and the focus on the physically beautiful suspects, to the point of obliterating any mention of the innocent victim, someone's loving child, who died a pointless death.

Their return to the U.S. is as jolting as their arrival a year earlier in Italy.  The authors admit:

We've grown accustomed to living smaller and more simply.

Another problem is:

I miss the daily foray into some new aspect of foreign life.  The sense of newness that every day brought.  ....  I miss the sense of community that doesn't exist here [the Jersey Shore].

To find out how they deal with those feelings, and how they dealt with the barrage of new sensations, thoughts, experiences, art, cities, food... you can read this curious, intelligent couple's book Not in a Tuscan Villa.

Here are links to the e-book and paperback editions of Not in a Tuscan Villa at Amazon.com:

You can find a wider selection of e-book formats from the on-line Smashwords site:  epub, pdf, doc, mobi-Kindle...  If you are located outside the U.S., I recommend you purchase you Kindle book via Smashwords to avoid the foreign surcharge Amazon.com tacks on e-books sold to customers outside the U.S.

Direct link to Not in a Tuscan Villa e-books page

Visit the authors' website for lots of information, including a reading group discussion guide.


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.

A Footpath in Umbria by Nancy Yuktonis Solak

The book's full title is A Footpath in Umbria:  Learning, Loving and Laughing in Italy.  Memoirs about spending time in Italy are so bountiful that there are now sub-genres within the genre:  hyphenated Italians connecting with their ancestors' heritage, retirees embarking on a new life in a new country, immigrants attempting to set up a business in Italy, students trying to learn the beautiful Italian language, cooks trying to become Italian cuocos-chefs, and Italy as therapy.

That last sub-genre, Italy as therapy, is where I place the divorcees hoping to find peace-of-mind and new love in Italy.  It is also where this memoirs belongs, because the U.S. American author, who suffers from anxiety and a high-strung nature, finds solace in Italy's slower pace of life; Italy's more humane social interactions; Italy's wild nature, low-technology society, relaxed mindset, lovely sounding language, and the ease of making friends in Italy's sociable and accepting society.

The author admits this, when she first visits Italy:

Totally contrary to my genetic makeup, contrary to my usual behavior and preferences, contrary to all logic, I fell madly in love with Italy, its people and its chaos.

Her genetic makeup, as described by the author herself, is Type A, list-obsessed, sarcastic, hyper-competitive, order-seeking, routine seeking, anxious, very self-judgmental, socially restrictive, with depressive tendencies.  Although she does not name this trait, it seems to jump out from the book's text:  a tendency to miss social clues from other people, such as facial clues and body language, clues to other people's feelings and emotional states.

Most likely as a result of that trait, the book keeps us locked into the mind of the author, letting us see the world as she does, as something of a mystery, especially as to why people say and do what they do.  Suddenly, her need for routine and order makes sense, it is a way of managing the frighteningly chaotic world around her.  When the couple arrive in Italy, the author finds herself in a situation where the strange culture makes it normal for her to feel confused.  And strangers are aware that things must be confusing, so they go out of their way to help the couple manage life in Italy, welcoming them into social situations, and forgiving their, at times, awkward social behavior.  So the author's usual social anxiety is no longer a barrier to enjoying life.  She enjoys these new situations, situations that would normally cause her anxiety.

The author has a touching insight at one point, when contemplating why she loves books so much, a love that certainly lead her to become a librarian:

If only I could be as focused in my daily life as I am when my nose is in a book, I suspect I would not need as much time for reading and would spend more time living.

By "focused" is suspect she means "as aware of other people's inner states".  In a novel, the author tells us the character's inner state, bringing the character to life.  In real life, we have to discern other people's inner states in order to feel they are alive to us.  Italians are highly expressive people, verbally and physically, not afraid of showing exaggerated emotions in public, so I imagine discerning their inner states of Italians is not as difficult for the author as it might be at home in the U.S., in a community that shuns emotionality and verbosity.

She actually comments positively in the book on how verbal Italians are, and on their physical expression of their feelings.  This physically may have had an effect on her husband, because at one point in the book, the author comments that she is becoming better able to discern her husband's irritation by the increased tension in his body.  Being able to discern this, she comes to understand when his patience is tried to the limit, something she was unable to do in the past.

True to the author's need for order, the book, which I received as a review-copy, does not follow the usual chronological order of memoirs, but is instead grouped by subject matter.  So, intentionally or not, the book can be seen as a guide for the visitor to the various tasks necessary for daily life in Italy:  grocery shopping, general shopping, learning the language, looking for housing, telephoning home, posting letters and packages, getting around, making new friends,  getting your hair styled, using the internet, finding doctors and dentists, surviving in a hospital.

