Umbria

The Green Heart of Italy provides an intimate portrait of the lush and verdant region of Umbria, known as ’Tuscany without tourists.’ The pandemic halted international travel and access to most areas of Europe, creating lasting impacts on these regions which benefit greatly from outside visitors. Now, in the post-Covid reboot of Italy’s ever growing tourist industry, Umbria is poised to attract much needed visitors to help support this central region of the country. The Green Heart of Italy weaves between exteriors and interiors of this unique emerging region, painting a picture of an oasis unknown to most. This monograph also incudes an extensive body of text, written by Frank Van Riper that provides a first hand account of these often overlooked gems.

Frank Van Riper and Judith Goodman are husband and wife documentary and fine art
 photographers, whose work has been published internationally. Goodman’s photography has hung in the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, DC and the Baltimore Museum; she also is an award-winning assemblage sculptor and a member of the Washington Sculptors’ Group. Van Riper’s photography is in the permanent collections of the National Portrait Gallery (Washington, DC) as well as the Portland Gallery of Art (Portland, Maine.) His 1998 book of photography and essays, Down East Maine: A World Apart, was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize and won the silver award for photography from the Art Director’s Club of Metropolitan Washington.