Map of Italy
MonteriggioniPadua
VeniceFerraraLucca
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Monteriggioni
See Montemurato on the Stravaganza site's Talia map (new window) for the equivalent Stravaganza city
I have taken more liberties with this poor medieval city than with any other place in Italy/Talia! I just picked it up and moved it bodily from near Siena to near Venice. It does have the twelve watchtowers of Montemurato and a wonderful torch-lit medieval festival every July.
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Padua
See Padavia on the Stravaganza site's Talia map (new window) for the equivalent Stravaganza city
This city suffers a bit from being Venice’s poor relation – just half an hour away by train. But it houses the most magnificent fresco cycle – Giotto’s in the Arena Chapel. Padua also lacks a city centre: it doesn’t have anything like the Campo in Siena or the Piazza della Signoria in Florence. But it’s still a wonderful city to visit.
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Venice
See Bellezza on the Stravaganza site's Talia map (new window) for the equivalent Stravaganza city
I used to think there were Florence People and Venice People and that I was a Florence Person. Actually that is true but I discovered I was also a Venice Person!
It was as much as surprise to me to write a books set in a sort of Venice as it was to write one featuring masks, since I hate masks, but writing fiction takes you to unexpected places. My favourite part of Venice is Canareggio in the north.
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Ferrara
See Volana on the Stravaganza site's Talia map (new window) for the equivalent Stravaganza city
I had a bad tower experience in Ferrara with my daughter, Rhiannon Lassiter. I knew I had vertigo but didn’t think she did. We went to Ferrara by train from Bologna one year when we were there for the Book Fair and visited the Castle of the d’Este family (we both love castles).
The dungeons were a bit claustrophobia-inducing, so I suppose we climbed the tower to get back up into the air. But it was HIGH! And gradually the realisation dawned that we couldn’t stay at the top for ever but would have to go down. The iron steps had a grid design that meant you could see the whole way down and when we reached the bottom our legs were shaking.
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Lucca
See Fortezza on the Stravaganza site's Talia map (new window) for the equivalent Stravaganza city
A wonderfully city with a virtually complete medieval wall around it, broad enough to cycle on. I don’t know how the bikes get up there, since I don’t ride one. But summer 2010 is the research trip for City of Swords, between Lucca and Carrara.
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Ravenna
See Classe on the Stravaganza site's Talia map (new window) for the equivalent Stravaganza city
You must go and see the mosaics here. Unlike frescoes, they don’t fade and there are just so many of them in Ravenna. And there is a very good square here – the Piazza del Popolo – where you can sit and drink coffee and watch the world go by.
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Florence
See Giglia on the Stravaganza site's Talia map (new window) for the equivalent Stravaganza city
See my Florentine Journal (PDF)
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Siena
See Remora on the Stravaganza site's Talia map (new window) for the equivalent Stravaganza city
See also my Palio Diary
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Rome
See Romula on the Stravaganza site's Talia map (new window) for the equivalent Stravaganza city
Surprisingly for such an Italophile, I didn’t visit the Eternal City till 2006 and I still haven’t got inside the Vatican museum. But – here comes an admission – I don’t admire Michelangelo as a painter. Though as a sculptor and architect, he is my absolute hero.
I love the way that Rome has ancient monuments, early Christian mosaics and Renaissance art, all in the same spaces. But it’s a bit too big a city for me to feel on intimate terms with it. I shall go back but my heart is in Tuscany.
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Pisa
See Moresco on the Stravaganza site's Talia map (new window) for the equivalent Stravaganza city
It’s a real shame for Pisa that everyone knows only about the leaning tower and the airport! It is a gateway to Tuscany and full of its own history. The famous tower would be well worth a visit even if it were straight – it is such an elegant design. I climbed it in 1965, when you still could.
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Bologna
See Belllona on the Stravaganza site's Talia map (new window) for the equivalent Stravaganza city
I go to Bologna almost every year, because it hosts the Children’s Books Rights Fair in an enormous exhibition space a bus ride outside the city centre. That doesn’t leave much time for sight-seeing but everyone who goes to Bologna must spend time in the Piazza Maggiore, with its Neptune fountain and cathedral housing the brass meridian line.
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Naples
See Cittanuova on the Stravaganza site's Talia map (new window) for the equivalent Stravaganza city
Not just the place where the pizza comes from! And the pink, green and white “Neapolitan” ice cream I ate as a child is a demonic parody of delicious Italian “gelato”. All the most wonderful artefacts from Pompeii and Herculaneum are here in the Naples museum.