Showing results by author "Martin Gani" in All Categories

Turkish Odyssey narrates a cultural journey through Turkey. The author travelled to all of this fascinating country’s main tourist sites giving a ‘like being there’ account of what visitors experience and enjoy there. We get detailed information, entertaining anecdotes as well as feel the atmosphere at prime tourist destinations like Istanbul’s exotic bazaars, prim and ordered Ankara (the capital), Cappadocia’s otherworldly landscapes, the holy city of Konya and world famous archaeological sites such as Ephesus, Aphrodisias and Troy. Fluent in Turkish, the author was able to get ...

The focus of this book is contemporary Cyprus, a visual exploration of the island's main cities both in the Turkish-speaking north and Greek-speaking south, namely capital Nicosia, Limassol, Larnaca, Paphos, Famagusta and Kyrenia as well as outstanding monuments, castles, monasteries and churches in their vicinity. In the prologue a brief history is given and why the island is still politically divided and physicallly separated into Turkish and Greek-speaking territories, explained

This is more than an account of my relationship with Italian, it's more like a linguistic as well as cultural journey. Learning a new language is indeed an awesome experience, realisation that you can effectively communicate in an idiom other than your mother tongue is an elating sensation; in the case of Italian, you suddenly realise you can talk to some 60 million people in Italy and an additional 25 million around the world equally proficient in Italian. Delving into the details of the language, its history, how it functions, its peculiarities, how it compares to English, how much it's ...

A visual journey, guide, to Ticino, Switzerland’s Italian-speaking canton illustrated with some 280 original photos. Latin in culture and Mediterranean in atmosphere it is unlike any place in Switzerland. Home to 350,000 inhabitants squeezed into 2,800 sqkm, it has scenic lakes and rivers; its mountains and rolling hills are crowded by skiers in winter, hikers and sunbathers in summer. Its valleys are like time capsules with jealously restored ancient villages punctuating green green pastures and woods. Ticino also has myriad cultural events from a non-mainstream international film ...

Experiencing France is the result of numerous trips to this fascinating country in search of art, culture, breathtaking landscapes, culinary delights, eco-beaches and more. Included are over 120 photos, 95% of them by the author himself, that will help appreciate to the full what's being described. The book isn't meant to cover every inch of France but does take in the best of what the country offers: Paris, Provence, Loire Castles, Alsace-Lorraine, Bordeaux among them. There's also a chapter on learning French which is not as hard as it seems, there are some 4,000 words French and English ...

A visual guide to the best of Tuscany

This is a photo essay, a picture story for adults, on the southern Italian region of Campania with Naples serving as capital. It is an attempt to highlight the vast cultural, artistic, architectural, archaeological treasures of the area blessed with a beautiful, varied countryside and scenic cities and townships dotting the coastline millions of tourists flock to see in all seasons. In 140 original photos aided by some 8,000 words the author gives a succinct, accurate account of this fascinating region exploring Naples, Salerno, the island of Capri, the archaeological sites, Pompeii and ...

A novel approach to poetry employing mostly rhyming but also freestyle writing to compose portraits, life stories of people from all backgrounds and social classes as imagined by the poet. What distinguishes the poems is the lightness, ease of language and surprising finale. After the very first poem the reader looks forward to the unexpected, entertaining at times moving, thought provoking, quirky endings. Alongside describing individuals through their jobs, be it a writer, filmmaker, busker, bartender, chef or factory worker, personality traits we'd expect of an optimist, pessimist, ...

This is an informative, visual guide to the best of Piemonte illustrated with some 190 photos. It covers the capital Turin, the Savoy royal palaces Stupinigi and Venaria, the Le Langhe region famed for its scenic vineyards and just as famed wines like Barolo, truffles and great food in general. The city of Asti, the western shore of Lake Maggiore including Stresa, Arona, Verbania, gardens of Villa Taranto nearby, Lake Orta, rice fields of Vercelli, Novara, and more...

Italian Lakes is a guide to Italy's 'Lake District' that extends across north of the country. Although the focus is on the three major lakes: Como, Maggiore and Garda, it also gives information on Lake Iseo, the 4th largest, as well as small lakes around Como. What distinguishes the guide is the inclusion of over 100 original photos to show you glimpses of visual delights awaiting you. There's detailed info on the nearest airports to the lakes and how to get around by public transport, where to take a boat trip, prices, what to see, and gives useful suggestions on where to walk to, trek or ...

