Great thread! Thanks for topping! I'm going to Borders tonight ;) I so miss Italia...
I second the "Birth of Venus" suggestion. Especially if you are longing to remember the charm of Firenze and get a bit of info on city politics during the 1500's. Nice overall read...great plot, a lot of city history and it's set in Florence—what more could you want!

I love murder mysteries set in foreign countries:

"The Innocent" by Magdalen Nabb (latest in a series set in present-day Florence)

"Alibi" by Joseph Kanon (set in Venice)

"The Broker" by John Grisham (set in present-day Venice and Bologna)

"Lucifer's Shadow" by David Hewson (parallel stories set in present-day and 17th C. Venice)

"Pompei" by Robert Harris (great descriptions of Pompei, Herculanaeum and Naples and of the eruption of Vesuvius)

Two very good non-fiction books:

"Galileo's Daughter" by Dava Sobel (great descriptions of Renaissance Florence)

"The Lost Painting" by Jonathan Harr (about the recent rediscovery of a lost Caravaggio)

There's a recommendation above that you try the mysteries of Donna Leon. The poster offers a list of the ones published in the US. To this list you can now add "Death in LaFenice," in which the Venice setting plays a vital function. (It's one of her Guido Brunetti mysteries -- fun and page-turning!)

Just found this thread...what a great list. I can't wait to get started after I finish The Broker, previously mentioned. My favorite read in years was John Berendt's "The City of Falling Angels." Came out about a year ago, and it's "non-fiction novel" about the scandal of the fire that ruined La Fenice opera house in Venice several years ago. His description of the real life characters and their goings on are so entertaining!

I only scanned the list so sorry if I'm repeating:
I would give Steven Saylor four stars out of five. He paints an interesting picture of ancient Rome.

I enjoyed The Passion of Artemesia by Susan Veerland

Interesting accounts by Ross King:
Brunelleschi's Dome and The Pope's Ceiling

I'm reading Donna Leon's "Blood from a Stone" right now. I am not a huge mystery fan, but I am love the Venetian setting and am getting hooked on Guido Brunetti & his family...

This one takes place in the winter, a time of year I have yet to visit Venice in, and focuses on the murder of a Senegalese seller of knock-off handbags. It is always interesting to read about those members of society that aren't really "members"...

And then there are all those descriptions of neighborhoods and interior Venetian life - and the meals!

"The Talented Mr. Ripley" by Patricia Highsmith.

"Artemesia" by Alexandra Lapierre

"The Feud That Sparked the Renaissance" by Paul Robert Walker

BC

Yes, The Lost Painting was an interesting book about how art went lost after the Renaissance

A HOUSE IN SICILY by Daphne Phelps is a charming story of a 34 year old English woman in the year 1947. She has inherited the most beautiful house in Taormina. Going there to sell it,she instead falls in love with the house and the people of Taormina.

The author is a delightful story teller.

good list here. These are not novels, but:

The Reluctant Tuscan by Phil Doran is fun, about a husband who gets pulled over to Italy (specifically Tuscany) by his Italy-loving wife, but he would have been quite happy staying home in Los Angeles (where he is a well-known screenplay writer). It makes light of all of these Tuscany-lovers, but not too much. It's very sweet and quite funny.

A Traveller in Rome by H V Morton is great. If you've been to Rome, and want to go back, this is a must-read. Sometimes I even bring it when I travel there, almost as a guidebook!

These two collections of short stories/non-fiction are great for small doses of Italy: Desiring Italy (edited by by Susan Cahill) and Italy in Mind (edited by Alice Leccese Power). Desiring Italy recounts women talking about Italy, with great authors like Mary McCarthy, Edith Wharton, Elizabeth Barrett Browning (she has a wonderful poem/set of poems? called Casa Guidi Windows about when she lived in Florence), and George Eliot. It's a great book.

Italy in Mind is very similar to that, but it has male authors as well: Charles Dickens, Mark Twain, I think DH Lawrence too...good stuff!

I know the post is for novels but I love the movie Only You with Marisa Tomei and Robert Downey Jr. A cute story with some great scenery. Takes me back to italy all the time

'La Serenissima', by Erica Jong. Fantastic fantasy about a woman who time-travels between Renaissance Venice & contemporary Venice. Fun & evocative. You also get an education without feeling like you're eating your lima beans.

Robert Dessaix's NIGHT LETTERS. Another book weaving stories of 16th ( ? ) century Venice and today. Captivating.

Nathaniel Hawthorne's THE MARBLE FAUN for lovers of more classic novels.

Mate's THE HILLS OF TUSCANY is a great home renovation/life in Italy book.

ON PERSEPHONE'S ISLAND is a good memoir of Sicily.

In the non-fiction category, I'm suprised no-one's mentioned Vanilla Beans and Brodo, which I loved.

If you like the Donna Leon, Magdalene Nabb, Micahel Dibden books, you may also enjoy the Andrea Camilleri novels set in Sicily.

Also John Mortimer's "Summer's Lease"; and I stumbled on this list of links when I was checking the name of that one.

http://italian-mysteries.com/JM01.html

then I found this:-

http://www.bibliotravel.com/locale.php?locale=157

then this
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Best-novels-.../29MEHM5CVX1X4

Hi there - I'm a brand new Foderite and I love travel and writing. I haven't read all your posts yet but I just wanted to tell you how much I enjoyed "The Broker" by John Grisham. I love all his novels and his portrayal of life in Italy in this book is both beautiful and fascinating. Enjoy....

I, Claudius
The ultimate ancient Rome story.

oops forgot to add author's name:
I, Claudius by Robert Graves

Also set in ancient Rome - the Falco series by Lindsey Davis. Falco is a sort of Roman private eye - light entertaining reading
My favorite of the series is:
"Three Hands in the Fountain"
which is also interesting for anyone into Roman aqueducts and sewers.

How could I have forgotten??--AFTER HANNIBAL by Barry Unsworth. A delightful romp in the Italian countryside.

Casa Rossa and A Soldier of the Great War. Both fascinating.