Magnificent natural beauty, rich culture and longstanding traditions, Basilicata packs an incredible diversity into the unassuming instep of the Italian boot. From the renowned Sassi di Matera to the smallest village, this in-depth travel essay uncovers a land, its people, their past and present, sharing the joys and challenges of the experience.

The first cookbook from this little-known region of Italy celebrates the richness of the region's landscape and the allure of its cuisine, featuring recipes for easily accessible, fresh-from-the-garden Italian food from a Calabrian native.

Travel to the "other Italy" -the one without crowds, tourist-trap restaurants, or smog-chugging tour buses. The southern region of Basilicata is one of Italy's least-known, but is a place of natural splendor, unchanged hill towns, adrenaline-pumping adventure, and alluring art.With outdoor adventure, long-held traditions, gorgeous scenery, abiding faith and pagan rites, and authentic home cooking, Basilicata has it all. It's a place where the path is less traveled and hospitality is sacred. Ancient towns, natural splendor, several millennia of history, and inspiring views everywhere, the region's rural roots mingle with modern technology, placing a foot in the past and the other in the present. Get the very best of this mysterious and overlooked region by an insider, who gives you the low-down on the highlights of a beautiful and tradition-steeped land. Valerie Fortney guides you through the layers of history, to the wilds and the cities, to the hidden treasures and culinary highlights of the region she calls home. You'll find the book contains many more than 52 things, as each entry helps you make the most of your time there. Also included: 10 Restaurants That Are Worth the Trip; a list of worthy hotels; and a run-down of the foods you should taste while you're here.

A sweeping, authoritative, and entertaining history of the Christian cult of the saints from its origin to the Reformation From its earliest centuries, one of the most notable features of Christianity has been the veneration of the saints—the holy dead. This ambitious history tells the fascinating story of the cult of the saints from its origins in the second-century days of the Christian martyrs to the Protestant Reformation. Robert Bartlett examines all of the most important aspects of the saints—including miracles, relics, pilgrimages, shrines, and the saints' role in the calendar, literature, and art. The book explores the central role played by the bodies and body parts of saints, and the special treatment these relics received. From the routes, dangers, and rewards of pilgrimage, to the saints' impact on everyday life, Bartlett's account is an unmatched examination of an important and intriguing part of the religious life of the past—as well as the present.

"A cookbook and wine guide from the San Francisco restaurant A16 that celebrates the traditions of southern Italy"--Provided by publisher.

"Keahey's exploration of this misunderstood island offers a much-needed look at a much-maligned land."—Paul Paolicelli, author of Under the Southern Sun Sicily is the Mediterranean's largest and most mysterious island. Its people, for three thousand years under the thumb of one invader after another, hold tightly onto a culture so unique that they remain emotionally and culturally distinct, viewing themselves first as Sicilians, not Italians. Many of these islanders, carrying considerable DNA from Arab and Muslim ancestors who ruled for 250 years and integrated vast numbers of settlers from the continent just ninety miles to the south, say proudly that Sicily is located north of Africa, not south of Italy. Seeking Sicily explores what lies behind the soul of the island's inhabitants. It touches on history, archaeology, food, the Mafia, and politics and looks to nineteenth- and twentieth-century Sicilian authors to plumb the islanders' so-called Sicilitudine. This "culture apart" is best exemplified by the writings of one of Sicily's greatest writers, Leonardo Sciascia. Seeking Sicily also looks to contemporary Sicilians who have never shaken off the influences of their forbearers, who believed in the ancient gods and goddesses. Author John Keahey is not content to let images from the island's overly touristed villages carry the story. Starting in Palermo, he journeyed to such places as Arab-founded Scopello on the west coast, the Greek ruins of Selinunte on the southwest, and Sciascia's ancestral village of Racalmuto in the south, where he experienced unique, local festivals. He spent Easter Week in Enna at the island's center, witnessing surreal processions that date back to Spanish rule. And he learned about Sicilian cuisine in Spanish Baroque Noto and Greek Siracusa in the southeast, and met elderly, retired fishermen in the tiny east-coast fishing village of Aci Trezza, home of the mythical Cyclops and immortalized by Luchino Visconti's mid-1940s film masterpiece, La terra trema. He walked near the summit of Etna, Europe's largest and most active volcano, studied the mountain's role in creating this island, and looked out over the expanse of the Ionian Sea, marveling at the three millennia of myths and history that forged Sicily into what it is today.