Tanti auguri a franca's and Cali's bimbi. Agree with franca that your boys are gorgeous Cali!
Welliemum... I agree with all franca's suggestions. Definitely Ginzburg. I also recommend Carlo Lucarelli (we use him for getting people started on reading in Italian). His first three novels (Carta bianca, L'estate torbida, Via delle Oche) are set at the very end of WWII and share a protagonist (Commissario De Luca). He has also written more contemporary detective novels set in Bologna (including 'Almost Blue') and also various 'true crime' books (and he had a series on Italian TV). I am also a big big fan of Primo Levi. I'd recommend Se questo e' un uomo and La tregua and also, perhaps, Se non ora, quando? La chiave a stella is a bit harder I think. (My torinese friend claims that you have to be from Turin to understand it, but I do think it's comprehensible, even to a foreigner like myself, but it is more challenging.) The other thing I really like of Levi are his short stories (published individually as Storie naturali, Vizio di forma and Lilit e altri racconti; but also by Einaudi in a collected volume as 'Racconti'). They are sometimes described as 'science fiction', but that's really misleading... they are sometimes set in the near future, but they are more of an ironic look at our present (or, at least, his present - they date from the late 60s and 70s) - world. Otherwise... I dunno... I'm not a great fan of Silone (Fontamara, Vino e pane), but people do find him not too difficult. You could also try some Pavese (Paesi tuoi, La luna e i falo', La casa in collina - all of these are about the Fascist period and WWII again). Oh, and another good one to look at would be Stefano Benni (Il bar sotto il mare is a collection of short stories linked by a common thread insofar as they are all told by the clientele of the eponymous bar sotto il mare). I will keep thinking for you....
Must go to bed now... I am trying to write a conference paper (for Monday... aaaaaargh!).