Like her earlier Notes from an Italian Garden, this book has much to say both about Italian flowers and about Italy's current problems. Her book ends with the death of Indro Montanelli, Italy's most senior journalist, who saw Italy become one of the world's most prosperous nations but despaired of its becoming an ideal democracy. Joan Marble notes that Montanelli began his career at United Press. So did she; and had she lived longer she might have told us perceptive things about America's current problems. As it is, she has left us two fine books which I will want to keep re-reading for a very long time.