Mariana Starke (c.1762–1838) published this work in 1802, launching her career as a travel writer. The work, consisting of twenty-five letters spread over two volumes, describes the political situation in Italy after the first Napoleonic campaigns and offers practical guidance for tourists visiting Italy's cultural sites. Volume 1 contains sixteen letters: the first seven describe Starke's experience of the Napoleonic conquest and the following nine describe the architecture, paintings and sculptures of Pisa, Florence, Siena, Rome, Naples, Bologna and Venice. The work quickly became popular as it took into account the increasing trend for less affluent families to travel abroad. Starke offers a wealth of advice on affordable food, accommodation, transport and entertainment; her famous rating system, employing exclamation marks to signify the quality of a cultural site, was the precursor of the modern-day system of star-ratings. This is a classic of Georgian travel writing.
