This title offers a sublime introduction to the country, or a perfect multi-centre trip for travellers with limited time. It explores stately Rome, with its Colosseum and the Sistine Chapel; visits dreamy Venice, and the eternal romance of a gondola ride along its canals; and discovers Florence, bursting with more paintings, sculptures and monuments than anywhere in Italy. 'Italy dangles from the centre of western Europe like a Christmas stocking, stuffed to the brim with marvels, some as grand as Brunelleschi's dome over Florence cathedral, some as weird and unexpected as the pagan tombs buried underneath St Peter's in Rome, or Galileo's erect middle finger, carefully, significantly preserved in a reliquary in Florence's science museum.'