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Original poster

Books to read on a trip through Italy

39 replies

TerrorAustralis · 03/04/2025 06:17

I'm heading to Italy soon and would like to read a few books to give me some local flavour. I tend to read fiction, but don't mind a good memoir. I can do non-ficiton if it's pacy and has a good narrative thread.

I'd prefer to avoid self-indulgent 'I moved to Italy for a year' types of things like Under the Tuscan Sun. I read My Brilliant Friend (first one only) and wasn't keen, so no Elena Ferrante please.

What do you recommend?

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MarkWithaC · 06/04/2025 16:06

Oh, and Joseph O'Connor, My Father's House and The Ghosts of Rome. WW2, about a secret network who hid people in Nazi-occupied Rome and liberated them. It's going to be a trilogy. These first two are wonderful and I can't wait for the last.

Randomer27 · 06/04/2025 16:04

I know I’m very late to this, but have just finished Us by David Nicholls, and enjoyed it so much. Poignant and so funny.

Sausagenbacon · 06/04/2025 09:11

The Leopard.

Sausagenbacon · 06/04/2025 09:10

Naples 44 by Norman Lewis, about the city post- WWII.
I can't believe nobody's mentioned it.
I love Enchanted April, but wouldn't read it on a visit, as it's really a fantasy about Italy and reality isn't like that at all.

teentantrums · 05/04/2025 20:29

There seem to be a lot of murder mysteries set in Bologna if you like them: Tom Benjamin, for example. Eva Sleeps by Francesca Melandri is one of my favourite books - but it is set in the mountains so not on your itinerary!

MagpieCastle · 03/04/2025 22:50

Mulledmead · 03/04/2025 15:19

Still Life by Sarah Winman is set partially in Florence. It made me long to go to Italy. Have a great trip!

Loved Still Life and it made me pine for Italy too! Read Room With A View straight after as they go together so well.

Also enjoyed The Three Graces by Amanda Craig, set in Tuscany and any of Donna Leon's Brunetti crime novels in Venice.

Plexie · 03/04/2025 22:30

The Agony and the Ecstasy by Irving Stone. Fictionalised biography of Michelangelo. Read it many years ago after a trip to Italy. Took bloody weeks to read through.

Hollyhocksandlarkspur · 03/04/2025 22:16

Another vote for Miss Garnet’s angel by Sally Vickers, set in Venice. I read it there and was thrilled to find a statue of Angel Raphael in a deserted church. It’s a lovely read.

littlebilliie · 03/04/2025 22:09

F

Speakeasy22 · 03/04/2025 22:03

Another vote for Still Life by Sarah Winman. One of my favourite books.

Dolamroth · 03/04/2025 21:52

My Cousin Rachel by Daphne Du Maurier

Miss Garnet's Angel by Sally Vickers (my friend went to find the statue in Venice)

Carnevale by MR Lovric

The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco

The Birth of Venus by Sarah Dunant

Tintackedsea · 03/04/2025 21:38

Much, much lighter than other suggestions on here (most of which I love!) but I really enjoyed The Food of Love and The Wedding Officer by Anthony Capella

MrsKeats · 03/04/2025 21:31

Italian Neighbours by Tim Parks and A Room with a View.

Dappy777 · 03/04/2025 20:41

E M Forster: A Room with a View (and watch the Helen Bonham Carter film version - it’s a forgotten masterpiece)

Aldous Huxley: Those Barren Leaves

D H Lawrence also wrote a lot about Italy, both fiction and non-fiction

Maybe Robert Graves’ I Claudius? (and watch the classic BBC adaptation)

JaninaDuszejko · 03/04/2025 20:14

The Leopard by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa
The Periodic Table by Primo Levi
The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony by Roberto Calasso

mambojambodothetango · 03/04/2025 18:43

The Romantic by Wiliam Boyd

ApolloandDaphne · 03/04/2025 18:32

The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O'Farrell is a wonderful portrayal of 16th Century Italy.

MarkWithaC · 03/04/2025 18:10

Spiaggio · 03/04/2025 07:38

A Room With A View, EM Forster
A Farewell to Arms, Hemingway
Italo Calvino’s Italian Folktales
The Enchanted April, Elizabeth Von Arnim
Call Me By Your Name, André Aciman
anything by Natalia Ginzburg
As Music and Splendour, Kate O’Brien
Daisy Miller, Henry James
Aqua Alta, Donna Leon

I was going to suggest Donna Leon's Commissario Guido Brunetti series; I haven't actually read them myself (still getting round to!) but someone I know recommended them very highly.
If you're into historical fiction/ gruesome intrigue, Blood and Beauty by Sarah Dunant is a corker; it's about the Borgias, basically the original crime family.
There's a sequel too, In the Name of the Family, which I've yet to read.

MarkWithaC · 03/04/2025 18:07

Mulledmead · 03/04/2025 15:19

Still Life by Sarah Winman is set partially in Florence. It made me long to go to Italy. Have a great trip!

Oh, I LOVE this novel!

DiggoryVenn · 03/04/2025 18:06

Loved the Flight of the Falcon and Room with a View. For Venice, how about Susan Hill's Man in the Picture - it's also pretty short.

MissMarplesGoddaughter · 03/04/2025 17:38

The Flight of the Falcon by Daphne du Maurier

JennyChawleigh · 03/04/2025 17:31

letshavetea · 03/04/2025 10:44

Carnivale by Michele Lovric - set in Venice and a great read.

Also The Floating Book and The Remedy by the same author. And if you want non-fiction - The Pike by Lucy Hallett-Hughes "As well as a riveting portrait of a preposterous character, Hughes-Hallett’s lauded biography of poet and fascist Gabriele D'Annunzio yields illuminating insights into the rise of extremist nationalism in early twentieth-century Europe."

Mulledmead · 03/04/2025 15:19

Still Life by Sarah Winman is set partially in Florence. It made me long to go to Italy. Have a great trip!

NameChangedOfc · 03/04/2025 11:29

Andrea Camillieri

letshavetea · 03/04/2025 10:44

Carnivale by Michele Lovric - set in Venice and a great read.

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