As a cook and literary buff, I always thought of Harry's Bar in Venice as a monument that has provided me with great inspiration.

Tucked away on a corner not far from St Mark's Square, it is quite small with low ceilings but with an incredible view of the Grand Canal from its first floor. The decor is very relaxing with small comfortable chairs and tables in pleasant shades of apricot and cream. Upon opening the doors, you immediately drink in the atmosphere that is intimate, worldly, historically rich and alive.

I remember the first time I visited Harry's bar twenty-five years ago. I went to this legendary bar, made famous by Ernest Hemingway, after having promised myself that I would only have a drink. I knew the prices would be outrageous for someone on a student budget since Harry's Bar had enjoyed an international reputation since 1931. But the moment that last sip of wine was out of my glass, I had to ask for a table. I do not remember what I had for lunch that day at Harry's Bar. I do remember though, how impressed I was by the quality of the house wine, the simple presentation of the food that tasted wonderful and the professional and friendly service with which the Harry's Bar staff made sure that this was going to be a memorable experience for me. So, Harry's Bar became part of my growing up and thus gained a significant importance in my life.

Ernest Hemingway used to have his own table in one corner of Harry's Bar. At the end of World War II, Hemingway dedicated to the bar a page of his famous novel "Across the River and into the Trees." The list of famous people who frequented Harry's Bar is long and impressive. Arturo Toscanini, Guglielmo Marconi, Charlie Chaplin, Truman Capote, Orson Welles, Baron Philippe de Rothschild, Princess Aspasia of Greece, Aristotle Onassis, Barbara Hutton, Peggy Guggenheim and Woody Allen, just to mention a few.

Harry's Bar opened in 1931 when Giuseppe Cipriani, an enterprising bartender at the Hotel Europa in Venice, was rewarded for his earlier generosity to a rich, young American from Boston named Harry Pickering. Pickering had been a customer at the Hotel Europa for some time, then suddenly stopped frequenting the hotel bar. One day, the elder Cipriani asked Pickering why he no longer patronized the bar. Pickering was broke, he explained to the bartender -- his family cut him off when it was discovered he had not curtailed his recklessness and fondness for drinking. So, Cipriani loaned his patron $5,000 U.S. so that Mr. Pickering could pay his hotel and bar bill as well as his cost of transportation home and ... have one last martini. Two years later, Pickering walked back into the Hotel Europa, ordered a drink at the bar, thanked Cipriani for the loan and handed him enough money to repay the loan and enable Cipriani to open his own bar.

In 1991, Giuseppe's son, Arrigo Cipriani, assembled a book of recipes: "The Harry's Bar Cookbook" (Bantam Books). The book contains more than 200 original recipes, more than 125 lavish full color photographs, wonderful anecdotes and insight into the nuances of classic Italian cuisine and their philosophy of entertaining.

During the 1930s and 1940s, founder Giuseppe Cipriani created many of the dishes still served today. Giuseppe invented the Bellini and the Montgomery cocktails. The Bellini, contains white peach pulp, juice and Prosecco (an Italian sparkling wine). Giuseppe is said to have invented it in 1948, and named the drink for the Renaissance painter Giovanni Bellini whose works were exhibited in Venice that year. The Montgomery, as Hemingway called it, is a very dry martini with a proportion of gin to vermouth of fifteen to one - the same proportion that the famed British General Bernard Montgomery was said to have endured when he lead his soldiers to fight against the enemy during World War II.

Other classics include: hot sandwiches; shrimp sandwiches (favorites of Orson Welles and Truman Capote); egg pasta with ham au gratin; risotto; and Carpaccio which is the most popular dish served at Harry's Bar. Consisting of paper-thin sheets of raw filet mignon, seasoned with a light white sauce, the Carpaccio, according to the bar's legend, was inspired by one of Cipriani's regular customers, the Countess Amalia Nani Mocenigo, whose doctor prohibited her from eating cooked meat. The dish was named after the celebrated Renaissance Venetian painter Vittore Carpaccio, famous for his use of bright red-and-white colors.

The "Harry's Bar Cookbook" is a beautiful book to own and a great inspiration for the creation of meals tantalizing to the palate. The recipes are innovative, well written and they work! This cookbook is the second best thing to having lunch at Harry's Bar, but with the stories in the book and your dreamy imagination, it's almost like being there!

