Hello all,
This might be a subject posted about before....but the search function is lousy! So here goes...
Two years ago on my honeymoon to Rome/Amalfi Coast...I read a book called "Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling". It was a dramatized non-fiction book about the painting of the Sistene Chapel. It was wonderful to be reading it while in Rome - and it was a great book!
Now Im off to see Scotland! Anyone know of a similar book based on Scottish history? Or a novel based in Scotland that I can read while there?
OR, if you have any great books based on a destination, please post. This could become a useful thread for future travels!

These are a big read, but the Lymond Chronicles by Dorothy Dunnet are great. The first one (in a series of 6) is called Game of Kings. Set in Scotland.

Try Nigel Tranter for excellent Scottish Novels - Historical. Also try Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series of novels. Here is her website http://www.its.caltech.edu/~gatti/gabaldon/

Historical novels set in Scotland? Go to the greatest historical novelist of them all, Sir Walter Scott. Try any of his many novels such as Waverley, Heart of Midlothian, the Bride of Lammermoor, or Rob Roy.

There's a very good contemporary novelist whose books include "Joseph Knight"- set just outside Dundee and based on a true story about a planatation owner who brought home his slave- and "The Fanatick" which is about the Covenanters, and where he interweaves the narrative with stuff about modern day Edinburgh "ghost" tours. He is an excellent writer.

Tranter will give you older history; Dunnet's a bit bodice ripper in style.

D K Broster's "Flight of the Heron" is a ripping yarn about Bonnie Prince C.

Don't forget RL Stevenson, both in the context of Kidnappped and Catriona, and "Dr Jekyl & Mr Hyde" which is meant to be an allegory for Burke & Hare

I read "the Lighthouse Stevensons" about his family, recently- non-fiction and about the building of some of the most exposed lighthouses in Scorland.

Ian Rankin has a good mystery series featuring detective John Rebus that is set in Edinburgh.

Not Scotland, but I love reading anything by Lawrence Durrell when in Greece, Cyprus, etc. Especially Bitter Lemons. His work chronicles (both fiction and non) the years he spent living there as a reporter during the war. Amazing portrayal of culture and custom.

Oooh, another chance to recommend Outlander! Diana Gabaldon is the author, and it is a historical/fantasy novel about a 1940's WWII nurse who accidently stumbles across a stone circle that sends her back 200 years - into the Jacobite revolution in the Highlands. Very well written, incredibly real, down-to-earth characters with flaws (I hate perfect characters).

You might also want to rent Monarch of the Glen, a very well-done drama set in the Highlands. There were 7 seasons, and most are available on Netflix.

It was based on the Highland novels of Compton McKenzie, but very loosely.

Master of Ballantrae by Robert Louis Stevenson comes to mind.

If you like your novels a bit lighter and more romantic, then Barbara Erskine's blend of history and modern day in Kingdom of Shadows (which traces the life of Isobel Countess of Buchan) might fit the bill.

Rosamund Pilcher wrote September, mostly set in Scotland, as is Winter Solstice, and also several shorter novels based there.

Antonia Fraser's Mary Queen of Scots.

Catherine Gaskin's A Falcon For a Qeen and The Charmed Circle. Years ago I read Seal Morning by Rowena Farre, and later enjoyed A Croft in Clachan by

thanks everyone, I'll stop at the library this week and check out some of your recommendations. Keep em coming if youve got em!

...Sybil Armstrong.

There are already threads, some very long, on books set in France, in Italy, in Britain, and in Europe generally. If you can find them--good luck!--you'll find a great many suggestions.

For Venice: Erica Jong's "Serenissima". Fiction that's full of fact & fun. Jong imaginatively juxtaposes Renaissance Venice with contemporary Venice in a thoroughly delightful read. She obviously loves Venezia, which makes her portrayal irresistible to those of us who feel the same!