One of the largest and wealthiest cities of medieval Europe, the home of Dante and Giotto has long been a magnet for lovers of art, architecture and history. In this short guide, Elizabeth Wilson Grierson shares her passion for the city, taking the visitor on an informative tour of its major sights as well as some of its hidden corners. - Summary by Phil Benson

The National Geographic Magazine, an illustrated monthly, the February Number. It includes the following articles: Crater Lake, Oregon, by J. S. Diller The Utilization of the Vacant Public Lands, by Emory F. Best The Mazamas, by J. S. Diller Geographic Literature, Serials and Miscellanea The National Geographic Society: Supplementary synopsis of a course of lectures on the effects of geographic environment in developing the civilization of the world

The National Geographic Magazine, an illustrated monthly, the January Number. It includes the following articles: The Gold Coast, Ashanti, and Kumassi, by George K. French All Around the Bay of Passamaquoddy, by Albert S. Gatschet Return of the Hourst Niger Expedition, by Ernest de Sasseville Geographic Serials, by Henry Gannett The National Geographic Society: Synopsis of a course of lectures on the effects of geographic environment in developing the civilization of the world, by Gardiner G. Hubbard along with Geographic Notes, and Miscellanea.

Venice, once among the most powerful states of the Western world, now a much-visited but still romantic city of canals, architecture and art. Most European cities have changed so much that a 1920 guidebook would be of little practical use, but not so Venice. Lonsdale and Laura Ragg were residents of the city - where Lonsdale was chaplain of St. George's English church from 1905 to 1909 - and they knew it well. Their guide brings its buildings and canals, its campi and its hidden campielli, to life in a surprisingly contemporary way...

Fascinating book for all ages telling of travels through Africa over 100 years ago. Covering the continent by steamer and train and other more primitive means of transport, the reader will enjoy learning of African life long before knowledge of this continent was available to most people throughout the world. Summary by BettyB.Note: This text was published more than 100 years ago in 1905.The listener should be aware that the descriptions of the native peoples, their dress and home life reflected the perceptions and thinking of the early 20th century which some listeners may find offensive.

A travel journal of a year the author spent in Germany. With a preface and two additional chapters by her partner, the novelist Ford Madox Ford . - Summary by barbara2

The National Geographic Magazine, an illustrated monthly, the March Number. It includes the following articles: Storms and Weather Forecasts, by Willis L. Moore Rubber Forests of Nicaragua and Sierra Leone, by Gen. A. W. Greely Recent Explorations in Equatorial Africa, by E. De Sasseville Geographic Literature, Serials and Notes

The National Geographic Magazine, an illustrated monthly, the April Number. It includes the following articles: A Summer Voyage to the Arctic, by G. R. Putnam The Area and Drainage Basin of Lake Superior, by Mark W. Harrington The Siberian Transcontinental Railroad, by Gen. A. W. Greely Geographic Literature and Serials

The National Geographic Magazine, an illustrated monthly, the May Number. It includes the following articles: A Winter Voyage Through The Straights Of Magellan, by the late Admiral R. W. Meade, U.S.N. Admiral R. W. Meade, U.S.N., by John Hyde Costa Rica, by Señor Ricardo Villafranca Applied Physiography In South Carolina, by L. C. Glenn Sheik Said, by Ernest De Sasseville Geographic Literature, Serials and Miscellanea

The National Geographic Magazine, an illustrated monthly, the July-August Number. It includes the following articles: The Venezuelan Boundary Commission and its Work, by Marcus Baker Mineral Production in the United States, by John Hyde The Forests and Deserts of Arizona, by Bernard E. Fernow Mount St. Helens, by Lieut. Charles P. Elliott Geographic Literature

The National Geographic Magazine, an illustrated monthly, the October Number. It includes the following articles: The Enchanted Mesa, by F. W. Hodge Electric Street Railways, by John Hyde Geographical Research in the United States, by Gardiner G. Hubbard and Marcus Baker A Brief Account of the Geographic Work of the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, by T.C. Mendenhall and Otto H. Tittmann United States Daily Atmospheric Survey, by Willis L. Moore Geographic Notes, by John Hyde

