Paul Duncan, the author of this book has travelled the length and breadth of Italy, sampling the hilltop towns and absorbing the character, history, festas and cuisine in every region. He looks into the often bloodthirsty past, both factual and legendary, and describes notable buildings ranging from Renaissance fortifications to a perfectly preserved 13th century village in Tuscany and the Ducal Palace at Urbino, where the remainder of one of Italy's great art collections is still the goal of many a pilgrimage. The lesser-known, sometimes sinister hilltowns of the South are given equal coverage for the first time - the undiscovered places of Calabria, Basilicata and Sicily, set strikingly into rocky hillsides, where pagan rites are still practised and Albanian is the mother tongue. John Ferro Sims was photographer for A Traveller's Guide to Food and Wine in Tuscany and The Renaissance of Italian Cooking. Paul Duncan is a freelance journalist writing mainly on architectural subjects for magazines such as Vogue, Architect's Journal and Harpers and Queen. He has written for the Royal Fine Art Commission, Save Britain's Heritage - with a book on Georgian London. m