Italy is an historical country, a place where the past is always present - and this is well illustrated in the rural interior style, which borrows and adapts from other eras and places, editing and refining as it goes, but culminating in a look that is chic, original and always comfortable and easy to live with. The first part of Italian Country Living explores the essential ingredients of this style, taking in colour and texture before looking at the inimitable mixture of simplicity and comfort evident in furniture and fabrics, and going on to admire the innate gift of the Italians for living outside with the same panache as they do indoors. The second part looks in more detail at individual country houses. Whether Rustic, Contemporary, Exotic or Traditional in character, these homes offer a mass of inspirational ideas for interior decoration. Modern and lively, classical and subtle, and always with a sense of the tradition and presence of the surrounding landscape, Italian country living is a necessity for all those who long for la dolce vita.