Binding is red cloth with black lettering on the spine; 187 pages, including numerous black and white photographs. The edges of the bindinghave several light bumps. The dj has some edgewear, mainly along its upper edge, where there are several short tears. With six weeks in which to do it, Francis Sandwith, made a close-packed excursion into Southern Italy. Reminiscence, comment, and description: people, places and food - his observations are witty, forthright and refreshingly astringent. Through his feeling for detail of both scene and human idiosyncracy, he captures for the reader the atmosphere of that street, this hotel; the dignified resignation of an old market-woman. Travelling by night, the author journeys - the reader with him - between the oases of sunlit days; the sharply shadowed cloisters of a monastery near Padua; an old man dozing in the sun on a street corner; the gay and noisy markets; the first sight of the Adriatic, motionless, at dawn; Otranto, hardly breathing under a brilliant and burning noon; the Greek temples at Paestum caught in timeless poise against the sky... this is the vivid panorama of past and present, beauty and poverty, which is Italy.

Travel Book Italy