We have put together a selection of books
that we feel would provide the perfect
accompaniment to your voyage.
Available from all good book stores.
Reading Guide
THE GRAND TOUR
Venice to Nice
NON-FICTION
Effie Ruskin (Edited by Mary Lutyens)
the vitality of Rome, and the noisy, sensuous
appeal of Naples.
John Julius Norwich
Effie in Venice
The Middle Sea
ISBN: 9781843680819, Paperback
Sandra Benjamin
ISBN: 9781844133086, Paperback
A classic both of travel literature and of
writing about Victorian art and the milieu
in which it was made and appreciated.
While Ruskin was writing his groundbreaking Stones of Venice, his young wife
Effie was exploring Venice with a lively
and independent spirit.
Sicily: Three Thousand Years of
Human History
The Mediterranean has nurtured three of
the most dazzling civilisations of antiquity,
witnessed the birth or growth of three of
our greatest religions and links three of the
world's six continents. This book tells the
story of the Middle Sea itself – a story that
begins with the Phoenicians and the Pharaohs
and ends with the Treaty of Versailles.
Benjamin Curtis
A Traveller’s History of Croatia
Eric Newby
ISBN: 9781566568081, Paperback
On the Shores of the
Mediterranean
A Traveller's History of Croatia offers tourists
and travellers an inside look at the complex
roots of Croatian history. The country is a
political fusion of Mediterranean, Central
European and Italian culture which has
given it a tumultuous past.
ISBN: 9780007367917, Paperback
'Why don't you start in Naples and go
clockwise round the Mediterranean
instead of dashing off in all directions like a
lunatic?' Fortunately, Eric Newby followed
his wife Wanda's advice, and so begins the
wonderfully madcap adventure.
John Julius Norwich
Sicily: A Short History, from the
Greeks to Cosa Nostra
Jan Morris
ISBN: 9781848548954, Hardback
Venice
'Sicily is the key to everything' Johann
Wolfgang von Goethe. A colourful and
lavishly illustrated history (fifty years in
the making) of the Mediterranean's largest
and most turbulent island from much-loved
historian John Julius Norwich.
ISBN: 9780571168972, Paperback
Often hailed as one of the best travel books
ever written, Venice is neither a guide nor
a history book, but a beautifully written
immersion in Venetian life and character,
set against the background of the city's past.
Lawrence Durrell
Brian Dolan
Prospero’s Cell
Ladies of the Grand Tour
ISBN: 9780571201655, Paperback
ISBN: 9780007105335, Paperback
This work explores the Greek island of
Corfu, evoking the sunshine landscape and
blue skies of the Aegean.
Hearing of the delights of the Grand Tour
from pioneering friends, increasing numbers
of English ladies set off to sample foreign
lands from which many returned apparently
'the best informed and most perfect creatures'.
For others the Grand Tour was an intellectual
and romantic rite of passage, widening their
knowledge of society, love and politics and
inspiring a genre of literary fiction all of
its own. Print on Demand/Order Early
Henry James
Italian Hours: Essays
ISBN: 9780140435078, Paperback
A collection of essays on travel in Italy. It
explores art and religion, political shifts and
cultural revolutions, and the nature of travel
itself. It covers the aesthetic allure of Venice,
ISBN: 9781586421311, Paperback
Tourists, armchair travellers and historians
will all delight in this fluid narrative that can
be read straight through, dipped into over
time, or used as a reference guide to each
period in Sicily's tale.
Mary Beard
Pompeii: The Life of a Roman Town
ISBN: 9781846684715, Paperback
'The world's most controversial classicist
debunks our movie-style myths about the
Roman town with meticulous scholarship
and propulsive energy – scrutinising and
animated in equal measure' Laura Silverman,
Daily Mail.
Tim Parks
A Literary Tour of Italy
ISBN: 9781846883521, Hardback
Tim Parks – who was described in a recent
review as "one of the best living writers of
English" – has delighted audiences around
the world with his finely observed writing on
all aspects of Italian life and customs. This
volume contains a selection of his best essays
on the literature of his adopted country.
Helena Attlee
The Land Where Lemons Grow:
The Story of Italy and its Citrus Fruit
ISBN: 9780241952573, Paperback
This is a delightful book about Italy's
unexpected history, told through its citrus
fruits. The story of citrus runs through the
history of Italy like a golden thread, and
by combining travel writing with history,
recipes, horticulture and art, Helena Attlee
takes the reader on a unique and rich
journey through Italy's cultural, moral,
culinary and political past.
Mary Beard
Sean Martin
SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome
The Cathars
ISBN: 9781846683800, Hardback
ISBN: 9781843443360, Paperback
SPQR is a new look at Roman history from
one of the world's foremost classicists. It
explores not only how Rome grew from
an insignificant village in central Italy to a
power that controlled territory from Spain
to Syria, but also how the Romans thought
about themselves and their achievements,
and why they are still important to us.
Catharism was the most successful heresy
of the Middle Ages. Flourishing principally
in the Languedoc and Italy, the Cathars
taught that the world is evil and must be
transcended through a simple life of prayer,
work, fasting and non-violence. They
believed themselves to be the heirs of the
true heritage of Christianity.
