“Golden Days are easy to come by when you’re in Italy. They’re those days when Italy’s sensual pleasures harmonize, and you just bask in the golden glow of it all.”

—Susan Van Allen

I feel as if I know—and really like—Susan Van Allen, even though we’ve never met. Our lopsided relationship began the moment I opened her book 100 Places in Italy Every Woman Should Go.

Skimming through each enticing destination with Susan is like traveling to Italy with a friend who’s funny, smart, adventurous and incredibly informed. Her ardor comes naturally, born at her Nana and Papa’s dining table Papa in Newark, New Jersey.

Susan—who lives in Los Angeles and writes for travel media as well as television— approaches Italy actively (and not only in her section on biking, hiking, boating and other get-a-move-on recreations.) She leads readers beyond passive tourism into engagement in the culture and with the people.

Author Susan Van Allen

Entries are grouped by special interest sections such as “The Divine: Goddesses, Saints, and The Blessed Virgin Mary,” “Gardens,” “Beaches,” and “Learn Italian Crafts and Culture.”

If you’re in Naples, you’ll be sure not to miss the Venus of the Beautiful Buttocks in the Museo Archeologico Nazionale.

When you’re in Tuscany, you’ll go out of your way to experience the magical Tarot Garden in Capalbio, designed by artist Niki de Saint Phalle.

If you crave secret coves, you’ll find a way to Scopello on the western coast of Sicily. A free horseshoe-shaped expanse of white pebbles and fine sand is hugged by limestone towers and turquoise water. Oh, and Lo Zingaro National Park with its rocky hiking trails and panoramic vistas is next door.

And if hands-on is thumbs-up for you, choose a craft. Making masks or mosaics in Venice . . . weaving and embroidery in Perugia . . . cooking in the shadow of Greek temples in Paestum.

With the destinations, Susan includes tips on lodging and dining to make the experience a “Golden Day.” Recommended books, Web sites, Resources, and Advice from Other Writers are included to amplify the information.

I’ll be savoring the book in a cozy reading chair but when I do pack my bags for bel’italia, I just might want to download the 100 Places in Italy iPhone app. Just hope the olive oil massage at Masseria Torre Maizza in Puglia doesn’t smear the screen.

For a chance to win a free copy of 100 Places in Italy Every Woman Should Go, leave a comment. Please include your e-mail address in the comment box so we can contact you. The winner will be randomly selected on June 1, 2010.

Berks County, PA farmers Charis and Michael, opening day of the Emmaus Farmers Market 2010.

How do I get in touch with my Inner Italian when I’m not in Italy? For seven months of the year, I purchase just-picked produce at my local farmers’ market. It’s one of the best ways I know of to eat “Italian.”

Dinner possibilities sprouted before me.

Walter grilled onions and asparagus coated in olive oil while I cooked rigatoni.

I tossed in some cooked cannellini beans and sage for the first of many simple, satisfying summer meals to come.

Sprinkle on freshly grated Parmesan or breadcrumbs crisped in olive oil for a vegan dish.

How does seasonal produce inspire your meals? Share your story.

All my gardenista friends assured me that wisteria cannot, actually will not, die.

“Sharon,” they warned, “it will take over your pergola. . . your roof. . .then your entire house. Eventually you will be trapped in a maximum security wisteria prison.”

Boy, were they wrong! The newly constructed pergola behind our sub-division home was sitting on a slab of soil as hard as concrete. Several wisteria plantings succumbed. After I had the brilliant idea to construct planter boxes for new attempts, the voles moved in to pig-out on the all-you-can-eat roots buffet.

Now, 10 years later, I am triumphant. I have not one, but two, wisteria that bloom. How I appreciate them.

Every spring when I gaze at these impossibly gorgeous pendulous blooms, I’m reminded of the film Enchanted April. It starts as Lottie the frumpy post WW I English housewife reads a newspaper advert for vacations in Italy:  “To Those Who Appreciate Wisteria and Sunshine.”

This flick is quintessential posh Brit production.  Lush settings and costumes showcase a tale of British hot house flowers—Lottie and three new acquaintances who  share the villa rental—blossoming under the Mediterranean sun.

Italy works its fatal magic on the quartet, of course.  We’d expect nothing less for those who appreciate wisteria and sunshine.

