ITALY

A treasure map of Italy.

Art historian Trend creates 12 curated itineraries centered on an artist or group of artists who lived and worked in Italy. Because much of their art still survives in the churches, chapels, and palaces for which they were commissioned, discovering those works offers travelers—even armchair travelers—a chance to explore Italy beyond its famous museums. Trend’s tour includes world-famous artists, such as Giotto, da Vinci, Michelangelo, Titian, and Canaletto, and lesser-known women artists. Besides illuminating particular works, the author depicts the backstreets and piazzas, landscapes and vistas that inspired their art. He follows Giotto to Padua, Assisi, and Florence; Raphael and Michelangelo to Florence and Rome; Titian, Tintoretto, and Canaletto to Venice. Veronese worked in Venice, too, and his paintings, spanning his entire career, still can be seen in 15 churches and palazzi. Trend points out Caravaggio’s altar pieces in Rome, then follows the painter to Naples, where he fled after killing a man; we learn the sites of three of his paintings in that city, including what turned out to be his final work, at the Palazzo Zevallos Stigliano. Hoping for a papal pardon, Caravaggio died before he was able to return to Rome. The majority of the figures Trend follows are men, but he honors many women artists who, from 1500 to the 18th century, found unprecedented recognition and opportunities in Bologna. Of some 70 women, he chooses two painters and two sculptors, well known in their time, whose works adorn public spaces. The beautifully produced volume contains more than 450 color plates, photographs, and illustrations; each chapter opens with a whimsical map, hand-drawn by Montoriol, indicating the people and places that feature in that area. In an appendix, a gazetteer lists major sites by region.

A richly detailed, innovative travel guide.