The Charterhouse of Pavia

With several thousand English-speaking professionals in Milan alone, it is a depressing fact that an Italian publisher will nevertheless choose a translator who is NOT a native speaker for this vaguely informative brochure on one of Lombardy's finest monuments. The monastery complex is breathtakingly beautiful and deserves better treatment than this shoddy makeshift excuse for a guide book. The original text is informative but unappealing (perhaps written long ago), the translation into English poor, and it seems that Ferdinando Valcarenghi, the director of the publishing house Velar and the person ultimately responsible, was asleep at the wheel. The photography is passable, but the typography, graphics, and layout lazy an outdated. All in all, at 5 euros the book costs very little and makes for a handy souvenir of one's visit.