Especially great for summertime on your own terrace, 16 Aug 2008
This book is far from being dissapointing or even depressing, it evokes a wonderful sense of Italy in summer and contains a lot of great recipes you can use for easy entertaining in summer (or any other season, if you don't insist on eating al fresco). I've tried several recipes and they all turned out great: "lemon meatballs", "pasta with sundried tomatoes and ricotta" (use cream cheese, if you can't get any) or "pasta with saffron" ... And there are many more delicious recipes in that book, I just haven't had the time to try them. The book is split up into five chapters: "Antipasti" (starters), "Primi Piatti" (first course, it tends to be something like pasta in Italy), "Insalata & Verdura" (salads and vegetables), "Alla Griglia" (barbecued) and "La Dolce Vita" (desserts), so you can combine your own menue. If you can't afford that Italian trip right now, bring Italy back to your own terrace!

Pretty good, 26 Jan 2006
A nice book with lots of good recipes. It is not a perfect 10, but it's still the best italian cookbook I have.

Very Disappointing, 25 Jul 2005
Not much to say really. Very disappointing for me, with disappointing collection of uninspiring recipes.

Even the scenery photos were depressing.

Italian food is my favourite restaurant food, so this is not an anti-Italian critique

Valentina Harris' book titles grow ever more excitable. Italia! Italia! is the successor to Risotto! Risotto!, which was shortlisted for the 1999 Andre Simon award. The present book arises from the food and cookery courses Harris has taught in Italy over the past decade; and, indeed, the recipes are interspersed with reminiscences of the days spent working with her students and essays on topics arising from the courses (on truffle hunting, on the terrible hardships of life not so very long ago in the Italian countryside, on choosing the perfect kitchen knife). The recipes themselves are a cross-section of the very best of Italian regional cooking (in the sense, that is, that the best Italian cooking is regional), the regions in question being Piemonte, Toscana, Veneto and Sicilia. It would be fair to say that the majority are likely to be familiar to those interested in Italian food, but that would be to miss the point. Valentina Harris' passion for the cooking of her native country is palpable in Italia! Italia!; combined with sound recipes tested to destruction under classroom conditions, the result is a cookery book quite out of the ordinary. --Robin Davidson