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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?

OP posts:
Original poster
TerrorAustralis · 03/04/2025 10:41

Ellmau · 03/04/2025 08:31

Where in Italy are you going?

Venice > Verona > Modena (with a pit stop in Bologna) > Florence > Naples > Rome

Thanks for all the recommendations so far! My Kindle will be running hot with downloads.

OP posts:
Ellmau · 03/04/2025 08:31

Where in Italy are you going?

Crispyapple · 03/04/2025 08:25

Another vote for call me by your name - first thing that came to mind when I read this title! Always transports me straight back to Italy when I read it

Xiaoxiong · 03/04/2025 08:20

I just read all the inspector bordelli novels while on holiday for a week in Florence! The covers were not promising and looked a bit "cosy crime", but cosy they are not. Probably because they were written in Italian by an Italian journalist so no romanticised rose tinted stuff.

DancefloorAcrobatics · 03/04/2025 07:51

If you fancy a bit of historical fiction:

Jane Ann McLachlan The Girl Who Would Be Queen
Elodie Harper The House with the Golden Door

Abracadabra12 · 03/04/2025 07:46

Call Me By Your Name

Lamelie · 03/04/2025 07:45

Room with a View
my go to read, I must have read it a dozen times. Not just for in Florence but staying in hotels/ being abroad.

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

Iknowaboutpopular · 03/04/2025 07:31

Letters to Juliet
Under the tuscan sun

girlwhowearsglasses · 03/04/2025 07:29

Enchanted April is lovely.
The talented Mr Ripley of course.

Pompeii for political drama and explosions

samlovesdilys · 03/04/2025 07:26

🤦🏼‍♀️🤦🏼‍♀️ set in Florence…sorry, too early!!

samlovesdilys · 03/04/2025 07:15

I love capri by Belinda some e is a great ‘light’ read, the last train from Liguria is also v good, set during wwii, there are chunks of the English patient set in Italy - or my all time favourite is A Room with a view where the first part is set in Venice…

Original poster
TerrorAustralis · 03/04/2025 06:57

MinnieMountain · 03/04/2025 06:19

Two Women in Rome.

That looks interesting, thanks!

OP posts:
MinnieMountain · 03/04/2025 06:19

Two Women in Rome.