"Italy has been the center of the Roman Catholic Church for hundreds of years. Many of the country's traditions and holidays today are based on religious holy days. This interesting book describes national holidays in Italy that mark such events as religious festivals, as well as important historic events such as the country's independence. Other traditional celebrations featured include food festivals and family occasions"--

"The fifteenth and sixteenth centuries was an era of dramatic political, religious, and cultural change in the Italian peninsula, witnessing major innovations in the visual arts, literature, music, and science. Princes of the Renaissance charts these developments in a sequence of eleven chapters, each of which is devoted to two or three princely characters with a cast of minor ones--from Federigo da Montefeltro, Duke of Urbino, to Cosimo I de' Medici,...