The Smiles of Rome - by Susan Cahill (Paperback)

About the Book

For lovers of Italy and travelers alike, Cahill has produced an anthology like no other, with contributions from Elizabeth Bowen, Ovid, Michelangelo, Saint Peter, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry James, Edith Wharton, and Federico Fellini.

Book Synopsis

Take a Roman holiday with some of the world's greatest writers

Explore the Palatine with Elizabeth Bowen. Visit the temple of the Vestal Virgins with Georgina Masson. Analyze Michelangelo's Moses with Sigmund Freud. Stroll through ancient streets with Goethe and with Henry James. Share Alice Steinbach's midnight epiphany on a shabby hotel balcony. Learn the art of love from Ovid. Visit villas and gardens with Edith Wharton. Enjoy Rome's myriad moods and pleasures with Robert Browning, Eleanor Clark, Susan Vreeland, and many others.

An irresistible collection of writing about one of the world's most beloved destinations, The Smiles of Rome spans the centuries from ancient times to the present day. Each essay resonates with the richness and turmoil of the past and overflows with a great wealth of fascinating facts and intriguing tidbits for today's avid readers and travelers.

"Rome," writes Susan Cahill, "has the power to blow your mind and heart." This delicious, many-layered collection honoring the city that is the heart and soul of European civilization has the same power to thrill.

Review Quotes

"Cahill does a fine job combining practical suggestions with writings by some of the usual suspects.... Her section on Renaissance and Baroque Rome is original and fascinating."
Richard B. Woodward, The New York Times

About the Author

Susan Cahill, PhD, is the editor of many highly praised anthologies, including Desiring Italy, For the Love of Ireland, Wise Women, The QPB Anthology of Writing by Women, and Women and Fiction. Author of the novel Earth Angels and co-author with Thomas Cahill of A Literary Guide to Irleand, she has taught at Queens College and Fordham University. She lives in New York City and, for part of the year, Rome.