Description. History. “… those who read this book and have no opportunity of visiting the Tower expect that the characters in the moving drama of its history shall have some semblance of life as they walk across the stage…. My wish has been to persuade those who come to visit the Tower that there is a great deal to be seen in its immediate vicinity… A noble and historic building like the Tower resembles a venerable tree whose roots have spread into the soil in all directions, during the uncounted years of its existence, far beyond the position of its stem.” - Summary by Book Preface and David Wales

Paris has been often described, by travelers, by artists, by savants, by friends and by enemies, yet it was after reading most of the works descriptive of Paris that I felt how much there was still to be written, if not about Paris, at least about the Parisians.

Mungo Park, a Scottish surgeon and explorer, was sent out by the 'Association for Promoting the Discovery of the Interior of Africa' after Major Houghton failed to return, to discover the if the River Niger was a tributary of either the river Senegal or Gambia in South Africa. This is the story of his first trip. The journey had many challenges, such as language, religions, imprisonment and robbery. Most of the trip he had nothing but his tattered clothes, a horse, a pocket compass and his hat where he kept his notes...

The Book of the Ocean is precisely what its title promises. It contains a rather broad overview of all topics connected to the ocean, such as its geography and the history of the exploration of the oceans. Besides the oceans themselves, the book contains several chapters on the different aspects of seafaring: building ships and seafaring, war ships, merchant ships and voyages, piracy, and yachting. - Summary by Carolin

In 1908-1909, Mary Blair Beebe and her husband, C. William Beebe made two private expeditions to Venezuela and British Guiana, exploring and collecting live birds for the New York Zoological Park. They then collaborated on a book about their "search for a wilderness," with Mary Blair doing the bulk of the writing. The Beebe's supplemented tropical birding with visits to gold mines in British Guiana and a lake of pitch, which was being mined in the middle of the Venezuelan jungle. Mary Blair's take on things is evident...

One of the very first New Zealand novels, Over the Hills and Far Away is a heavily romanticised tale of a woman's journey from England to Otago, New Zealand, and her subsequent experiences in the wild new colony. - Summary by Lewis Fletcher

Here for you is the tale of my latest solitary ramble. The journey covers, as you shall see, some two hundred odd miles, through five southern counties of England, and was conceived on an unusual plan. To keep clear of the main roads, and, with two exceptions, the great towns; seeking out the least frequented lanes and by-paths. I covered the whole two-hundred-mile stretch of the way, with camera and pack at surprisingly little expense, by means of lifts taken in any chance vehicle that might be faring in my direction...

The National Geographic Magazine, an illustrated monthly, the September Number. It includes the following articles: Modification of the Great Lakes by Earth Movement, by G. K. Gilbert The Toronto Meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science The Great Unmapped Areas of the Earth's Surface Awaiting the Explorer and Geographer, by J. Scott Keltie The Compass in Modern Navigation, by G. W. Littlehales

Cambridge County Geographies was a 75 volume series covering the counties of England, Scotland and Wales. Separate volumes were produced for Lancashire north and south of the River Ribble. J. E. Marr's volume on North Lancashire covers a geographically diverse region, including Furness and the Lake District west of Lake Windermere that now spans Lancashire and Cumbria. As much a history, guidebook and gazetteer as it is a geography, Marr's volume paints a rich and in places idyllic picture of the northern parts of the county in the years before the first world war. - Summary by Phil Benson

Mountains have always been fascinating as places of special adventure. This book. first published in 1869, collects true stories of real-life adventurers climbing the world's most famous and most challenging mountains, without modern equipment to support them. Read here about the fate of these adventurers, their successes and failures, challenges and - Summary by Carolin

This late fourth century common era narrative of a Christian pilgrimage is the earliest such text which survives to us. It is an important source of information about early Christian practices. This book has an extended introduction which provides invaluable context and summaries, though some of it is a bit scholarly and dry. The text is damaged with some parts missing; missing parts will be designated in this recording by this verbal usage: “dot dot dot dot” . More information: Egeria, Etheria or Aetheria was a woman, widely regarded to be the author of a detailed account of a pilgrimage to the Holy Land...