As her stay with her husband in Italy progresses, the author's anxieties soften to the point that she can embrace improvised activities and spontaneous social interactions.  She admits at that point:

This is how retirement is.  You run into something interesting and suddenly the plans you made that morning vaporize and you don't care one whit if they change completely.

Sadly, she relates that when she returns home, she reverts to her old habits.  While she may have changed in response to Italy's more relaxed, accepting, highly social, and much kinder culture, the culture of home has not changed.  It quickly has the old effect on her, making her high-strung nature return.  Italy is therapeutic for the author, but it is a therapy that must be taken continually to be effective.  Not a bad reason to move to Italy! 

The style of writing reminds me of a letter home to a dear friend, letting them know about the daily struggles of the writer's new adventure.  The book is scrupulously edited, with not a typo in sight!  There are fifty photographs that compliment the text perfectly.  This is an interesting read, about an unusual woman, written from her own unique perspective.  I suspect that what the author found most wonderful about Italy is really what so many others find wonderful, but they convince themselves that what they love most is the food, wine, and art.  Food, wine, and art do not give the same emotional jolt that a human connection does.  I believe it is Italy's moments of human connection that draw people back there, just as they draw this author back to Italy.

From the book's description:

Being a homebody, Nancy never would've spent a year in Italy had it not been for her husband's wanderlust. The couple didn't go there to buy or restore a house or to heal a trauma from the past. As ordinary boomers, they simply wanted to experience "The Dream" - to live in Italy.

They settled down in traditional Umbria, just east of Tuscany. Constrained by a strict budget, their experience took on challenges as diverse as getting accustomed to the vagaries of Italian appliances to gathering their own wood. Transportation was by train, bus, bicycle or footpath.

What neither of them knew when they began was how the adventure would challenge their habits, upbringing, and outlook on life. Most surprising of all was how the experience would challenge their relationship to each other.

A Footpath in Umbria is a celebration of the joys and revelations to be found by changing venues, whether it's living in another country or simply venturing cross town.

This book reminded me of another book that was adapted to film:  My House in Umbria.  The story is about a group of people who suffer a trauma in Italy, especially a young girl, and they all find solace in Italy's cultural "therapy".  Here is the trailer for the film:

A Footpath in Umbria is available as a Kindle e-book and as a paperback edition.  Here are links to the books at Amazon.com.

Visit the author's wonderful website and travel blog.

Here is a beautiful and therapeutic two-minute postcard video of Umbria:

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.

Gastronomy of Italy by Anna del Conte

Gastronomy of Italy was first published in 1987.  The e-book review-copy I've read, and which I review here, is the e-book edition of the recently released revised version of the book.  This is a book to be read and savored by Italophile foodies.  Ingredients, cooking techniques, regional variations, popular dishes and pastries, recipes for classic dishes, cooking writers, regional specialties of bread and cheese:  the book is exhaustive with information.

The information on Italian cuisine, Italy's regions, and the 200 recipes in this comprehensive book are presented in an A-to-Z dictionary format, with all the defined words in Italian, and sorted by the Italian name.  The e-book edition's Search-feature allows you to easily move through the text to quickly find what interests you the most, and to electronically bookmark the recipes and food preparation techniques that you use most often.  You can also adjust the text size for ease of reading.  There are some beautiful photographs, too.

The author sets out as her goal in the Introduction:  "to give a clear picture of the whole scene of Italian gastronomy".  She proceeds, in the Introduction, to present a concise history of Italian cuisine, from the basics of the Greeks and Etruscans, to the in-depth studies of the Ancient Romans, from the introduction of new ingredients and techniques and flavors by the Arabs, onward to the refining done in the Late Middle Ages and the Renaissance, including the incorporation of ingredients newly arrived from The New World.  She concludes with the unification of Italy, a momentous event that unified a people and a land, but not a cuisine. 

The variety of Italian cooking is one of its great appeals to the foreign palette.  Where many national cuisines are homogenous in ingredients, methods and flavors, Italian cuisine is most definitely not!  Regional differences abound.  The author describes these differences in her book.  The dictionary entries on the regions are wonderful summaries, touching on the area's culinary strong points.  And many of the ingredient entries explain the history of the item.

