Italy - Culture Smart!: The Essential Guide to Customs & Culture

By: Barry Tomalin

Narrated by: Peter Noble

Italy delights and stimulates with its magnificent cities and monuments, its stunningly beautiful landscapes, the glory of its art and architecture, the richness and variety of its food, the elegance of its design and fashion, and the vitality and charm of its people. Italian style and culture have been exported all over the world. The Italians are the most European-minded of nations, having emerged from a long history of regional fragmentation. Italy - Culture Smart! introduces you to their history and culture and offers an insider's guide to their daily lives, passions, and preoccupations. This is your chance to get to know Italy.

©2016 Barry Tomalin (P)2016 Dreamscape Media, LLC

As exciting as reading Wikipedia

This overview of Italy is so flat and tedious, i stopped listening after an hour. Most of the information is very obvious ("each region has its own cuisine..."). Sometimes, the narration is downright offensive in talking about Italians like they are some kind of animal species being studied in a laboratory. Maybe it's just the stuck up English accent, but they whole presentation is a major turnoff for anyone excited about discovering Italy. Clearly, this is presentation is for English people who are just baffled that anything is different from where they live.

No humor at all.

Not nearly what I was expecting.

It was more of a history than a cultural insight. I only learned 2 or 3 very tiny details that were not common knowledge for travelers.

Just another history book

This book wasn’t for you, but who do you think might enjoy it more?

People not going to Italy.

What was most disappointing about Barry Tomalin’s story?

He wastes 1.5 hours, of a 3 hour book on history!!!!

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from Italy - Culture Smart!: The Essential Guide to Customs & Culture?

I'd tell Tomalin to cut the damn fillers.....