{"product_id":"2940169153705","title":"La Passione: How Italy Seduced the World","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eFrom the \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e best-selling author knighted by the president of Italy for her writing, a jubilant exploration of how Italy transformed the Western world's most vibrant passions amp;mdash; from literature to art, music to movies.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eNo country has matched Italy¿s impact on culture. Just think of painting without Leonardo, opera without Verdi, fashion without Armani, food without the signature tastes of pasta, gelato, and pizza. The first universities, first banks, first public libraries? All Italian.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eDianne Hales attributes these landmark achievements to \u003ci\u003ela passione italiana\u003c\/i\u003e, a primal force that stems from an insatiable hunger to discover and create; to love and live with every fiber of one's being. This fierce drive, millennia in the making, blazes to life in the Sistine Chapel, surges through a Puccini aria, deepens a vintage Brunello, and rumbles in a gleaming Ferrari engine.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eOur ideal tour guide, Hales sweeps listeners along on her adventurous quest for the secrets of la passione. She swims in the playgrounds of mythic gods, shadows artisanal makers of chocolate and cheese, joins in Sicily¿s Holy Week traditions, celebrates a neighborhood Carnevale in Venice, and explores pagan temples, vineyards, silk mills, movie sets, crafts studios, and fashion salons. She introduces us, through sumptuous prose, to unforgettable Italians, historical and contemporary, all brimming with the greatest of Italian passions amp;mdash; for life itself.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA lyrical portrait of a spirit as well as a nation, \u003ci\u003eLa Passione\u003c\/i\u003e appeals to the Italian in all our souls, inspiring us to be as daring as Italy¿s gladiators, as eloquent as its poets, as alluring as its beauties, and as irresistible as its lovers.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Penguin Random House","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47116459114736,"sku":"2940169153705","price":20.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940169153705_p0.jpg?v=1763674019","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940169153705","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}