A pronunciation guide would have been a nice addition, to accompany each of the Italian words in the book, but I suspect those who already speak some Italian will have the most interest in this book.  It reads like a vocabulary list for student chefs specializing in Italian cooking.  Learning the vocabulary of Italian cuisine is helpful for food lovers when traveling the country.  More photographs would be welcome, too, and of course, more recipes!

It is amusing to read this Anglo-Italian writer insist that many of the pastries of Italy are not made at home, but only purchased in a pastry shop.  The readers of her book are not Italians, so they do not have access to Italian pastry shops.  They read Italian cookbooks precisely to learn how to make these dishes!  True, some desserts can be purchased as packaged items that have been shipped from Italy, but most cannot.  That is when the book's intent is clearly seen; it is a description of traditional Italian cuisine as eaten by traditional Italians.

The book's bibliography is an amazing piece of work, and a place for dreaming by Italophiles, and a place for the loved-ones of Italophiles to search for gift ideas.  The printed edition's index is included in the e-book edition, but the e-book reader's Search-feature should be used to locate the term in the book's text, since page numbers do not exist in e-books.  But to give you an idea of the length of the book, the printed edition has over 540 pages.

From the book's description:

Revised, updated, and illustrated with new photography, this is the seminal work on Italian cooking—its regions, ingredients, and techniques.

This classic book leaves no stone unturned in its exploration of Italian gastronomy. Anna del Conte, the doyenne of Italian cooking, defines the country's regions, ingredients, dishes, and techniques for a new generation in her comprehensive explanation of its culinary terms.

The 200 recipes include the great dishes from every major region of Italy. Variations on the classics—pasta, polenta, gnocchi, risotto, and pizzas—sit alongside Anna's recipes for versions of Italian favorites, such as peperonata, lamb fricasee, and ossobucco. Specially commissioned photographs of the dishes and illustrations of the ingredients and techniques make this a truly unique and invaluable book. Includes dual measures.

The revised Gastronomy of Italy is available in Kindle and Hardback editions.  Here are links to the editions at Amazon.com:

Anna del Conte has authored other books of interest to Italophiles.  Here are some of those books, available via Amazon.com:

Anova Books, the publisher of this title, has some titles that are of especial interest to Italophiles.  

A fine accompaniment to this book is the BBC TV series Italy Unpacked.  An Italian chef and an art historian travel all of Italy over the course of the three series.  They highlight the regional cuisine, explain the history, and show off each area's top artistic masterpieces.  Here is the intro to Series 3, which is set entirely in Sicily.

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.

Beyond the Pasta by Mark Leslie

The subtitle of Beyond the Pasta is:  Recipes, Language & Life with an Italian Family.  Beyond the Pasta is the cookbook/memoirs of an American man in his 40s, who took time out from his life in Alabama to live in Italy for a month with an Italian family to study Italian cooking and the Italian language, which he describes in this way:  "...the beautiful tones of the Italian language, full of passion and emotion".

Beyond the Pasta is an engaging, inspiring, fun, and at times very moving, account of a month that changed not only the author's life, but also touched his host family's life.  In fact, the book is dedicated to his host family in Viterbo, near Rome, who opened not just their home to the author, but their warm hearts.  Mr. Leslie comes across as a respectful, serious, warm-hearted, funny, kind and sweet man, so it is no wonder that the family embraced him.

From the book's description:

His teachers were beyond his wildest dreams-he learned to cook from the grandmother, or Nonna, of the family, who prepared every meal in a bustling, busy household, as women in her family have done for generations.  Her daughter, Alessandra, taught him the language with patience and precision.  Besides culinary secrets and prepositions, they opened their lives to him, and made him a real part of their extensive family.

Beyond the Pasta is created from Mr. Leslie's journal, which he kept while in Italy.  The book is divided by day, and includes events from that day with the family and other Italians, and his advances and setbacks in acquiring the Italian language.  The author is a theatrical stage manager, so he has a keen eye for the inherent drama of Italy:  the stage-set-like quality of the art and architecture, and the emotional directness of the Italian nature.  So his accounts of life in Italy are very entertaining!

His gentle humor adds to the book, as I am sure it added pleasure to his host family's month with this American in their home.  Here is an example, mentioning his joy in gelato:

I spent the next couple of hours either walking around with a gelato in my hand or on my knees in church asking to be forgiven for the sin of gluttony.

I would suggest the book be read in sections, a few "days" at a time.  Then take a few days to try out those "day's" recipes.  Then move on to reading a few more "days".  If you have ever lived in Italy, as I have, you will feel great nostalgia when reading of Mr. Leslie's experiences.  As he learns of Italy's idiosyncrasies, he shares them with us.  And his romantic nature is perfect for Italy, where there is history around every corner, stimulating the romantic's imagination.  As the author says:  "Everything in Italy seems romantic".

