Italian Ways : On and Off the Rails from Milan to Palermo

from oparaxenos

This was a delightful romp through Italy as seen from the perspective of a harried traveler on Ferrovie dello Stato. As a person who is fascinated by Italy and Italians, I loved Parks' observations of Italian culture. Particularly unique was Parks' observation that the institutions of a country r...

from PDCRead

There is a joke that goes: HEAVEN is where: The police are British, the chefs Italian, the mechanics are German, the lovers are French, and it's all organised by the Swiss HELL is where: The police are German, the chefs are British, the mechanics are French, the lovers are Swiss and it's all orga...

from stef7sa

More or less what you expect from Parks if you have read his earlier Italy books. Less packed with funny events and more digressions though, sometimes a bit too long. Parks is at his best observing people and fighting a hostile and bewildering environment.

from breic

It's a fine read, but just as a filler between other books. I didn't feel like I learned much about Italy, or ever felt transported there. Parks went with the kitchen sink approach to writing a book: throw every observation in there, no matter how mundane. More detail than I needed, and usually n...

from johnwbeha

I enjoyed this book, but at the same time, I was disappointed; probably because it is a book of two halves, written a few years apart. I've read others of Parks' journalistic books and enjoyed them, but only one of his novels, with which I had a lot of problems. I smiled at lot at his anecdotes, ...