The beauty of the recipes lies in their simplicity, their adaptability to a range of dining styles from elegant to informal and their memorable flavor. I hope you enjoy this cookbook as much as we do in our home.

My parents loved Harry's in the 1950s. I never knew why until I visited the bar in Venice myself in the 1980s. I cook a fair amount, so I often use someone's recipe just as a taking off point. I frequently think I can outcook most authors. Not so with Harry. Like Paul Bocuse, this is one of a few cookbooks where you should try to follow the recipe precisely. The world's best osso bucco, the best scampi fritto which anyone can cook and stun your friends, tuna fish mousse to startle you, the best sauteed mushrooms, and the world's best club sandwich. What else can you ask? If he says cut the tomato sideways in three even slices, try it. He does not waste words, and he does know how to cook.

March 23 I try to go there and celebrate my father's birthday. Mr. Cipriani celebrates his fatther too. I've never met him, but maybe that's another thing we have in common.

This book provides the best recipes for regional Italian cooking I have ever used. They are simple to follow, reasonable in the produce suggested, and they invariably taste fantastic.

My wife and I went to Harry's in New York, we can't wait to get back to Venice to try out the original.

For those of you in search of your Italian heritage need look no further. Everything you need is right here in this relatively cheap book written by, get this, a non-Italian! Whether you just want to get your grandparents birth records from the 1890's or go all the way back to the 1700's to get your 5th great grandparents marriage record, this book will tell you how, in easy step by step instructions. Can't read or write in Italian? Mr. Cole's book does that for you, too. Don't know your Italian history? Guess what? Mr. Cole does, and he shares it with you in his book.
There are many illustrations of actual Italian records from the 1800's to going back almost 1000 years, and he explains what each is and what the records say. This author covers the history of surnames as well.
With the information in this book, it would be virtually impossible for someone who's ancestors were Italian not to discover their heritage.
I strongly recommend this book.

This is a truly outstanding work. Well-written, fcat filled, concise, orderly. Dr. Cole covers all the important topics very well. If you buy just one book on Italian genealogy, this is the one.

Using just this book, a subscription to POINT journal, an Italian dictionary, and a Latin dictionary I was able to go through the LDS films of my grandfather's ancestral town and in a few months easily trace most of his lines back to the 1500s.

Very helpful for first time researchers. Detailed information and understandable. I recommend it.

Last April I spent 10 days in Italy with my family. I am a language fanatic so I used the trip as an opportunity to try out a new language similar to two that I had already studied (French and Spanish). This book really helped me learn the basics of conversational Italian, without being bogged down by intense grammar sessions and cumbersome textbooks. It is arranged like a children's language book with pictures and workbook pages that really help you become interactive with your learning.

Despite some reviewers, I enjoyed the fact that there were no tapes or CDs attached to this book. Listening to tapes for long stretches of time is, frankly, boring, and I know that I can just as easily fall asleep listening to tapes than actually learn the language. This book is fabulous for learning some Italian for a trip, but probably not for a long term study of the language. It is only an introduction and I know that I said I like the minimum amount of grammar in the book but a serious student would be stunted by those missing lessons.

One more comment that I would like to add is that I did not have the recommended amount of time to study with this book before my trip. Nonetheless, I learned Italian that helped me be polite, but maybe not a stellar conversationalist. The people there (and I would guess just about anywhere) appreciate visitors attempts at the native language. It shows common courtesy and acknowledges that you are visiting them, and not vice versa. There is too much Anglophone superiority in our country and, no matter which book you choose, learning some Italian is really appreciated.

The "10 minutes a day" books are a simple introduction in learning the basics of a foreign language. The layouts are in a workbook format that include puzzles, cut-out flash cards and sticky labels that you can place around your house to help you build your vocabulary. Easy to read, easy to follow and enjoyable. You'll build a vocabulary foundation that includes numbers, colors, how to tell time, the question words (who, what, when, where, how)and more. The simplicity of the books makes learning fun and you'll find your are spending more than 10 minutes. As a beginner in learning Italian myself, I paired this book with the Pimsleur Italian CD's. Reading vocabulary is one thing, but Pimsleur is really idea for comprehending how the language is spoken by native speakers.

