Sicilian Splendors by John Keahey

I love travel-related books and I love Italy! I've never been to Sicily, so I thought this would be the perfect introduction! I love the descriptions of the scenery and recommendations for places to visit. I loved traveling through all the villages and hearing about the things to do there. There's history tidbits and musings about the people there and how kind they are. The more relaxed lifestyle sounds amazing. My only wish was that it included some pictures! The best thing about traveling is the beauty, and I would have loved to see the places he was talking about instead of Googling every 5 minutes!

Sicilian Splendours - travels in Sicily but not the island that today's travellers will be familiar with. John Keahey immersed himself in the culture of this island of many facets, and the result is a thoroughly enjoyable, informative read..
Thank you NetGalley for allowing me to read this book in return for an honest review.

Italy, the land of life, joys, love, beautiful people and excellent coffee.

This book somehow carried me with my whole heart through this particular and quite unique part of Italy.

Author's observations, details about the picturesque tiny places and the all round beauty of Italy makes you want to plan your next vacation right there! And visit all the places mention in the book!

The religious shrines, the influence of different cultures, and the wonderful pictures that amazed me (I looked at them on the Amazon Kindle app on my tablet) just take you to that special part of Earth and you can picture yourself right there with all this knowledge about Italy.

If you want to travel and not pay too much I indeed recommend this book.

This is one of those books that makes you drop the book to jump online, buy your flight, go back to the book and start dreaming again.

I have always had Italy on my bucket list. If I thought of Sicily at all, was as the Mafia homeland, a dinky little island add-on that I would see if there was time when I finally make it to Italy. Wrong.

John Keahey brings to life this wonderful land of mountains and plains and spectacular sea views and seaside villages that shout out, calling you to stop and sit and immerse yourself in this varied life. I had not appreciated the fact that Sicily (and to a lesser degree mainland Italy) had been influenced by so many cultures as the land went through many many cycles of war and peace. Each war, each conqueror brought their influences in art and architecture, food and religion and Sicily reflects all of those changing worlds.

Keahey has a wonderful way with words, and an obvious love of the subject matter in Sicilian Splendors. I can now close my eyes and see why Sicily must now go to the top of my bucket list.

I received a free electronic copy of this excellent book from Netgalley, John Keahey, and St Martin's Press, Thomas Dunn Books, in exchange for an honest review. Thank you all for sharing your hard work with me.

This is a great travelogue of Sicily and made me want to book my travel immediately. The writer is well acquainted with the history and geography of Sicily and tells it's story in an eloquent way . He talks about the past, present and the future with much reverence but in some instances is quite melancholic. I got a real feel for the place and it's people and find that the book could have been improved by adding a map of Sicily so that we could follow his route and by including some pictures of the people and places he visited would have made the book more enjoyable. It is a bit slow in places but I enjoyed the atmosphere he describes in great detail. Other than that, all I can say is that I will be going to Sicily one day! Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing an ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review.

After some serious reading for work, reading Sicilian Splendors feels like the touch of blue semi-transparent water on the cost of Italy. Visiting the country a few years back and now reading this book about Sicily I'm again reminded of not only local crafts but also the kindness of local people (as the author also mentions).. Somehow, Keahey brought me back to Italy when the lasts days meant cloudful skies. So, mission accomplished :)

A loving tribute to the island of Sicily. The major missing for me was photographs. I really think the book needs some photos to make the book complete. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced reader’s copy in exchange for an honest review. 3.5 stars rounded up to 4.

A cute book that takes you through a bit of Italy. Using stories and vivid descriptions it will make you want to book your next flight to Sicily.

This is a book about the authors travels in Sicily and was a good read but not as a travel guide but if you are traveling to Italy you will enjoy reading this book on the plane.

John Keahey gives us a very detailed travel journal of Sicily, a place he knows very well. He is a great lover of its history and writers. Trying as best he can he takes us away from the idea that Sicily is nothing more than a place where the mafia comes from. While not shying away from this obvious aspect to Sicily, he shows us much more that is really at the heart of the island's culture and life.

It is a very detailed book and there are many references to much I was unaware of. I think the ideal reader is someone who might already have a taste for Sicily and wants to know more. To such a reader I would strongly recommend this book.

I love these travel and ex-pat books! I hope to go to Sicily someday and see the lands and towns Keahey writes about! I would love to visit all the villages, go to the fairs, the shops, markets, and parks, and restaurants. How wonderful it would be to spend a month just roaming.
The only thing missing, and it may be only because I have it on a Kindle, is photos. I do hope the book itself has some. But if not, I have read other similar books without them and have still enjoyed the stories!

As a lover of Sicily, I was curious to see if the author's impressions matched mine, especially since I had the occasion to visit a few of the villages he mentions.
He did. I revived every moment of my Sicilian travels. Sicily is a land of contrasts, of amazing beauty and terrible tragedies. John Keahey really knows that to understand Italy you have to go off the beaten track, absorbing the sun in tiny villages, sipping your double espresso in a Medieval square looking at the life going around.
Doing so, more than everywhere else in Italy, in Sicily you will discover a people of amazing kindness, often creating friends for life.
I would have liked to see pictures of this travel, I hope they will be present in the final version, otherwise it will be a relevant lack.
Also, Sicilian gastronomy is amazingly complex and rich, and this would have required a bit more attention. We are all lover of the amazing pasta pomodoro there, but there is much much more...
In any case, I highly recommend this book. Read the book and than come see yourself. You will not regret it.

A little long winded and self serving. I thought it would be funny and entertaining but I find it difficult to read the entire book... Sorry, just being honest