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If you or someone on your gift list loves things Italian, here are some of our favorite books, movies, and recipes to help you add la dolce vita to your holidays!
Tanti Auguri,
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 For Cooks
We are gathering favorite Italian recipes from all over to share with you - our reader! Please v isit www.villavita.net for our current list and check back often as we continue to receive new suggestions.
Here are just a few from our growing list . . .
from Daniele Pecchioli of Chianti Tours
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 For Readers
Non Fiction
That Fine Italian Hand - Paul Hofmann
Italian Days - Barbara Grizzuti Harrison
Desiring Italy - Susan Cahill
Italian Neighbors - Tim Parks
Vanilla Beans and Brodo - Isabella Dusi
Eat Pray Love - Elizabeth Gilbert
1000 Days in Venice - Marlena De Blasi
Dances with Luigi: A Grandson's Search for his Italian Roots - Paul Paolicelli
The Reluctant Tuscan - Phil Doran
Living in a Foreign Language - Michael Tucker
Fiction
Vivaldi's Virgins - Barbara Quick
The Agony and the Ecstasy - Irving Stone
Room With a View - E. M. Forster
The Light in the Piazza - Elizabeth Spencer
The Birth of Venus - Sarah Dunant
La Cucina: A Novel of Rapture - Lily Prior
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 For Movie Lovers
with subtitles:
Il Postino - 1995, Michael Radford
Bread and Tulips - 2000, Silvio Soldini
Life is Beautiful - 1997, Roberto Benigni
Cinema Paradiso - 1988, Giuseppe Tornatore
Malena - 2000, Giuseppe Tornatore
Mediterraneo - 1991, Gabriele Salvatores
The Bicycle Thief - 1948, Vittorio de Sica
Divorce Italian Style - 1961, Pietro Germi
And others - in English:
Much Ado About Nothing - 1993, Kenneth Branagh
For Roseanna - 1997, Paul Weiland with Jean Reno
My Voyage to Italy - 1999, Martin Scorsese
Under the Tuscan Sun - 2003, Audrey Wells
Stealing Beauty - 1996, Bernardo Bertolucci
Tea With Mussolini - 1999, Franco Zeffirelli
The Merchant of Venice - 2004, Michael Radford, with Al Pacino
Room with a View - 1986, James Ivory
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 For Travelers
Italy has been luring visitors for hundreds of years and now it is even more exciting with new ways to enjoy all of its magnificent splendors.
For travelers on a low budget, you cannot go wrong with Rick Steves to offer you ways to see Italy off the beaten path. However, he has become so popular that his OFF the beaten paths are now ON the beaten path!
Other noteworthy guides are:
Italy for the Gourmet Traveler - Fred Plotkin
The Most Beautiful Villages of Tuscany - James Bently
Walking and Eating in Tuscany and Umbria - James Lasdun
Authentic Italy Series - Touring Club of Italy
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| For Fun
 If you've never seen Bruno Bozetto's hilarious look at how Italians differ from other Europeans (or if it has been a while) - click on the image or link below - wait for it to load (it's worth it) - click play - turn up the sound - sit back and enjoy!
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