The ring metaphor and the spirit of Sofia and other essays, by Lino Bianco [Book review]

Abstract

Alongside his profession as an architect, engineer and scholar, H.E. Lino Bianco has also placed an active contribution to the strengthening of his country’s ties and foreign relations through his diplomatic roles over the years. These have included a highly productive stint as Ambassador of Malta to the Republic of Bulgaria. And the sense that stayed with me as I leafed slowly through the pages of his latest book, a collection of essays titled The Ring Metaphor and the Spirit of Sofia, is precisely Bianco’s seamless ability to bring diverse views gained as an architect of many years, together with historiographic reach and diplomatic nous, to bear on the cities, urban and cultural spaces he revisits in these writings.