Readers will fall for a side of Italy rarely seen with the just-turned-forty Peter Moore rattling around the country on the back of an ageing Vespa scooter — like himself, a little rough around the edges, and a bit slow in the mornings perhaps, but basically still OK.

He was an Australian author approaching 40. She was a fading Italian beauty from the sixties. They spent one unforgettable summer together, a magical road trip from Milan to Rome. Only one thing stood in the way of perfect love. Sophia was a motor scooter. After a late night Tai Bo fitness commercial warns him that his life will be over after 40, Peter Moore decides to pursue a boyhood dream sparked by watching old black and white movies of Sophia Loren - to tour Italy on a Vespa, in pursuit of la dolce vita. From picnicking in the Italian alps to exploring tumbledown seaside villages, gate-crashing Frances Mayes's villa and re-enacting Roman Holiday, this is as much a romance as a travel adventure. Not only does Peter sweep the woman of his dreams off her feet, he falls in love with a side of Italy others rarely see, along with Sophia of course...

It was a 1972 Rally 200 in the same shade of orange as Donatella Versace with white, go-fast stripes down each side. It was bright and brash and made every other Vespa in the workshop look dull. Even sitting on its stand it had a swagger.Best-selling writer and traveller Peter Moore decides to go on an adventure through Sicily,Sardinia and the Amalfi Coast as a last fling before the onset of fatherhood.Riding his bright orange Vespa, Marcello, through some of the world’s most stunning scenery, Peter meets a multitude of interesting characters and discovers a side of Italy that tourists rarely see. Eliciting free beers from barmen, swoons from young women and beeps and whistles from other drivers, Peter finds that this most Italian of machines draws him deep into the heart of this fascinating and fun-loving country.

This hip, hilarious travelogue, which takes the author on the Sixties hippie trail — from the UK to Australia without flying — will strike a chord with all those travelers who have stood where Moore stood, and entertain and alarm lovers of off-the-beaten-track travel adventures with his characteristically quirky descriptions of places and people.

Because religion is so central to the lives and experience of the vast majority of people throughout the world, it figures very prominently in a variety of ways in interhuman relations. Unfortunately, ‘religion’ often appears to be one of the potent sources of mistrust, discord and strife between and among individuals, groups and cultures. What frequently lies at the root of such suspicion and dissension is general ignorance concerning the religious other, a lack of knowledge about his or her beliefs, aspirations and views of the good and morally honorable life. And even if people have some factual knowledge about other religions, they regularly display little understanding of them and their adherents. Learning both to know and understand people of other faiths and their religions is absolutely requisite to the realization of paradigms of coherent and intelligent ‘convivance,’ that is, living together in sensible, peaceable and cooperative harmony. An effective agency for fostering such knowledge and understanding is the discipline of theology of religions, which examines how religions have and ought to view other religions. And it is particularly the practice of comparative theology of religions which bears the most promise in this regard. The present symposium consists of precisely this kind of comparative exercise and may be viewed as an important contribution to the development of a new project which endeavors to enlarge the horizon and broaden the focus and reflection of theology of religions as that has been gradually developed during the last few decades, a new enterprise, in other words, which seeks to universalize and mutualize theology-of-religions discourse. One of the important things this volume shows is that the views religions have of other religions differ from one another in very substantial ways, which is explained by the fact that they derive from diverging paradigms of faith, belief and ritual and specific cultural and social contexts. This textbook demonstrates how strongly different Hindu, Buddhist, Shinto and Confucian views are from those of Islam, Judaism and Christianity, which latter in turn also exhibit considerable differences among themselves. These differences are greater than people immersed in their own cultures often realize or expect. It is becoming ever more clear that ignorance of or disinclination to acknowledge or refusal to accept these real differences constitute major root causes of serious conflicts in the world. The essays in this book, written by representatives of the major world religions, offer descriptive and/or prescriptive appraisals of other religions in general or one other religion in particular from the perspective of the religion of the author concerned. It is hoped that this unique exercise in intercultural theology of religions will generate insights and new forms of understanding which can be used by religious leaders and other educators to help correct the disposition toward religious haughtiness, insularity and communalism and the dangerous leanings toward interreligious suspicion, antipathy and animosity which are all too often evident in our contemporary societies.

Cars and trucks whoosh in Chicago, a bullet train zooms in Hong Kong, and a bicycle strolls around Paris (ding-ding!). Cities around the world are always on the move, and this lively book puts little ones in the driver's seat with a cacophony of sounds right on the streets of some of the most exciting metropolises on the planet, including San Francisco, Seattle, New York, Tokyo, London, Vancouver, and more. The sturdy pages feature fire trucks, diggers, motorcycles, and boats, as well as police cars (weeeoooeee!), airplanes (swish!), and strollers in the park (whir, whir!). Zoom! Beep! Vroom! Busy Cities will surely charm any young vehicle enthusiast and the many tots that are intrigued by life in the big city.

Simple, funny action words and onomatopoeia describe three silly ducks' rather impolite visit to their Auntie Goose's house. This rollicking, tongue-twisting, rhyming story of three enthusiastic houseguests, paired with the lively artwork of illustrator Viviana Garofoli, is sure to be a speedy favorite of beginning readers everywhere. Step 1 (Ready to Read) is for children who know the alphabet and are ready to read. Step 1 titles have big type and easy words, rhyme and rhythm, and picture clues.