Tweeting da Vinci

Imagine if you could see the River Styx, bathe in the Fountain of Youth, collect water which enhances fertility, wear a gem that heals bodily ailments, understand how our health is affected by geomagnetic fields, come close to the flames of Hell on Earth and much, much, more. Know something? These things exist—on Earth—today—in Italy and you can visit them.

Ann C. Pizzorusso reveals how Italy’s geology has affected its history, art, religion, medicine and culture. Her beautiful book is packed with facts, full-color photos, paintings, sketches and illustrations. She follows in the tradition of writers such as John McPhee and Steven Jay Gould who are able to present complex aspects of geology in a friendly, almost poetic style.

Pizzorusso’s real genius, however, is in her ability to stitch together widely diverse topics—such as gemology, folk remedies, grottoes, painting, literature, physics and religion—using geology as a thread. Quoting everyone from Pliny the Elder to NASA physicist Friedemann Freund, Pizzorusso’s work is solidly backed scholarship that reads as easily as a summer novel.

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Ann Pizzorusso