I really enjoyed Italian in 10 minutes a day. It is well laid out, and fun to study. A perfect introduction to learning Italian. After this book I can recommend Italian Made Simple, which will then take you through most of the Italian grammar.

This is another fantastc book in the Culinaria series. I own their Spain, France, Europe, and of course, Italy volumes.

If you know these books, then here is the short review: It's excellent, buy it. For the uninitiated, this is as good as it gets for a full culinary tour of Italy. The pictures are beautiful, the stories interesting and educational, and the recipes are great too. Learn about the variety of Italian foods, the regions and their specialties (recipes, wines, cheeses, etc), as well as many other interesting stories (the origin of Harry's Bar). I cannot stress the excellence this book provides in the images, the organization, the culture, the background and so much more.

You'll learn about different vegetables, meats, fish, cheeses, wines, spices and some history every now and again. Even if you don't try the recipes, or even cook, this is an interesting book. It is big and heavy, but what would you expect from a book that covers all of Italy's regions? I don't know about the rumor from Utah (see below), but the book is that heavy.

Bottom line, these authors, photographers, publishers, etc. did an excellent job, and if you want a great well-written book for learning about Italian cooking, culinary styles and some of their culture, this is a must own.

very good magazine type survey, demonstrating deep knowledge of the regional nature of "italian" cuisine, which is in reality regional

this book is unbelievably heavy and there is a rumor that a copy fell off a table in utah and squashed a fox terrier

well worth the money if you dont own hundreds of old gourmets, )before they ruined it, bon appetittes, and saveurs

I have been a fan of the CULINARIA series of books (European Specialties, Spain, France, The Caribbean, Hungary, Germany, to name a few). CULINARIA's Italy is their newest addition. What set the series apart from the rest of the food market cookbooks (it is almost inaccurate to call them "cookbooks" since the emphasis here is never on the recipes) is not the superb full color photographs of almost clinical detail of the various foods, food groups, regional specialties, food processes and products typical of the regions being explored, or the carefully written essays on the subjects being covered, or the cultural authenticity of the selections and the approach taken to covering the issues presented.

What really differentiates these books is the love and the caring that is obvious that the editors have employed to produce every single entry into the series. All the CULINARIA books have a polished look to them, but they are more than mere glossy coffee table books (although I must admit that they look really good anywhere u place them!);they are veritable reference sources of not only the food but also of the culture of the nations and regions they explore.

A veritable cornucopia of information, these books are the kind of books that can be cherished for a long time. The "Italy" book is one more jewel in the crown. Keep them coming!

The Knopf guides series are unique. They combine colorful pictures, in-depth historical background and detailed descriptions of sightseeing attractions. They are handsomely bound on bright glossy paper. I preferred the old style of plastic semi-hard binding that has recently been phased out. There are so many great places to visit in the Bay of Naples that they couldn't cover it all and include everything but it's better than any other I've seen.

Guides such as the Michelin Green Guides series will devote just a few paragraphs to an attraction. Such guides have the advantage of being organized in a more orderly way that's much more conducive to touring by car.You can read a few sentences about the place you are about to see before you get out of your tour bus or rental car. The Knopf guide instead would be better read at home even before taking any trip. The wise traveler would be best served by having an in-depth guide such as this or the Rough Guides series and a guide with brief descriptions like the Michelin guide.

The Naples guide contains excellent separate sections for Pompeii (over twenty pages), Paestum, Capri and Herculaneum.
If you are an archeology buff like me this is a great improvement over the 1 or 2 pages that other guides devote to these important but overlooked historical sites. The three delightful Greek temples at Paestum are older than the Parthenon in Athens and less than 100 miles south of Naples on a flat plain (no climbing up a hill as in Athens).

A minor negative point is the use of drawings where photographs would have been more useful; this seems to be true for all of the Knopf guides I've seen. An aerial photograph to give the lay of the land of a city or historical site would be more useful than a drawing that is of uncertain accuracy.

After reading the other reviews of this book, I decided to buy it and I am glad I did. It gives a wonderful account of the history and traditions of this remarkable area. I would recommend it highly for anyone planning to stay in Naples for more than just a short vacation and for people who are just interested in learning more about not only the monuments and churches, but also the rich culture.

You'll love this book if you're the type of person that also enjoys reading National Geographic. This guide is packed with wonderful art, drawings, maps, photographs, and interesting text. It's really much more than a typical tourist guide. It helps one have deeper understanding of Napoli through an exploration of history, culture, geography, and geology. It's an especially great selection for those people planning to call Napoli home.

