"Mr. Biggers is an enthusiastic and erudite guide. Seeking out the past in local lore and in Sardinia’s long and overlooked literary tradition, he returns the island to the center of our imaginative map of the Mediterranean." -- The Wall Street Journal "At last, a grand companion to the mysterious and enchanting island of Sardinia. Written with verve and love, In Sardinia is the book I'll be taking on future trips." -Frances Mayes, New York Times bestselling author of Under the Tuscan Sun Award-winning historian Jeff Biggers opens a new window into the hidden treasures of Sardinia in a groundbreaking travel narrative that crisscrosses one of the most enigmatic places in Italy After three decades of living and traveling in Italy, Jeff Biggers finally crossed over to Sardinia, uncovering a treasury of stories amid major archaeological discoveries rewriting the history of the Mediterranean. Based in the bewitching port of Alghero, guided through the island’s rich and largely untranslated literature, he embarked on a rare journey around the island to experience its famed cuisine, wine, traditional rituals and thriving cultural movements. “Sardinia is something else. Enchanting spaces and distances to travel,” D. H. Lawrence wrote in 1921. On the 100th anniversary of Lawrence’s visit, Biggers opens a new window into the history of the island, chronicling how new archaeological findings have placed the island as one of the cradles of the Bronze Age. From the Neolithic array of Stonehenge-like dolmens and menhir stone formations to the thousands of Bronze Age "nuraghe" towers and burial tombs, the vastness of the uninterrupted cycles of civilizations and their architectural marvels have turned Sardinia into the Mediterranean's "open museum." Beyond its fabled beaches, reconsidering how its unique history and ways have shaped Italy and Europe today, Biggers explores how travelers must first understand Sardinia and its ancient and modern history to truly understand the rest of Italy. In the tradition of Mark Kurlansky’s Basque History of the World, Peter Hessler’s Oracle Bones: A Journey Through in China, and Frances Mayes’ and Tim Parks’ narratives on Italy, In Sardinia is a major new addition to travel writing and literature in Italy.

This volume explores the fascinating interactions and exchanges between British and Italian cultures from the early modern period to the present. It looks at how these exchanges were mediated through personal encounters, travel writings, and translations, involving a variety of protagonists: explorers, writers, poets, preachers, diplomats and tourists. In particular, this book examines the understanding of Italy as a destination and set of locations, each with their own distinctive geographical character, during a period which saw the creation of the modern Italian state. It also charts the shifts in travelling activity during this period, from early explorers and cartographers, via those taking part in the Grand Tour in the 18th and 19th centuries, to more modern poet-travellers and blogging tourists. Drawing upon literary studies, history, art history, cultural studies, translation studies, sociology and socio-linguistics, this volume takes a cross-disciplinary approach to its rich constellation of ‘cultural transactions’.