The recipes are for Italian home-cooking specialties, and they are very clearly explained in the recipe sections at the end of each "day", and at the end of the book, where 10 extra recipes have been included in the new paperback edition, of which I read a review-copy.  These extra recipes were learned during later visits by Mr. Leslie to his host family, for they have remained in touch over the years since his study-stay, including nearly yearly visits together with his partner.

Mr. Leslie has a crisis of conscience at one point of his stay in Italy.  He refrains from telling his host family that he is gay and in a loving and long-term relationship with another man.  I had to smile at that point, because his crisis was unnecessary.  He was unknowingly following the accepted Italian way in these things, at least as I experienced them when living in Italy for 5 years.

I had several Italian friends who were in gay relationships.  None had ever told their family they were gay.  Italian families are generally so close that their families had always known, and had always accepted their sexuality, without need for any discussion. 

And when they arrived home with their partner, the partner was accepted as the newest member of the family and treated with love and respect, because they gave love to their loved one.  The two were usually given a room with two single beds to stay in, but they were always allowed to share the room in privacy.

And in fact, later, when the author visits the family together with his partner, the family accepts the two men with equal love and acceptance, without any need for explanations.

Here is the trailer for the new paperback edition of the book:

Beyond the Pasta is published by Gemelli Press, a publishing house that specializes in Italy-themed titles.  The book is scrupulously edited and artistically presented, with many photographs taken by the author.  Beyond the Pasta is available in hardback (2010), paperback (2014) and as an e-book. 

Visit the Gemelli Press website.

Here are the editions of Beyond the Pasta available from Amazon.com.

Mark Leslie has many videos on YouTube for you to enjoy, which you can find by searching for "Beyond the Pasta".  In some videos he is cooking on his own, and in some videos he is with his host family, especially Nonna, his cooking instructor and friend, and in some videos he is in sight-seeing Italy.  Here is one video with Nonna:

Please visit the author's website.

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.

Pensa in Italiano! by Antonio Libertino

The full title of this free e-book is Pensa in Italiano!  Think in Italian!  Use all your sense to acquire Italian Carte 1-50.  The author, Antonio Libertino, is a native-Italian Italian language instructor, in Italy, who specializes in teaching Italian to foreigners.

He offers this e-book of fifty flashcards, with an accompanying audio file, for free to help students of Italian to build their Italian vocabulary in a scientifically proven method that aides memory retention. 

From the description: 

Each of them includes words, expressions and sentences commonly used in the Italian language, and are intended to be used together with a free audio file.

The phrases and vocabulary have to do with greetings, getting-to-know-you questions, professions, household items, and useful adjectives.  They are all charmingly illustrated by the author.

Here is the author's heartfelt appeal to potential students:

Imagine how you will feel by speaking another language, a different one than yours. Sense all the feelings you can feel. You will listen to yourself uttering different and pleasant sounds. You will see people astounded around you because of this new skill of yours. Will you be excited? Happy? Of course you will be!

If you follow the instructions, an spend some time with the cards and the audio file, these are a wonderful help in learning Italian.  There are more flashcards available from the same author if you wish to continue with his method.  Building up one's vocabulary in another language can be difficult.  So all the help one can get is great!

Here is the enthusiastic author's advice:

How can you use these cards? Go and download the FREE audio at the provided link. The first time, listen to the audio as you read and look at the cards. In each card there's a question. Make an intelligent guess before looking at the answer after the symbol ~. Answer as fast as you can. Doing this will activate the right part of your brain, the one in charge for automatic responses. This way the acquiring of the language will be easier. At this point check the answer. Practice as often as you can and for brief periods. Take your e-book reader with you and use Think in Italian every time you have the chance to.

There is also a short video:

The cards are offered for free via Smashwords.  Smashwords is an on-line e-book shop and distribution service that offers all their books in various e-book formats including epub, Kindle (mobi), and pdf.  Where Amazon.com adds a surcharge onto Kindle sales to countries without official Kindle Stores, Smashwords does not.  Kindles sold via Smashwords cost the same for every customer no matter where they live in the world.

Smashwords link for the free e-book

 Amazon's CreateSpace:  link to the book to buy paperback version

The free e-book and the paperback book to buy are also available via Amazon.com:

Visit the author's website and blog.  He has other helpful books for learning Italian, and offers lessons in Italy for those traveling to Calabria.

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.