Presents the history, culture, economy, and government of Italy, and describes major cities, landscape, people, holidays and festivals, and its place in the European Union.

"Florence, Italy, 1944: The city is under heavy Nazi occupation, but for thirteen-year-old Paolo, war is a long and boring wait. Too young to fight for the resistance, yet desperate for action and adventure, he sneaks out each night to ride his bicycle along the darkened city streets. For Paolo, the risk is thrilling. But when he is accosted by Partisans--covert members of the anti-Nazi movement--thrilling quickly becomes dangerous as Paolo and his...

In the Name of the Family explores the House of Borgia's final years, in the company of a young diplomat named Niccolò Machiavelli--

When Hitler's armies occupied Italy in 1943, they also seized control of mankind's greatest cultural treasures. As they had done throughout Europe, the Nazis could now plunder the masterpieces of the Renaissance, the treasures of the Vatican, and the antiquities of the Roman Empire. In May 1944 two unlikely American heroes--artist Deane Keller and scholar Fred Hartt--embarked from Naples on the tresure hunt of a lifetime, tracking billions of dollars...

"[This book] tells the story of the Eternal City--from the early Roman Republic through the Renaissance and the Reformation to Mussolini and the German occupation in World War Two -- through pivotal moments that defined its history"--Amazon.com.

Set in the 1860's, tells the story of a decadent, dying Sicilian aristocracy threatened by the approaching forces of democracy and revolution.