Barbara's Heritage: Young Americans Among the Old Italian Masters

Two American twins step off a steamship into the golden light of Italy, and nothing will ever feel the same. Barbara and Bettina Burnett arrive in Florence and Rome as wide-eyed seekers, eager to drink in centuries of art and history. Their guide is the sophisticated Mrs. Douglas and her children, who introduce the sisters to a world of Renaissance masters and ancient ruins that transforms their understanding of beauty, culture, and their own place in it. As they wander through galleries and trace their fingers along marble sculptures, the sisters discover that education abroad is not merely about seeing new things, but about becoming someone new. The friendships they form and the challenges they navigate in a foreign land promise to reshape them in ways their quiet American upbringing never could.