 stravaganza is a series of novels written by children's author mary hoffman. the books are set alternatively between islington, an area of london, england, and various cities in talia, an alternate version of renaissance italy. the series originally consisted of a trilogy of books: city of masks, city of stars, and city of flowers. the popularity of the trilogy allowed the series to be extended for three more books: city of secrets, city of ships, and city of swords. ==inspiration and development== mary hoffman was originally inspired to write the stravaganza series after a family trip to venice and an incident involving a gondola ride. the subsequent books developed from the original idea.mary hoffman - faqsq: what inspired you to write the stravaganza sequence?a: a trip to venice ten years ago with my husband and daughters when we took a gondola ride and the gondolier wasn't handsome enough. it started a train of day-dreaming which eventually led to the duchessa in city of masks. all the other books grew from that original idea. the country of talia reflects hoffman's own imagining of what italy is like.mary hoffman - on stravaganzait is just a bit over the top â more italian even than italy, which is how my oldest daughter says i see that country. further inspiration of the settings for each of the books came from hoffman's regular trips to italy. though the series was intended to be a trilogy, it was later expanded into six books.mary hoffman - on stravaganzathe idea for the series, which i first had ten years ago, was originally for a trilogy. for continuing the series, the fourth book in the series, city of secrets, derived from the theme of secrets and knowledgecity of secrets - a message from mary while continuing on the open-ended plot at the end of city of flowers, where luciano crinamorte is due to attend university in the city of padavia. each book in the series introduces a new protagonist as a stravagante, a traveler between england and the parallel world of talia, while maintaining previously introduced characters as part of the supporting cast. ==setting== the stravaganza series is primarily set in talia, which is based on italy during the renaiss
Fantasy_novel_series