Books about Umbrian from Amazon.com

Marlena di Blasi seduced readers to fall in love with Venice, then Tuscany, with her popular and critically acclaimed books A Thousand Days in Venice and A Thousand Days in Tuscany. Now she takes readers on a journey into the heart of Orvieto, an ancient city in the less-trodden region of Umbria. Rich with history and a vivid sense of place, her tale is by turns romantic and sensual, joyous and celebratory, as she and her husband search for a home in this city on a hill—finding one that turns out to be the former ballroom of a dilapidated sixteenth-century palazzo. Along the way, de Blasi befriends an array of colorful characters, including cooks and counts and shepherds and a lone violinist, cooking her way into the hearts of her Umbrian neighbors.

Brimming with life and kissed by romance, The Lady in the Palazzo perfectly captures the essence of a singular place and offers up a feast—and the recipes to prepare it!—for readers of all stripes..
Price: $8.74 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Even after a century, Buck's Grammar of Oscan and Umbrian is still regarded as the authoritative English treatment of these languages, which were spoken on the Italian peninsula during the Roman Republic. Buck's introduction gives general information on orthography and lists key similarities and differences between these two languages, with comparisons with Latin. The grammar features an extensive 80-page section on phonology, followed by an equally detailed 100 pages on grammatical inflection and syntax. A collection of the most important inscriptions in Oscan and Umbrian follows, with a separate glossary for each language. Buck's work also features photographs and illutrations of important inscriptions, as well as a map. It is an indispensable resource for the study of the Italic dialects of pre-Roman Italy..
Price: $23.66 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Set in the hills and countryside of Umbria, a sister and brother find themselves drawn into the Resistance during the final days of the Second World War.

Winner of the 1998 Rapallo-Carige Prize.

In the hills and countryside of Umbria there is a house outside a village in which live Alcina and Aliseo, sister and brother. She is older, wiser, apparently stronger; he is younger, his head is in the clouds.

It is the last two years of war. The Germans are on the run, the local fascists engaged in a final desperate spree of cruelty and arrogance. Alcina confidently looks after the fields, runs the house and looks after Aliseo. But inside her heart there is fear, fear of loneliness and the terrible fear of death. She knows too much: her mother died giving birth to Aliseo, and her father also died young. Alcina and Aliseo join the partisans in the mountains: this experience will help her to overcome her fears. She will learn that there is space enough in her heart for all those things she previously denied, amongst them perhaps even love.

This is a surprising, beautiful novel of and about feelings, a subtle story, one difficult to forget. Alcina will remain with the reader for a long time, with her mixture of boldness and reserve, her secret fears, her ability to understand others and understand herself. She holds everything together, past and present, daily life and memory.

Translated by Sharon Wood.
Price: $10.50 [Notify me when price goes down.]