I'm going to be spending a week in Rome at the end of April. Between now and then I want to dedicate my free time to reading about the city, and I'm looking for book recommendations. I edit the Fodor's Italy guide, so I'm very familiar with the travel guides (both ours and others'). What I'm looking for are things along the lines of personal essays, history, possibly fiction.

Right now I have on my bookshelf William Murray's "City of the Soul," Corrado Augias's "The Secrets of Rome" (not to be confused with the "City Secrets" guide), Franco Romagnoli's "A Thousand Bells at Noon," and Eleanor Clark's "Rome and a Villa." I picked these up by happenstance, but they all look promising. Any other suggestions for other titles? (Also, any thoughts on which of the books I have I should read first?)

thanks -- Matt

AS THE ROMANS DO by Alan Epstein -- at times engaging, at times infuriating, it's a memoir that tells the author's experiences relocating to Rome from California with his young family. It's a bit dated, however -- published in 2001 (I think).

Also, EAT PRAY LOVE by Elizabeth Gilbert -- the "eat" section is about Rome.

And what about Patricia Highsmith?

Augustus, by John Williams, is a fictionalized autobiography told in epistolary form. It's awfully good. I also liked two other fictionalized autobiographies, Memoirs of Hadrian by Marguerite Yourcenar, and I Claudius, by Robert Graves. The Romans by Donald Dudley is a good short history of the late Roman republic and the early empire, and Henry James uses Rome as a backdrop in the last half of Daisy Miller. Recent novels involving imperial Rome are Pompei and Imperium by Robert Harris. Can't think of anything else other than Gibbon's Decline and Fall, which you'll never finish before your trip.

"Basilica," by R. A. Scotti, is an excellent book for background on St. Peter's. I read it the last time I went to Rome, and it made the whole experience of Vatican City much more enjoyable.

I wouldn't let anyone I know tour the Forum or Palatine without reading Steven Saylor's Roma first. It's historical fiction, but it taught me (painlessly!) everything I know about the period of time from Romus & Remulus to just after the Caesar assassination. What a fascinating period in history...and when you see the Temple of Vesta, where Caesar was stabbed and R&R's hut with your own eyes, it all comes alive for you.

And from my trip report in November:
Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling by Ross King; Basilica: The Splendor and the Scandal -- Building St. Peter's by RA Scotti for historical perspective.

A great historical fiction about Rome during the Cesare's, it will give you a vivid picture of what everyday life was like in the Forum, Coliseum and Trojans Market:
The First Man in Rome by Colleen McCullough

Possibly one of the best travel books (as opposed to guide books) about Italy is Barbara Grizzuti Harrison's Italian Days. It has a long section (about 150 pages) on Rome.

If you're into food, Anthony Capella's The Food of Love is a light-hearted take on the Cyrano story with wonderful passages about Roman and Italian food.

bookmarking

Thanks for the tips -- more than enough to keep my head in a book for the next month. I'm glad to get some suggestions focusing on ancient Rome. I'd love it if something I read could make those ruins come alive.

I just finished a fun book called "Ancient Rome on Five Denarii a Day", by Philip Matyzak. (Got it at the library.) It's written as though the reader was a tourist in ancient Rome, and has the typical tour book chapters on getting there, where to stay, shopping, entertainment and must-sees. I thought it was very well done.

Definitely Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling--a lot about Raphael as well as Michelangelo

The Genius in the Design: Bernini, Borromini and the Rivalry that Shaped Rome by Jake Morrissey

The Lost Painting by Jonathan Harr--about Caravaggio, much of it about Rome

Colleen McCullough's "The First Man in Rome", noted earlier, is the first book in a series of what is now seven [large] volumes of historical fiction (the "Masters of Rome series) concerning the end of the Roman Republic and the beginning of the Empire, the period that includes the individuals that most people think of when they think of Rome - Julius Caesar, Augustus, Cicero, Cato, Pompey, Marc Antony, etc., etc. Although you'll never get through the entire series before the end of April, all are highly recommended. Although some might take issue with the pace of McCullough's action, her historical accuracy is highly regarded by even such a hard-boiled historian as Adrian Goldsworthy, whose recent biography of Julius Caesar, appropriately enough entitled "Caesar", is also highly recommended.

P.S. McCullough's books won't tell you much about the Colosseum, which was built some 100 years after the period covered in the books, nor Trajan's Market, which was built about 20 or 30 years after that.

In addition to I Claudius and Claudius the God, other good historical fiction possibilities are Augustus by John Williams and Julian by Gore Vidal

I very much enjoyed "Imperium - A Novel of Ancient Rome" by Robert Harris. Wonderful detailed account of the life of Cicero. Harris' "Pompeii" is also very good.

I enjoyed "Four Seasons in Rome" by Anthony Doerr. This is a journal by the author who spent a year in Rome at the American Academy on the Giancolo. It describes the beauty of Rome and the people he lived among. I enjoyed this one.

Alberto Moravia and Pier Paolo Pasolini wrote novels set in Rome.

I've read the Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith and part of it was set in Rome.

Angels and Demons by Dan Brown. I re-read that on the flight on my last visit to Rome. Then, tried to see as many of the places mentioned as I could find.

Here are two that deal with Roman life in the post-WWII era: A Traveller in Rome by H.V. Morton, an account of the author's time in Rome in the mid-1950's; and Fleeting Rome - In Search of La Dolce Vita, by Carlo Levi, a series of essays and short stories set in the 1950's and 1960's. What makes these works so interesting is how well they describe the Roman people and the Rome experience, in the context not only of the city's long history but also of how it "adjusts" to modern life while remaining true to its ancient soul.

Some great suggestions here. Alan Massie's novel "Augustus" also deserves a mention.

A real classic with great vitality and exciting events is "The Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini," much of which is set in Rome.