RW - US Navy

I love this book! If only for the chapter about food, this book is worth much more than the $15 I paid for it.

We live a busy lifestyle full of hustle and bustle and fill our days with more and more, right up to the last minute. Yet we still seem to always be searching for something, the perfect diet, perfect job, the perfect way to find happiness. Raleen D'Agostino Mautner has provided that way to do just that, in an obvious and simple way. Slow down, eat well, and be happy. She then goes on to tell us how, based upon a lifestyle that all Italians, Italian Americans and those of mediterranean descent have always known. She gives us principles to live by and livens it with antecdots, stories and receipies. She combines food, physical health, mental health, love, and culture to create a menu for living La Dolce Vita... the sweet life. If you want to slow down and enjoy life, regardless of your national descent, then buy and read this book. If you are of Italian descent, then buy and read this book. It will reinforce and reconnect you with everything you grew up hearing and living, and will make you proud that you did. A wonderful book for all.

In Doctor Mautner's beautifully written book she has simply yet interestingly described a road map for all of us seeking more happiness and more juice in our intensive, complex and high tech lives! And while she focusses on the Italian culture she does so in a way that makes it clear that a reader of any culture can take the cultural spices and seasonings of the Italian culture, add it to their own and crank up their life to a zesty dish to be savoured! The nine principles in this book will give you a spiritual grounding for life if practiced. I've had no plans to visit Italy before now -- it's become a must do!

If you've ever been to Venice and New Orleans, you'll love this book - not to say that it isn't lovely otherwise, but I found it marvelously evocative of place.

The Marriage of the Sea is a very well written novel about love and coincidence in contemporary Venice and New Orleans. The novel has a wonderful flow, and moves back and forth among a number of characters all in search of some relationship-related satisfaction while all chasing satisfaction with careers. This is a quick, compelling read without much of a plot. The beauty of the novel lies rather in the crisp, fresh writing. This evocative novel has a certain timelessness to it that makes it a wonderful read. Enjoy.

Once again, Jane Alison's poetic, nuanced prose enchants the reader in this, her second novel. As in The Love-Artist, her themes include the meaning of creation, the quest for immortality, the nature of art, the power of the bonds between lovers. Here, however, she sets her tales in several waterfront cities, primarily Venice and New Orleans, and handles those themes and others in a modern context. One character, boating across the lagoon of Venice, "thought about all that had once sailed here from over the waters: vermilion, serpentine, lapis lazuli, and silk that would sometimes be so subtly woven as to have the look of the sea, moire, or to sparkle like the paths of fireflies."
The novel works almost like a minuet, with the stories of several characters who exchange partners with each other, seizing or relinquishing creative and emotional ties as the tide seizes and relinquishes treasures or trash from the sea. Alison's exploration of creative effort and agony is complex and moving. This book was highly praised in the New York Times Book Review and was listed in that publication's And Bear In Mind column (editors' choices of recent books of particular interest). I highly recommend it!

This is yet another Italian cookbook suffering from poor proofreading and kitchen testing (judging from the severe errors in the one recipe I've tried so far, the Polenta with meat sauce). I don't see how they could invest so much money in beautiful photography and printing and yet completely drop the ball in what matters most, making it easy and pleasant to generate the meals.

Of course, that doesn't matter most in selling the book off the shelf, so publishers are getting away with it. But I will gripe here when I have a chance and punish them for their oversight. (The thing could have been done in half the time, with a third the salt, and anyone trying it would realize this immediately once it was too late...) I also want preparation times in my recipes and make-ahead and storage/leftover notes.

Otherwise this book is beautiful and has one tempting page after another with plenty of useful Italian translations and an encyclopedia of ingredients and wine all of which sold me the book and I am generally happy enough with it. But I will defensively make the recipes from now on, now that my trust has been violated.

