I enjoyed " Lunch with Elisabeth David" forget the author and "Old Calabria " by Norman Dougla s who appears in "Lunch..."

cheers
AndrewDavid

bookmarking

For those with an interest in things Etruscan , a Gothic novel by Linda Lappin, who lives in the fascinating hilltown outside Viterbo , Vitorchiano, "The Etruscan" ...great descriptions and atmosphere.

Bookmarking it too! These books sound fabulous! Thanks to everyone :)

2 nonfiction titles that read like fiction:
City of Falling Angels: The story of rebuilding the Venice Opera House that burned in I believe 1996.

The Lost Painting by Jonathan Harr
The trail from Italy to Scotland to..
(I won't divulge the ending) Finding a long lost Caraveggio Painting

Both written in the last 2 years.

Thanks to Etruria for posting the message about my novel. I will be reading from The Etruscan at Shakespeare & Co, in Paris, on November
6th, if anyone is interested. I also have a forthcoming novel set in Bomarzo. See www.lindalappin.net
and www.theetruscan.com for details

Oh Tuscia! Your book sounds wonderful! I will be ordering a copy soon.

I just live for those detailed descriptions of houses and countryside.

"Peter Camenzind" by Hermann Hesse.

I recommend Mark Helprin’s A Soldier of the Great War (epic, romantic; too bad Helprin’s a neo-con)

Donna Leon’s Brunetti mysteries (atmospheric; grumpy about the invasion of tourists like us but you’ll get past that)

John Berendt’s The City of Falling Angels (yes, it’s non-fiction, but fascinating stories about the Fenice fire, Palazzo Barbaro, Ezra Pound/Olga Rudge, the Rat Man of Treviso, and other tales of Venice past and present. It just came out in paperback.)

In addition to The Birth of Venus (love that painting!) Sarah Dunant wrote In the Company of the Courtesan, also set in Italy, and featuring another wonderful painting in the Ufizzi, Venus of Urbino, which is on the book's cover.

I just read, The House In Amalfi, by, Elizabeth Adler. Now I am reading, Summer in Tuscany, also by Elizabeth Adler. She makes you feel like you are there. She also wrote a fun book, Sailing To Capri. She makes me want to hop on the next plane to Italy!!

"Death in Venice" by Thomas Mann.
"Christ stopped at Eboli" by Carlo Levi.

Bookmarking

the new Marlena Di Blasi book will be out in January. She is the lady who wrote 1000 days in Venice, and Tuscany.

Maybe I missed somebody else's post, but I don't see anything by Alberto Moravia -- one of the greatest 20th century Italian novelists.
The Conformist
Woman of Rome
Two Women
among many others.
This is an Italian perspective of Italy in the 20th century. Better than reading history books, imho!

Thank you, LucieV - off to the library for me!

also bookmarking

Sarah Dunstan ... " In the Company of the Courtesan".

Starts in 1527 with the sack of Rome, heads to Venice. From the back cover ...
"In the Company of the Courtesan is a novel about the sins of pleasure and the pleasures of sin, set in one of the world's greatest cities at its most potent moment in history."

A Christmas Gift I'd "consumed" by the end of boxing day :)

VROOM With a View - guy tours the roads of Italy on a '61 Vespa he purchases off E-Bay

I cannot believe no one has mentioned the following which are great reads-

"The Agony and the Ecstasy" a novel about Michelangelo and his life.

And the Collection of the Master of Romes series (The first man in rome, the grass crown, ceasers women, ceaser and the october horse) by Colleen McCullough set around imperial rome.

They are both classics that give you a good guide to Italys history.