La Passione: How Italy Seduced the World

4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars | 139 ratings

Price: 15.75

Last update: 10-30-2024


About this item

A jubilant celebration of Italy’s outsize impact on culture, from literature to art, music to movies, that “masterfully examines the multitude of reasons why so many people fall in love with Italy and the Italian lifestyle” (Forbes)

Can you imagine painting without Leonardo, opera without Verdi, fashion without Armani, food without the signature tastes of pasta, gelato, and pizza? The first universities, first banks, first public libraries? All Italian.

New York Times best-selling author Dianne Hales attributes these landmark achievements to la passione italiana, a primal force that stems from an insatiable hunger to discover and create; to love and live with every fiber of one's being. This fierce drive, millennia in the making, blazes to life in the Sistine Chapel, surges through a Puccini aria, deepens a vintage Brunello, and rumbles in a gleaming Ferrari engine.

Our ideal tour guide, Hales sweeps readers along on her adventurous quest for the secrets of la passione. She swims in the playgrounds of mythic gods, shadows artisanal makers of chocolate and cheese, joins in Sicily’s Holy Week traditions, celebrates a neighborhood Carnevale in Venice, and explores pagan temples, vineyards, silk mills, movie sets, crafts studios, and fashion salons. She introduces us, through sumptuous prose, to unforgettable Italians, historical and contemporary, all brimming with the greatest of Italian passions - for life itself.

A lyrical portrait of a spirit as well as a nation, La Passione appeals to the Italian in all our souls, inspiring us to be as daring as Italy’s gladiators, as eloquent as its poets, as alluring as its beauties, and as irresistible as its lovers.

Praise for La Passione

“[An] effervescent love letter to all things Italian.” (Newsday)

“In this sweeping account of la passione italiana from ancient to modern times, Dianne Hales shows once again why she is one the world’s foremost guides to the riches of Italian culture. Every page resonates with the author’s love for Italy and her joy in sharing its remarkable discoveries and exquisite pleasures with her readers.” (Joseph Luzzi, author of My Two Italies and In a Dark Wood)


Top reviews from the United States

Dianne Sepielli
5.0 out of 5 stars A Taste of all that Italy has to offer
Reviewed in the United States on May 20, 2023
Wonderful book! I laughed and cried tears of joy as I took a tour through Italy with the author. I have been to Italy many times; in fact, several years ago my wife and I went to all of the little towns where our parents or grand-parents were born. A must-read for anyone who plans on going to Italy.
Russell J. Sepielli
ritarich
5.0 out of 5 stars Great read. Fun and informative.
Reviewed in the United States on May 4, 2019
I really enjoyed this book, especially the sections on the history of Italy and how this history shaped and continues to inform Italians to this day. The sections on the Etruscans and on Venice were particularly interesting in this regard.

It’s a fun read but also very informative about quintessentially Italian things—fast cars, great food and wine, amazing art and architecture, sexy and flirtatious people. If you’ve ever been to Italy, this book will help you make more sense out of your experiences. It’ll help you make sense of the underlying reasons why so many things and places and people in Italy are so wonderful. If you’ve never been, this book will make you want to go even more, and it will give you some specific places to visit and things to do or experience.

Highly recommended.
Teresa Evans
5.0 out of 5 stars Not what I expected - but loved it!
Reviewed in the United States on December 19, 2023
This is an in-depth history on why the world is so in love with Italy and everything Italian and how it all came to be.
Mooman
4.0 out of 5 stars Great appreciation on Italians
Reviewed in the United States on June 19, 2019
At times a bit too much information or huge leaps but on the whole well worth the read.
Grace Rocco
5.0 out of 5 stars Che bello! Che meraviglioso!
Reviewed in the United States on January 29, 2023
I loved this book!!! I cried happy tears all the way through it!
Italy stole my heart many years ago…for all the reasons mentioned in this book.
I have left part of my heart in Sorrento on all my visits over the years…I like knowing it’s there and I can still visit it when I want to.
Meanwhile…I recommend this book to anyone planning a trip to Italy and to those of us who have been there. Italy seduces us for the rest of our lives and once we’ve been there…it keeps calling us back…sempre…
Mooty's Girl
5.0 out of 5 stars Best gift for Mother's Day and all occasions
Reviewed in the United States on May 13, 2019
I've followed Dianne's books for many years because they give me a inside view of Italy that I could never experience. Each time she releases a book I buy at least 30 books as they're loved so much by my friends and family. This book has so many personal stories from craft and regular Italian it gives a unique flavor of why Italy is unique. The broad range of food, opera, locations etc. keep us interested throughout the book.
Patsy R Ricks
3.0 out of 5 stars Publication error
Reviewed in the United States on June 1, 2019
As I am reading this book and completely enjoying it , I finish page 214 and find the next page is 153 from a different book by a different author. It is not until page 184 of this different book that I get to 247 and back to Dianne Hales book. I am a voracious reader, but never in my reading history has part of another book been published in the book I am reading. What could have happened????
Doris
5.0 out of 5 stars A great book! Way to go author!
Reviewed in the United States on June 25, 2019
If you can’t travel to Italy, La Passione is the next best thing indeed. History, art, food, wine, opera, car racing, fashion… It’s all there for the taking. If by chance, you are so lucky and Italy is your destination, La Passione will help make your trip so much more meaningful. In September, Sharon, a special friend will once again travel to Italy and this week I plan to surprise her with her own copy of La Passione. I also have several others in mind who will love love love this wonderful well written informative book on Italy.
Doris

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