Byzantine Military Tactics

OK, it's really not THAT much of a stretch from medicine to killing - wounds, etc., right? Check out this link - it's terrific. Medievalists.net is a newsletter full of articles and things for us - medievalists. They have a great article on Byzantine military tactics, which the Normans either appropriated (I'm thinking specifically here of Robert Guiscard, but they all did it) or, is this more interesting - did the Byzantine Emperor learn this from his Varangian Guard?

La Cucina Italiana - food is history and culture - and books!

So this morning I'm reading Walking in Sicily by Gillian Price.  Being a historian of Sicily, albeit in the 13th century, I'm still interested in all things Sicilian.  She talked about gelato and then one of my favorite Sicilian drinks - granite.   She gives some history along the way, includes lots of maps (a must in my opinion!) and talks about one of my favorite food-culture-history books about Sicily - Mary Simeti's On Persephone's Island.


So I'm inviting readers of this blog to talk about their favorite books on the food, history, culture of not only Sicily but Italy - who wrote your favorite books and why are they your favorites?


By the way, a good friend of mine and professor is going to visit Puglia in a few weeks.  Doing some Norman history and possibly even going to Mt. Gargano - lucky dog!