The ANNOTICO Report

Chronicle Books; $19.95 hardcover

The Resourceful traveler

By June Sawyers
Special to the Chicago Tribune
June 5, 2005

This is a quirky little book, and one that is also quite beautiful. As
author Barbara Hodgson admits, it is full of oddities: "long-lost facts,
strange personalities and unorthodox behaviors" over the long course of
Italian history.

She offers idiosyncratic portraits of Italian cities and people, but again,
always with an eye toward the whimsical or the unusual.

Case in point: One such notable visitor was Edward Gibbon, who would become
the author of "The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire."

He visited Rome as a 27-year-old while on his Grand Tour. Apparently he was
so smitten by the pleasures of Rome that it took several days before he was
able to get back to work.

Perhaps it was Mr. Gibbon himself who unwittingly contributed to Roman
society's decline. Ms. Hodgson stays politely mum on the subject.

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