NAN McELROY

Author, Italy: Instructions for Use,

Co-author & Executive Editor, France: Instructions for Use

Nan was working as a voice talent and Avid film and video editor when she first traveled to Italy in 1995. She was astounded by the country as a whole, as are most people, and yearned to have a conversation in Italian beyond the cost of a panino or the location of the duomo. Renting her condo during 1996 Atlanta Olympics gave her the opportunity to return to Bologna for an extended period to study the language, where she continued to notice the lack of access to and understanding of the most fundamental information concerning how Italy functioned (where do you buy a pair of scissors, anyway?), the kind that’s critical to any traveler who has so little time.

She returned to Italy for significant periods during the following decade, based in Bologna, but traveling throughout the country, improving her language skills, making friends and absorbing the culture. With the advent of the digital camera, the moment arrived to create the publication she wished she’d had on her first trip: something concise, current, well-organized, portable, accessible, thorough — and easy on the eye. Enter the highly-portable, Italy: Instructions for Use.

This tiny gem has found its niche, and now Nan — who relocated to Venice in 2004 — along with other collaborators and in-country co-writers, continues to pursue the same mission: to compile the valuable, practical information that regular guidebooks are unable to include, and to make that information available as directly, clearly, and economically as possible.