Piazzas and Pizzas: Adventures of the Clean Plate Club in Italy

• Paperback - April, 2002 - Writers Club Press
• Usually ships in 24 hours
• By: Jan B Kubik and Jan B Kubik
• ISBN: 0595221254

Buy this book from Amazon.com

Amazon.com Price: $15.95

Other books you may find interesting

• The City of Florence: Historical Vistas and Personal Sightings
• Sandra Gustafson's Great Sleeps Italy
• Desiring Italy: Women Writers Celebrate the Passions of a Country and Culture
• Trattorias of Rome, Florence, and Venice
• Italian Days
• Living in Tuscany
• Tuscany & Umbria (Charming Small Hotel Guides: Tuscany & Umbria)
• Central Italy: The Collected Traveler: Tuscany and Umbria
• Eating in Italy: A Traveler's Guide to the Hidden Gastronomic Pleasures of Northern Italy

Reviews by readers

A printed version of an online travel journal ....

... but without the pictures. After I received this mildly entertaining book I realized it was a printed version of material that I read on a website (the author's, I presume) a couple of years ago. It's basically like reading someone's online journal about his trip abroad--we ate here and I had the lasagna and then we had gelato there and I had this flavor and she had that flavor and then we locked ourselves out of our hotel room and we really liked this hotel in this city at this address, etc. The author and his wife seem like nice and amusing people, but this book would probably be enjoyed most by those who are planning their first trip to Italy. I did enjoy very much his snarky but good-natured remarks about Rick Steves and Frances Mayes.

gelato is his life

I purchased this book because it was mentioned positively on several travel message boards. I found it repetitive (like trying to stretch the material to fill the book) and rather snide, while trying to appear humorous. The remarks about Rick Steves and Frances Mayes were gratuitous and uncalled for.

A travel log rather than a guide

This self-published book is composed of apparently previously published web articles on the author's travels to Italy. The structure is not cohesive, jumping around between trips and towns. There are numerous grammatical and typographical errors throughout. The continual mention of each meal consumed was tedious and boring, as no real restaurant review was given, just a mention such as "I ordered the Pizza Margherita; she ordered the arugala pizza". I wouldn't consider it a guide but a personal trip report, something you listen to at a dinner party, but not something worth paying money to read about.

Top of page