I just finished Tim Parks' Italian Ways. He's a Brit who has lived most of his adult life in northern Italy. The book is ostensibly about riding the trains in Italy though it's really about much more, the people, the politics, and the economics of the country. He writes in an effortless style, taking you along as he commutes between Milan and Verona; tries the high-speed northern lines; the complexities of the fares and buying a ticket; the different kinds of cars, the old train car rooms versus the modern airplane-like cars; his struggle to reach the western tip of Sicily on a Sunday; and the mysterious train that goes to the southeastern tip of the boot's heel. If only I'd read this prior to our visits, it would have been fun information, with details to look out for and mysteries, if not solved, at least discussed. Like the train that takes the ferry from Villa San Giovanni to Messina. Makes me want to go online and reserve a flight to Naples.