In Italian Ways bestselling writer Tim Parks brings us a fresh portrait of Italy today through a wry account of his train journeys around the country. Whether describing his daily commute from Milan to Verona his regular trips to Florence & Rome or his occasional sojourns to Naples & Sicily Parks uses his thirty years of amusing & maddening experiences on Italian trains to reveal what he calls the 'charmingly irritating dystopian paradise' of Italy. Through memorable encounters with ordinary Italians
- conductors & ticket collectors priests & prostitutes scholars & lovers gypsies & immigrants
- Parks captures what makes Italian life distinctive. Italian Ways also explores how trains helped build Italy & how the railways reflect Italians' sense of themselves from Garibaldi to Mussolini to Berlusconi & beyond. Most of all Italian Ways is an entertaining attempt to capture the essence of modern Italy.