In the summer of 1773, lawyer and antiquarian William Hutchinson set out from his home in County Durham on a tour of the English Lake District. Accompanied by his brother, George Allan, he travelled by horseback from Bowes to Penrith and Keswick, down through Grasmere and Ambleside to Kendal, and back via Kirkby Stephen to County Durham. When he returned home he wrote what may be the first guidebook to the Lakes. Written in a pre-Romantic era when English writers were just beginning to discover the delights of the scenic view, Hutchinson's account vividly describes a district that would soon be the haunt of literary giants such as Wordsworth, Southey, Matthew Arnold and Harriett Martineau...

James Cook , British explorer, navigator, cartographer, and captain in the Royal Navy was the son of a farm laborer. Apprenticed to a grocer, he ran away to sea. He saw hard service in the Baltic as a merchant seaman, while applying himself to the study of mathematics, navigation, and astronomy. In 1755 he volunteered for the Royal Navy, working his way up to captain. This little biography by Walter Besant, chronicles Cook's three voyages of discovery and his violent death in Hawaii. Cook replaced vague mythology with accurate observations of people and places, animals and plants...

It is in this world that Mayde has created his fascinating The Frozen North: "Great as are the barren grounds, or tundri, as they are called in Siberia, the arctic forest region is far greater, for it reaches around the globe in a broad belt, nearly a thousand miles in width. Few indeed are the occupants of these great tracts, compared with the more favored southern lands. The poverty of the soil, and the severity of the climate, prevent the growth of crops, and man is offered only such subsistence as can be gained by hunting and fishing...

The National Geographic Magazine, an illustrated monthly, Vol VIII, the November Number. It includes the following articles: Patagonia, by J. B. Hatcher Hatcher's Work in Patagonia, by W. J. McGee The Sushitna River, Alaska, by W. A. Dickey A Winter Weather Record from the Klondike Region, by E. W. Nelson The Russian Census of 1897, by A. W. Greely

In this little volume, Isaac Taylor takes us on a tour of Europe, anno 1824. We travel once around the entire continent, starting in England, through Scandinavia, Russia, down to Turkey, over the Alps, France, Spain, and back to England. The tour is made with poems and prose, and should be of interest to all listeners. - Summary by Carolin

William Caruthers was a retired newspaperman who spent 25 years listening to stories told by the inhabitants of Death Valley. This 1951 book collects those stories; the printed version has many interesting pictures. ''Of the actors who made the history of the period, few remain. It was the writer’s good fortune that many of these men were his friends. It is the romance, the comedy, the often stark tragedy these men left along the trail which you will find in the pages that follow.''

Selections from the "Observations and reflections made in the course of a journey through France, Italy, and Germany" by Hester Lynch Piozzi who, during her first marriage to Henry Thrale, was the hostess and friend of many of her famous contemporaries including Dr Johnson and Fanny Burney. The vivid and personal "Observations and Reflections" was first published in 1789. - Summary by barbara2

St. Nicholas was a popular magazine aimed at young folks in the late nineteenth – early twentieth century. Its articles were usually well-written and often by authors who became famous later on. This collection of articles published in 1920, aimed at the youth market, can be easily enjoyed by adults as well. - Summary by David Wales

“Let the reader imagine a deep lake of a blue colour, surrounded by verdant hills; in the lake several islets, some showing the bare rock, others covered with shrubs, while on all of them steam issued from a hundred openings between the green foliage without impairing its freshness: on the opposite side a flight of broad steps of the colour of white marble with a rosy tint, and a cascade of boiling water falling over them into the lake!” Such is Ernest Dieffenbach’s description of his first glance of the White Terraces in Lake Rotomahana, see cover image...

The Arctic has always been a fascinating area for us. This is true today just as much as in Adolphus Greely's time. In 1912, Greely published this volume of notable Arctic explorations and the explorers. The modern reader can follow a very readable account of the successes and failures of these early explorers comfortably from the armchair, and learn a lot of history in the processes. - Summary by Carolin