This guide to Italian trattoria cooking features many recipes for pasta dishes that can be prepared in less than half an hour, as well as antipasti, soups, salads, fish, meat, poultry, rice and desserts. Readers are taken to the village osterias framed by rolling green vineyards in Piedmont, along the blue waters of the Ligurian summer resort of Santa Margherita, down narrow stone alleyways in Siena, through the doors of bustling vineyard eateries in Tuscany, and into the back rooms of boisterous trattorias in Rome. Patricia Wells is the author of "The Food Lover's Guide to Paris", "The Food Lover's Guide to France" and "Bistro Cooking".