Istanbul, 1840: the new sultan, Abdülmecid, has heard a rumor that Bellini's vanished masterpiece, a portrait of Mehmet the Conqueror, may have resurfaced in Venice. Yashim, our eunuch detective, is promptly asked to investigate but, aware that the sultan's advisers are against any extravagant repurchase of the painting, decides to deploy his disempowered Polish ambassador friend, Palewski, to visit Venice in his stead. Palewski arrives in disguise...

Introduces the land, people, and regional cooking of Italy and includes recipes for such dishes as Minestrone soup, spaghetti with meat sauce, and chicken cacciatore.

"Relevant images match informative text in this introduction to Italy. Intended for students in kindergarten through third grade"--

Inspired by Pythagoras's belief in four-fold transmigration, by which the soul is passed from human to animal to vegetable to mineral, Michelangelo Frammartino's wondrous docu-essay traces the cycle of life through the daily rituals of life in the southern Italian region of Calabria.

"In the tradition of M.F.K. Fisher and Peter Mayle, this enchantingly warm and witty memoir follows American-born Katherine Wilson on her adventures abroad, where a three-month rite of passage in Naples turns into a permanent embrace of this boisterous city on the Mediterranean. It is all thanks to a surprising romance, a new passion for food, and a spirited woman who will become her mother-in-law--and teach her to laugh, to seize joy, and to love"-- "When...

In Rehearsal for a Sicilian tragedy, actor John Turturro (Barton Fink, Do the right thing) takes audiences on a haunting, intimate journey to his maternal homeland of Sicily. There, while exploring the island's vanishing traditions, he is taken under the wing of one of the puppet theater's few remaining practitioners, Mimmo Cuticchio, who instructs him in the distinctively Sicilian art of puppetry. Filmed during preparations for the Sicilian Day of...