La Dolce Vita University - by Carla Gambescia (Paperback)

About the Book

Like a box of Italian sweets, La Dolce Vita University (LDVU) is the perfect sampler for anyone curious about (or already in amore with) Italy and its remarkably rich cultural gifts. The 165 mini-essays, arranged alphabetically and accompanied by charming illustrations throughout, treat specific topics in one or more of the following subject areas: the Italian character; the visual arts (art, artists, architects); the performing arts (music, theater, cinema); history and antiquity; language and literature; cuisine and agriculture; wine and spirits; traditions and festivals; style and applied arts; unique places. La Dolce Vita University is more than a reference book: it's a must-read for every Italophile (in the U.S., U.K. and the world over!) a perfect gift book, a compendium, a gallimaufry, a unique companion guide to Italy.

Book Synopsis

Like a box of Italian sweets, La Dolce Vita University (LDVU) is the perfect sampler for anyone curious about (or already in amore with) Italy and its remarkably rich cultural gifts. The 165 mini-essays, arranged alphabetically and accompanied by charming illustrations throughout, treat specific topics in one or more of the following subject areas: the Italian character; the visual arts (art, artists, architects); the performing arts (music, theater, cinema); history and antiquity; language and literature; cuisine and agriculture; wine and spirits; traditions and festivals; style and applied arts; unique places. La Dolce Vita University is more than a reference book: it's a must-read for every Italophile (in the U.S., U.K. and the world over!) a perfect gift book, a compendium, a gallimaufry, a unique companion guide to Italy.

Review Quotes

Praise for La Dolce Vita University

The title-La Dolce Vita University-captures the great virtues of this reader-friendly book perfectly: it's delicious and educational at the same time, which each virtue reinforcing the other. Dulce blended with utile, as the great ancient Roman poet Horace recommended. This book sustains that combination masterfully. It's is a complete delight to read, but (as a professor of Renaissance literature for many decades) I'm happy to report that the authors know their stuff. The research is careful and the analysis is intelligent and witty. I learned amazing new things about dozens of topics - Artemisia, Burano, Casanova, Dante, and onward through the alphabet to zanni. La Dolce Vita University also seasons lots of popular myths with just the right number of grains of salt. It's written in prose as clear, bright, crisp, and lively as a spring morning in the Dolomites. Add to that graceful but also playful prose, the talent of skilled story-tellers, and it's no wonder that the entries stay so fascinating.

La Dolce Vita University makes me crave a return to Italy, and helps me daydream that I'm already there. Like an ideal platter of antipasti, it's made of deliciously varied bites you can pick your way through. If you want - or want to give a friend - an appetizer that will rouse up a hunger for the glory and festivity of that wonderful place and its' no less wonderful culture, this book is perfect.
-Robert N. Watson, PhD

About the Author

Carla Gambescia's passion for Italy began early--with her mother's love of the Renaissance masters and her father's discourses on Italian geniuses of every calling. In the ensuing decades she has toured every region of Italy (often by bicycle) and immersed herself in its astonishing array of cultural treasures. In recent years Carla has combined her passion as an Italophile and writer with her skills as a career marketer and branding expert, acting as a consultant to and a collaborator with boutique tour operators. She conceived and co-led the Giro del Gelato bicycle tour, winner of Outside magazine's "Best Trip in Western Europe." In 2008 Carla founded Via Vanti! Restaurant & Gelateria, in Mount Kisco, New York, with the ambition of creating a unique environment and dining experience that would enable guests to feel as though they had stepped right into Italy. Via Vanti! quickly won plaudits not just for its innovative Italian cuisine, extraordinary gelato (named "Best Gelato Shop in New York") and dazzling jewel box interior but also, under Carla's direction, for its active program of culinary and cultural events. It is Carla's conviction that all of us, regardless of our inherited ethnicities, share an "inner Italian"--that part of our nature which is most expressive, festive, spontaneous and fun--just waiting to be unlocked.

La Dolce Vita University: An Unconventional Guide to Italian Culture from A to Z is the natural outgrowth of Carla's work and play in both the restaurant and boutique travel industries, as well as a lifelong love affair with the land of her ancestors.