According to Wikipedia: "Edmondo De Amicis (21 October 1846 – 11 March 1908) was an Italian novelist, journalist, poet and short-story writer. His best-known book is the children's novel Heart… In Florence, he wrote his first sketches dealing with his frontline experience, collected as La vita militare ("Military Life", 1868), and first published by the journal of the Ministry of Defense, L'Italia Militare. In 1870, he joined the staff of the journal La Nazione in Rome, and his correspondence at the time later served as base for his travel writings: Spagna (1873), Olanda (1874), Ricordi di Londra (1874), Marocco (1876), Costantinopoli (1878), Ricordi di Parigi (1879). A new edition of Costantinopoli was published in 2005, with a foreword by Umberto Eco."