Christopher Hibbert
Jonathan Sumption
The Borgias
The Albigensian Crusade
ISBN: 9781849019941, Paperback
ISBN: 9780571200023, Paperback
The name Borgia is synonymous with the
corruption, nepotism and greed that were
rife in Renaissance Italy. The powerful,
voracious Rodrigo Borgia, better known
to history as Pope Alexander VI, was the
central figure of the dynasty.
In twelfth century Languedoc, a subversive
heresy of Eastern origin flourished to an
extraordinary degree. The Albingenses
believed that the world was created by an evil
spirit, and that all worldly things – including
the Church – were by nature sinful.
forward linear narrative, rich in local colour
and sentiment. It tells the story of Dada,
who returns to her home town on the Adriatic
coast, and tries to unravel the mystery of her
brother Daniel's death.
Irving Stone
The Agony and the Ecstasy
ISBN: 9780099416272, Paperback
A biographical novel of Michelangelo.
Michelangelo Buonarotti lived in the time
of the turbulent Renaissance, the years of
poisoning princes, warring popes, the
powerful Medici family, and the fanatic monk
Savonarola. Working with a God-driven fury
he created "David", painted the Sistine ceiling,
and was the architect of the dome of St Peter's.
MAPS / GUIDES / REFERENCE
Freytag and Berndt
Mediterranean Cruise Map
Corrado Augias
The Secrets of Rome: Love &
Death in the Eternal City
ISBN: 9780847842766, Paperback
From one of Italy's best-known writers
comes an exploration of the Eternal City
from a fresh and intriguing new angle.
Corrado Augias moves perceptively through
twenty-seven centuries of Roman life.
FICTION
Gregory Dowling
Marco Polo Guides
Ascension
Venice Handbook
ISBN: 9781846973130, Paperback
ISBN: 9783829768306, Paperback
Avignon of the Popes
Venice in 1749 –- the city has lost its political
and financial primacy but has become
Europe's pleasure capital, famous for its
gambling dens, its courtesans, its hectic
carnival, its music, art and theatre – and the
most highly organised secret service in Europe.
ISBN: 9781904955566, Paperback
Michele Lovric
Edwin Mullins
At the beginning of the fourteenth century,
anarchy in Italy led to the capital of the
Christian world being moved from Rome
for the first and only time in history. It was
a critical moment, and it resulted in seven
successive popes remaining in exile for the
next seventy years. The city chosen to
replace Rome was Avignon.
ISBN: 9783707912906, Map
The Floating Book
Marco Polo Guides
Dubrovnik & Dalmatian Coast
ISBN: 9783829706568, Paperback
Marco Polo Guides
Corfu
ISBN: 9783829706643, Paperback
ISBN: 9781408843833, Paperback
Marco Polo Guides
Florence
Cannes
Venice, 1468. Sosia Simeon, a free-spirited
sensualist, is the lover of many men in the
fabled city, though married to one she despises.
Wendelin von Speyer sets up the first printing
press in Venice and looks for the book that
will make his fortune. When he tempts fate
by publishing Catullus, a scandal is set in
motion that will change all their lives forever.
ISBN: 9780571230464, Paperback
Olja Savicevic
Italy Map
Farewell, Cowboy
ISBN: 9783829767255, Map
Kieron Corless & Chris Darke
Since its inception in 1946, the Cannes Film
Festival has embraced the high-brow and the
high-glam. Who is not familiar with Cannes'
famous paparazzi scrums and world
premieres? This title reveals tales from
this festival's spectacular history.
ISBN: 9781908236487, Paperback
Farewell, Cowboy is a modern and hardhitting novel by one of Croatia's best known
writers. The plot consists of a straight-
ISBN: 9783829706612, Paperback
DK Eyewitness
Italy 2016
ISBN: 9780241007372, Paperback
Marco Polo
Marco Polo Guides
French Riviera Pocket Guide & Map
ISBN: 9783829706735, Paperback
The Book Club
Join in with the Aegean Odyssey Book Club and discuss this fascinating book whilst on board –
hosted by GAYNOR VAUGHAN-JONES, freelance radio and TV producer, and Radio 4 presenter
POMPEII by Robert Harris ISBN: 9780099527947
Pompeii is an historical novel that focuses on the real life eruption of Mount Vesuvius on 24th August 79AD which overwhelmed
the town of Pompeii and its surroundings. The hero of the novel is Marcus Attilius Primus, who is Aquarius, or Water Engineer for
the entire Naples District. He detects that something is going wrong when the water supply dries up, but his attempts to get to the
source of the problem are frustrated by the horde of prostitutes, pimps, felons and politicians who people the pages of Harris’ novel.
As Marcus tries to avert disaster, he also has to deal with the intricacies of his own love life, which centres on the 18-year-old
daughter of his deadliest enemy.
We know the inevitable ending: disaster will strike, but will Marcus escape the smoke and the lava? This novel brings back to life
the town and its people who were buried alive in one of Europe’s best known catastrophes.