This is a collection of 30 short stories with a decidedly Italian flavour, most are actually set in Italy but a few also unravel elsewhere, in London, New York, Istanbul and Cyprus to be precise, nevertheless maintaining a connection with Italy. It is a sequel to Violin-Maker's Secret that contained 25 stories; here most continue with the same characters but some new ones are also introduced such as the brilliant, and attractive, detective Leyla Leone based in Como and Luisa Dolce, a tour guide living in Milan. In this new series, the tales of mystery, romance and travel not only continue ...

25 Years in Italy is an informative, insightful and entertaining account of life in contemporary Italy. It sheds light on daily life, culture, food and language of this fascinating country as observed from the inside by the author over a quarter of a century of uninterrupted stay. Through 20 information-packed chapters we get answers to questions like, why did George Clooney come to live by Lake Como? Why is Grana Padano the most popular cheese when there are 820 types to choose from? Why do Italians lace their language with English/American terms? What do they watch on TV? Why did Leonardo...

A book for language lovers, 32 chapters focusing on topics like how the English language has become the lingua franca of the world today spoken by over two billion people; closely monitored by Oxford English Dictionary, it now counts some 60 million words with new ones added every year. How does UK English differ from US English and does this hinder communication between the Brits and Americans? How do learners perceive informal American English? A chapter deals with the verbification phenomenon, another questions the custom of creating acronyms like NIMBY and BAME, familiar to some but not...

Cyprus Revisited is part memoir, part travel literature and part solid journalism explaining the current issues in Cyprus regarding politics, lifestyle and economy but most of the book is focused on the cultural wealth of this fascinating Mediterranean island boasting a history that stretches back 12,000 years; Cyprus can easily be defined a cradle of civilisation.

Celebrities narrates the lives and works of 40 filmmakers, actors and writers the author has met over the last 20 years. Through interview-based, inter-linked profiles of these world-renowned personalities, the reader takes a cultural tour around the globe. The journey kicks off with charming Juliette Binoche of France and continues to Iran to meet two of Iran’s most prominent filmmakers. Briefly we return to France to listen to the vicissitudes of superstar Gérard Depardieu and call on Chiara Mastroianni to discover what it’s like to be the daughter of two superstars: Marcello ...

A delightful collection of 25 short stories with an Italian flavour, a number of them are actually set in Italy. The stories include several entertaining murder mysteries brilliantly investigated and solved by intrepid Lt. Vespucci based in New York. In another, an Italo-American travels from Dallas, Texas to Palermo, Sicily, looking for his origins, he's in for a big surprise. A Canine Called Kim, and Meeting Claudia Cardinale, are true stories; Violin-Maker's Secret, and An Excursion in the Alps, are based on true stories. Sometimes characters in one story reappear in another as in the ...

Haiku, three-line poetry, emerged in Japan in 16th century. Traditionally it is made up of 17 syllables divided into 5-7-5 parts and focuses on depicting nature. As the title implies, this compilation of 300 haiku does not follow this pattern nor does it only focus on nature but also philosophy, reflections on modern society, and includes a good dose of humour. Enjoy!

Authors third collection of poems this time focusing on the theme of love in all its manifestations not only romantic attachment. The poems are divided into five sections, first brings back voices from the past from well-known philosophers like Epicurus, to famed artists such as Raphael to sculptors with the calibre of Michelangelo not to mention poets Dante Alighieri and Shakespeare who express pearls of wisdom, an anecdote or an aspect of their life shedding light on the nature of love. The second section deals with living celebrities from Mick Jagger to Ed Sheeran to Mark Zuckerberg ...

Mostly fiction, autobiographical novel set in London narrating 18 years in the life of stand-up comic David Lion, alias Tevfik Aslan, from 1975 to 1993. Born in Cyprus Lion travels to London at the age of 18 to live with a father he barely knows, his parents separated when he was 6, and his father's English family he knows even less. The story develops along two parallel lines one recounting Lion's life on stage focusing on his performances, and the other his adaptation to life in a strange, cosmopolitan city with strange customs, food and abominable weather. He successfully attends school,...