Praise for the second edition:

Carla Gambescia's love for Italy leaps off every page in this delightful dizionario that celebrates the joyful culture, fascinating characters, and divine details of an infinitely enchanting country.
-Susan Van Allen, author of 100 Places in Italy Every Woman Should Go

Praise for the first edition:

The title-La Dolce Vita University-captures the great virtues of this reader-friendly book perfectly: it's delicious and educational at the same time, which each virtue reinforcing the other. Dulce blended with utile, as the great ancient Roman poet Horace recommended. This book sustains that combination masterfully. It's is a complete delight to read, but (as a professor of Renaissance literature for many decades) I'm happy to report that the authors know their stuff. The research is careful and the analysis is intelligent and witty. I learned amazing new things about dozens of topics - Artemisia, Burano, Casanova, Dante, and onward through the alphabet to zanni. La Dolce Vita University also seasons lots of popular myths with just the right number of grains of salt. It's written in prose as clear, bright, crisp, and lively as a spring morning in the Dolomites. Add to that graceful but also playful prose, the talent of skilled story-tellers, and it's no wonder that the entries stay so fascinating.

La Dolce Vita University makes me crave a return to Italy, and helps me daydream that I'm already there. Like an ideal platter of antipasti, it's made of deliciously varied bites you can pick your way through. If you want - or want to give a friend - an appetizer that will rouse up a hunger for the glory and festivity of that wonderful place and its' no less wonderful culture, this book is perfect.
-Robert N. Watson, PhD, Distinguished Professor of English, Associate Vice-Provost for Educational Innovation, UCLA

Imagine it as a dessert course of dark chocolates, filled with exotic fruits and nuts, packed with her parents' knowledge and love of history and art, her grandmother's epithets, and her own wisdom and wit, Italian, American, global. The chocolates are alphabetically listed, described and presented beautifully, and offered as something to dip into as you wish. You open it, choose the one you think you will like best, then another, and another. Suddenly it's gone. Because Carla wears her scholarship lightly, you don't feel over full, but what a feast!
-Denise Scott Brown FAIA, Int. FRIBA and Robert Venturi FAIA, Int. FRIBA

Excellent! Bravissima! Delightfully informative, a book to enrich any reader's life with a greater appreciation of Italian culture-even in everyday experiences here at home, from visiting an art museum to dining in a local Italian restaurant, or from cooking for friends and family to the usage of common expressions and words. Not to mention, it might just inspire you to hop on a plane!
-Commendatore Professor Carlo Sclafani, SUNY Distinguished Professor and Former Chairperson of the Modern Languages Department at Westchester Community College

Carla is the consummate Italian. Mille grazie for sharing your extensive knowledge, insights and fascinating little-known backstories with such affection and humor!
-Joan Tucci, author of The Tucci Cookbook

An enlightening, entertaining guide to the history behind so much of what we love about Italian cuisine and culture. As a chef and cooking enthusiast I enjoyed the variety of information and perspective on the Italian and Sicilian culture. From antiquity to today, reading this special history written with color and style is a pure joy for the food aficionado and any lover of Italy. You won't want to miss reading through any part of this book.
-Chef Bert Cutino, CEC, AAC, HOF, WCMC, co-founder/COO, The Sardine Factory Restaurant, Cannery Row, Monterey, CA

La Dolce Vita University is an authentic full immersi