When literary art meets the warmth, beauty, and culture of Italy, the results are stupifyingly wonderful. Susan Cahill has gathered jewels of writing, penned by 31 women of letters, inspired by Italy. There"s Muriel Spark on Venice, Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Mary McCarthy on Florence, Florence Nightingale and George Eliot on Rome, Edith Wharton on Milan, and Mary Taylor Simeti on Sicily. All together Cahill"s arranged a beautiful antipasti plate of the impact--on the mind, the spirit, and above all the senses--of Italy.