Being a huge fan of Italian cooking (and quite a good novice in my own right) I was very eager to find a good cookbook on the subject especially after returning from a month long culinary tour of the pennisula in November. Well, I hit the jackpot when a friend presented me with a copy of Gastronomy of Italy. It is a simple, beautifully written and presented book on the foods of Italy. Anybody who is looking for a really good book on Italian cooking need look no further than this. I spent over 3 hours on the first evening just savoring the recipes and drooling over the photographs!! Bella! Enjoy. Scott

Being a huge fan of Italian cooking (and quite a good novice in my own right) I was very eager to find a good cookbook on the subject especially after returning from a month long culinary tour of the pennisula in November. Well, I hit the jackpot when a friend presented me with a copy of Gastronomy of Italy. It is a simple, beautifully written and presented book on the foods of Italy. Anybody who is looking for a really good book on Italian cooking need look no further than this. I spent over 3 hours on the first evening just savoring the recipes and drooling over the photographs!! Bella! Enjoy. Scott

By Bill Marsano. Jo Bettoja (pronounced bet-TOY-a) went to Italy from
Georgia in the early 1970s as a model; she stayed to marry and become one
of the great ambassadors of Italian cooking. By now she's a kind of
culinary-cultural monument.

This is her latest and most delightful book--it fails to get a fifth star
through no fault of her own--because it focuses on Roman cooking (the fad
for the rather overrated Tuscan is abating at last) and because it is so
personal. You can feel it from her opening sentence: "My home is in Rome,
not far from the Trevi Fountain, just a short walk to the marketplace."
Isak Dinesen's "I had a farm in Africa" is another memorable opener, but
with Jo you know you're going to eat. And she takes you right to her
marketplace, and through Roman traditions and foibles and lore, while
piling on the recipes.

Which are not all Roman, by the way. Romans have, over the years,
grudgingly admitted that some other Italians can cook, at least a little,
and so what we have here are real Roman recipes and adopted Roman recipes.
Pastas are especially abundant because no Italians are so crazy about pasta
as Romans. There's also a nice selection of egg dishes (legacy of Ancient
Rome) and fritti misti or mixed fries, a more modern Roman passion.

In the tradition of cookbrook writers of her era, Jo doesn't discuss wine,
so allow me to recommend Rome's white, light and beguiling Frascati, which
entranced Americans during the postwar "sunny Italy" tourist boom. Back
then (the 1960s), Frascati was merely popular; today it's a quality wine.
Look for Fontana Candida's Santa Teresa and Terre dei Griffi; Villa
Simone's Vigneto Filonardi and Vigna dei Preti; Falesco's Vitiana; Colle
Picchioni; and Conte Zandotti's San Paolo.

So--why no fifth star? Poor design, deserving of a sound smack or two with
a wooden spoon. No, make that a rolling pin. Thinking to introduce color to
the pages, the designer chose a light mustard-yellow for many of the recipe
headings. Sorry, but it tends to blend in and so is hard to read. The
ingredients lists use a smallish italic that also fades. The body type is a
fuss-budget's dream, distracting with its silly, swishy little details.
Forty years in publishing have taught me that type's job is to convey
information legibly and easily, not to call attention to itself.

By the way: Some travelers may recognize the name. That's because Jo is the
wife of Angelo Bettoja, owner of one of Rome's finest hotel groups. Their
five family-run hotels, centrally located and well priced, are, like this
book, full of Roman warmth.
--Bill Marsano is an award-winning writer on wine and spirits, travel and
other subjects.

Last spring, I passed a pleasant hour conversing with Jo Bettoja in her gracious Roman apartment near the Trevi Fountain.

This spring, I've passed many pleasant hours visiting again with Jo Bettoja - this time in the pages of her inviting new book "In a Roman Kitchen: Timeless Recipes from the Eternal City."

Bettoja is an American from Millen, Georgia, a small town near Savannah. As a young woman, she traveled to Rome on a modeling assignment. She fell in love with the city and also with Angelo Bettoja, to whom she has been married for nearly 50 years. The couple have three grown children. Having lived the better part of her long and colorful life in Rome, I believe it's safe to say that Jo Bettoja is Italian. Just as a religious convert is sometimes more zealous than someone born to the faith, Bettoja spreads the gospel of genuine cucina alla Romana with unparalleled passion.

It seems wherever she has tread for the past half century on the ancient stones of the city, recipes and food lore present themselves to her. Bettoja credits her initial training in Italian cooking to her husband. Then, in the 1970s, with Anna Maria Cornetto, she launched the fashionable cooking school Lo Scaldavivande. She has also written several cookbooks and published magazine articles.

