Vintage travel to Italy

browsing my collection of old guides and travel books

For travel writers and historians there is nothing more interesting than old guides and travel books. To begin the New Year 2025 here at the Painted Palazzo, let me share with you a few of the gems in my collection. Here is the first book I received about Italy, while studying in Ireland in the sixties.

Most were purchased for a few lire over the past 6 decades and their present value may range up to several hundred euro. They are treasured for the insights they give about life in Italy in past decades and centuries when no one could have imagined today’s problems of overcrowded cities and debates about sustainable tourism and travel.

some of the many titles published over the decades

Writers of historical fiction are well aware of the importance of correct historical facts in their work. For this reason they steep themselves in research, passing weeks traveling in the places they are writing about. Often I have visits from writers ( shout out to Laura Morelli and Etta Madden!) doing reconnaissance travel in Italy seeking the authentic language, costume, and geography of the place and time period they will be writing about next. Even Andre Aciman, a former student, contacted me as he did fact checking for his newest memoir “ Roman Year .”

Perhaps you are planning a holiday trip to Sardinia or to Taormina, Sicily where Lawrence penned “Lady Chatterly’s Lover” . A must read is D.H. Lawrence’s “The Sea and Sardinia” to better enjoy your experience and discover how much has changed since the 1930s -traditions, food and bus service.

What were the sanitary conditions in Naples like ? The descriptions in C.W. Heckenthorn’s 1875 record of travel “Roba D’Italia-Italian lights and shadows” will fill you in with more details than you ever wanted to know.

In a guide published in 1953 we find the price for a banquet for four in Spain was $2.67 and the fact that “ a Bicyclist can tour Europe on $1,40 a day “. Some of these post-war guides were a clever way to encourage Americans to travel abroad just as the Marshall Plan was helping Europe get back on its feet. Then along came Fodor’s, Rick Steves and internet!

delightful cover art for the cheapskate’s guide to Europe in the early 1950s

For the beginning collector of vintage travel books and guides there are many opportunities to pick up bargain books in the strangest places, especially when travelling. Older books in English are generally less valued in places where few speak English. I picked up a 1951 travelogue “Swordfish and Stromboli” in its original dust wrapper at an open air stall on a Naples sidewalk for 10 euro while a Canadian book seller lists the same book, without dust wrapper, at 128 euro!

To discover the value of your vintage travel books check out ebay shops in various countries as well as alibris, abebooks and maremagnum internet pages.

Click here to visit my ebay pages https://www.ebay.it/usr/maryjancrya_0. You will find books I have written about central Italy and its amazing history over the past 20 years as well as more than one thousand vintage books in several languages on subjects ranging from heraldry, history, archeology and literature . I mail out twice a week or if you are coming to central Italy, feel free to contact me and stop by for a browse.

the Russian and Albanian language shelves

latest English, Italian and bilingual titles

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Happy New Year to all my readers wherever you are in the World- leave me a message telling me where you are !