Directed by Mike Newell, this 1992 film features a stellar ensemble cast including Jim Broadbent, Miranda Richardson, Josie Lawrence, Polly Walker, Joan Plowright, Alfred Molina, and Michael Kitchen. Set in London and the Ligurian coast of Italy in 1922, this gentle comedy is love-and-life affirming.  Rent the film on Netflix or purchase a copy at amazon.

A statue of the artist and architect Giotto stands outside the Uffizzi Gallery in Florence.

Art restorers using ultra-violet rays are seeing rich original details of Giotto’s paintings in the Peruzzi Chapel in the Basilica di Santa Croce in Florence that have been hidden for centuries, according to an exclusive just-released story from Reuters news service.

The dry painted frescoes, said to have influenced Michelangelo, had been whitewashed and then badly repainted over the course of centuries.

Reporter Philip Pullella describes one panel of the Giotto viewed under ultra-violet light, “In the scene where God is accepting John the Evangelist into heaven, the wrinkles in John’s forehead, the threads of his beard, the whites of his eyes and God’s welcoming gaze appear like fleeting but powerful visions.”

Giotto di Bondone, known simply as Giotto, painted in the late 1200s and early 1300s throughout central Italy. His work was seminal in moving artists away from the stiff portrayls in Byzantine paintings to the more humanistic renderings of the Renaissance.

Photograph of Elena Kostioukovitch by Massimo Pasquale

Elena Kostioukovitch is not Italian. She was born in Kiev, Ukraine. But Kostioukovitch is deeply in touch with her Inner Italian. How do I know? I’ve been reading Why Italians Love to Talk About Food, the Farrar, Straus and Giroux publication of her book.

Kostioukovitch’s day job is to translate the literary works of Umberto Eco and other authors into the Russian language. Also an essayist and literary agent, she has lived in Milan for more than two decades. She explains in the preface to her 400-plus page tome, “This book was born specifically to assemble in a single volume stories about the symbolic foods of each Italian region and their ‘ideological’ meanings.”

She creates an intellectual journey from the north of the peninsula to the south, exploring culinary history, characteristic dishes, and cultural eccentricities of each region. Her research is rigorous — footnotes and bibliography cover more than 30 pages.

We learn, for instance, that the aperitivo Campari was created by Gaspare Campari at the Caffè Zucca in Milan in 1867.

We practically taste the brine on our lips as we discover that the remaining wilderness of Puglia fosters in the locals a preference for unadulterated foods. “The tendency to eat unprocessed food is especially evident in the consumption of raw fish. In fish markets, for example, it is customary to set out plates of raw shrimp, cuttlefish, and mussels for customers who are waiting, to be eaten on the spot with a squirt of lemon.”

And who knew that Nutella, the jarred gianduia paste created by the Ferrero brothers in Piedmont, makes a political statement? Kostioukovitch explains, “Nutella, loved by children (naturally) and adults, was also prized by nonconformists and leftists. As Italy’s answer to [American peanut butter], it is winning, uplifting, and youthful, a sign of democracy and leftist ideals.”

Essays interspersed between the regional food chapters are quirky and informative, covering topics as diverse as the “Jews,” “Early Gifts from the Americas,” “Totalitarianism,” and “Joy.” I particularly appreciated “Preparation Methods,” a roster of dozens of cooking techniques written in sort of a shorthand code. Not much is spelled out for the Italian home cook in printed recipes—presumably the cook learned these methods at an older cook’s elbow.

“Soak prickly pears.”

“Extract the ink from cuttlefish.”

“Shape polenta in a cloth.”

“Crogiolare (bask or laze comfortably): cook a food over a slow fire, with a little liquid, for a long time.”

One word of warning: Perusing this volume can be hazardous on an empty stomach. Hunger ensues. References to Roman coda all vaccinara (oxtail stew), Neopolitan sartù, (a rice mold with giblets, mushrooms, peas and mozzarella), Ferrara’s pumpkin filled tortelli, Calabrian jujume (sea anemone fritters), Sicilian granita with brioche, and more dishes too numerous to recount will surely make you long to be dining at an Italian table.

Kostioukovitch bottom line is this: “Examining the culture of food, we also come to understand its unique ability to inspire joy and create harmony. Whether at table with family, in a restaurant with friends, or at a scientific conference—food is talked about in a language that is accessible to all, exciting to everyone, democratic and positive.”

What conversations have you enjoyed around an Italian table?

Comment below.