I'm surprised no one has mentioned the obvious choices, Thomas Mann's "Death in Venice" and Virginia Wolf's "A Room with a View."<BR><BR>Thomas Harris uses Florence as a setting for half of "Hannibal."

Fast Freddy:<BR><BR>Am I very wrong or "A Room With a View" is by Forster and not Woolf?

There was a whole long thread on this topic. It might be better to continue the old thread which already has so many suggstions on it. Here it is:<BR>http://www.fodors.com/forums/pgMessa...chText=fiction

Correction - EM Forester wrote A Room with a View - NOT Virginia Wolf. Not to sound picky or anything but Forester is my all time favorite so I have to make sure he gets credit where credit is due.

Correction - EM Forester wrote A Room with a View - NOT Virginia Wolf. Not to sound picky or anything but Forester is my all time favorite so I have to make sure he gets credit where credit is due.

I guess there goes my career as a literary critic! Better not quit the day job.

I'm also adding my comments here, which has more recent feedback than a similarly worded thread about books to read for a pre-Italy trip.<BR> &gt; &gt; &gt; &gt; &gt; &gt; &gt; &gt; &gt;<BR><BR>Checked this book out from the library and haven't had a chance to evaluate it yet --- looks interesting, tho. Called "Artful Italy"-The Hidden Treasures by Ann Brandon. It discusses alternative suggestions of sites/museums to see, apart from the usual mainstream stuff.<BR><BR>

I would suggest reading Dante's Inferno if not the entire Devine Comedy or Bocaccio's Decameron to get a good idea of the cultural environment of the renaissance. The Decameron is a fun raunchy read (lots of short stories about naughty priests and corrupt merchants).<BR><BR>Happy travels and good luck!<BR><BR>Louisa

Louisa:<BR><BR>I am very sorry to tell you that neither Dante nor Boccaccio lied during the Reniassance. They both lived and worked during late Middle age and were dead long before the Renaissance even started, theis works are imbued of Medieval culture and politics and at beast precursive of Umanesimo (which in the end lead to Renaissance). If you are interested to renaissance literature, you should try out Pietro Bembo, Lorenzo de' Medici (yes, he was a poet too!), Poliziano, Ariosto, Della Casa, Machiavelli, Torquato Tasso, Pietro Aretino.

I didn't see "Beach Music" by Pay Conroy mentioned. It's not totally about Italy, but the parts that were intrigued me enough to want to go there.

Thank you for you correction Alice, and thank you for you suggestions, but I've already read works by all the authors you mentioned. I also hate to tell you that Dante and Bocaccio are considered by some to be the beginning of the Renaissance, forming a bridge between late Medieval and high Renaissance culture. When the "Renaissance" began is a point of contiuous debate amongst historians, so is the point of how to actually define the term.<BR><BR>Happy travels and good luck!<BR><BR>Louisa

DAnte and bioccaccio are not the link between middle age and reniassance, but the link between middle age and Umanesimo, or at least this is what is taught in Italian universities.