The illustrations and photographs are excellent and help the reader to recapture the essence of the Renaissance era. It describes the Renaissance in each of the city states in Italy introducing their political leaders and the major artists' works. With lots of pictures, this book is really fun to read and informative as well. It shows how Italy led Europe for several hundred years by its cultural power. It is saddening, though, as the same Renaissance era was also a time of constant power struggles and wars and massacres, as well as indulgence into pleasures.