"In a Roman Kitchen" is touchingly personal - like a collection of recipes and memories a mother would pass on to a daughter. These days, Bettoja still scours the street markets for the finest seasonal produce and other ingredients. She tells us of puntarelle, sliced chickory stems only available for a short time in spring, and the renowned carciofi alla Giudia, Fried Artichokes The Jewish Way. She culls dishes of noble pedigree, such as Chicken Breasts for the Princess from her friend Signor Ettore Nibbi who started his culinary career as a kitchen boy in a Roman palace. At the other end of the social scale, she transcribes recipes from a taxi driver including one for delightful Baked Stuffed Chicken Breasts (recipe follows). She cajoles her friends into sharing tempting home-style recipes such as Mina's Meat Loaf and Ginetta's Party Pasta.

She escorts us to her bakery Riposati that faces the Trevi Fountain. "They sell a little bit of everything, but they have kept their ovens and still make their bread, only once a day now, but still of fine quality," Bettoja writes. "During Carnival they make the traditional sweets, frappe and castagnole, which are particularly good, and small simple pastries all year long. They have small and large rolls of all kinds, Terni loaves, bread with and without salt, squares of 'white' pizza painted with olive oil and sprinkled with kosher salt, 'red' pizza with tomato sauce on top, rough white country bread, Arab bread, brown coarse loaves, and so on."

Bettoja is a sorceress of succulence. Leafing through the recipes for Bucatini all'Amatriciana (long hollow pasta in tomato sauce with bacon and hot pepper), Calamari alla Romana (squid in spicy wine sauce), Coda alla Vaccinara (braised oxtails with celery), Abbacchio al Forno con Papate (roast baby lamb with potatoes), Piselli al Prosciutto (sweet peas with prosciutto), Crostata alla Romana (Roman cherry jam tart), and Semifreddo con Fragole (frozen cream with strawberries and almond praline) makes one ravenous. Candid halftone photographs, by Paolo Destefanis, of street scenes and food markets season the work with a sense of place.

All Bettoja's recipes are written with simplicity very much attuned to the time and talents of home cooks whether or not they have the grand fortune to live in Rome.

I visit Rome once a year, and in between times I dream of it. Of course, sitting in a Roman trattoria enjoying a fritto misto Romano , perhaps with artichokes, zucchini, or salt cod, tasting the wintery greens such as puntarelle, and hazlenut desserts, makes up part of that dream. Now Jo Bettoja has made the dream a savory reality, allowing me to create some of those joys here in New York, while imagining the sun set over St Peter's of course. Even a non-meat eater like myself can find dozens of pleasures in this treasure of a book.

"This well-researched biography of the first woman to earn a university degree...conveys the majesty of the Italian baroque period and [the Lady Cornaro's] astonishing scholarship." (Donald Miller, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Senior Editor)

I recently noticed that the popular "Book Lover's Page-a-Day Calendar" chose to include THE LADY CORNARO as its featured "star" for December 11, 2002.

"You've probably never heard of Elena Cornaro," observes the calendar entry, "yet she holds a unique place in history. In 1678, she became the first woman in Europe to receive a Ph.D. Jane Howard Guernsey's book is the first full-length biography of this remarkably accomplished woman . . . an inspiring story."

I believe that it is highly appropriate for THE LADY CORNARO to be included in a book lover's daily calendar described as "365 days of good authors, good books and good reading . . . the calendar of passionate recommendations." Truly, THE LADY CORNARO is an outstanding book, worthy of a passionate recommendation!

Although it is unlikely to happen, Elena Cornaro really should be nominated one of the hundred most important people of the last thousand years. In this carefully researched and highly readable book, Jane Howard Guernsey has successfully reconstructed the story of the Lady Cornaro's astonishing achievements and raised the questions they invite. The author has added to the recoverable information about the life of "The Cornaro," as she was affectionately known to her fellow Venetians, valuable contextual details about the life and milieu of Venice and Padua and about her tutors and contemporaries. These details elucidate both the uniqueness of the opportunities granted her and the enormous stress under which she lived as she labored to do the will of her earthly and her heavenly fathers. (Professor Rizzo's more extensive review of "The Lady Cornaro: Pride and Prodigy of Venice" may be found in "Tulsa Studies in Women's Literature," Vol. 19, No. 1, Spring 2000.)