Italy and sport: the passion that binds together a nation struggling to find its real identity
SPORTS BOOK OF THE WEEK Sport Italia: The Italian Love Affair with Sport , by Simon Martin Published by: I B Tauris What's It About? Italian sport, as the title would suggest, but rather more than that. Sport Italia is an expansive history of modern Italy viewed through the country's passion for sport. As such it offers a completely new portrait of Europe's most alluring and most paradoxical country, a land of contrasts, of conflicting traditions and regional disparities once described as not so much a nation as a geographical expression. Tracing Italy's sporting history at its high and low points, from its idealistic beginnings to its hijacking by political figures from Mussolini to Berlusconi, author Simon Martin interweaves elements of Italian history, its politics, its economy and society with the key moments in Italian sport. In doing so he offers a fresh interpretation to the story of modern Italy, explaining how and why sport holds