If your travelling style involves much more than racing through monuments and ticking off the standard "must see" list, because you seek to more deeply understand the present by looking at the past, this might be the perfect handy companion to complement a more practical travel guidebook.
More than one-quarter of the 400-plus pages are devoted to the history of Italy, with well written sections in Ancient Rome, the Renaissance, and the emergence of the modern Italian state in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. There are also superb featured sections on topics such as the Mafia, Italian fashion, and Italian cinema. These discussions are very compact. While not substituting for in-depth analysis on these topics, they constitute an excellent survey of different phases of contemporary and ancient history of Italy.
These are the main strengths of this book. It is a wonderful resource to consult while travelling after you have visited a monument, or as you reflect on the rich series of events and forces which have shaped the arts, political life, and institutions of this country.
Travellers who mainly want a helpful guide on planning travel to Italy and practical information such as museum visiting hours, best driving routes, where to find the best gelattos, etc. will find other travel guides more complete on these topics. You may think about using this book as a complement to one of these more practical guides.