Rediscovering Europe: How Italy Became Italy

Italy is the birthplace of the Renaissance, the birthplace of Baroque art, and the cradle of Western civilization. Today's Italians have a strong sense of pride. Just a few place names like Tuscany, Milan, Rome, and Venice can reveal a lot of cultural information. Drawing on a large number of traveler diaries, memoirs and letters throughout history, Jeremy Black explains Italy's past of more than two thousand years in simple words, from the rise of Rome to the enslaved unified country, to the fascist regime in the 20th century, and to the current republic; from food, fashion and art, architecture, to the beautiful surrounding islands, this book examines the source of Italian cultural influence, explores the causes and effects of historical events, and the differences in concepts that exist to this day.