Novels that take place in Italy
 

I love preparing for trips by reading fiction that takes place in the country - this year Italy - that we are going to. I've read a lot that are placed in ancient Rome, so would love to read some from the Middle ages, Renaissance, and more recent times (that take place then, not written then lol). any suggestions gratefully appreciated.

Look into books by Sarah Durant - has books set in Florence, Ferrara and Venice at least. I think a few more.

A Room with a View, Under the Tuscan Sun (a huge blech for me, but very popular), The Enchanted April, The Magic Mountain, Agostino, Tender Is the Night, The Leopard, Christ Stopped at Eboli, The Agony and the Ecstasy, If On a Winter's Night a Traveler, The Name of the Rose, Letters from the Palazzo Barbaro, Midnight in Sicily, Journey from Venice, The City of Falling Angels, The Things We Cherished, Beautiful Ruins....

And there's one the name of which I can't remember, a creepy tale of spring never coming on the Venetian islands.

There are dozens more, but that's all that my bookshelves and memory hold at the moment.

First, non-fiction by one of my favorite novelists, Shirley Hazzard, Greene on Capri, about her visits with friend Graham Greene. Also The Ancient Shore: Dispatches from Naples, which I haven't read yet but will.
Novels in Italy by Shirley Hazzard, The Bay of Noon, The Evening of the Holiday, Cliffs of Fall (stories, some in Italy).
Up at the Villa, By W. Somerset Maugham.
Across the River & Into the Trees, Ernest Hemingway.
Pandora, by Anne Rice, my favorite of her vampire stories, in Pompeii (yes, ancient Rome but uniquely).
Inspector Montalbano series, by Andrea Camilleri.

For 20th century novel: any of the Donna Leon mysteries set in Venice (lots of scene setting and character development, so the mystery itself is just a part of the book but not the main focus (to me).

I really like Graham Greene so would enjoy that book. I tend to read more nonfiction, at least when it is set in other countries. I've read some good nonfiction books about Italy.

but I'll add

The Garden of the Finzi-Continis by Bassani

The Neapolitan Novels by Elena Ferrante

of course there are those crime novels set in Venice by Donna Leon for something lighter. I didn't care for the one I started, but a lot of others like them.

Tender is the Night only has a small Italian and Roman episode in it.

I would also suggest Portrait of a Lady (Henry James)

Beneath A Scarlet Sky by Mark Sullivan is just an incredible book. It's set during WWII.

Following up on the suggestion of Henry James, his travel essays, Italian Hours, is another piece of brilliant writing, but obviously commentary vs. fiction. James's Daisy Miller also partially takes place in Italy, and being a novella, is a pretty fast, but interesting read.

To go to the morbid . . . Mann's Death in Venice!

I don't think anyone suggested Henry Miller, they said Henry James, who is the one who wrote Italian Hours.

Christina. Fixed it. No idea why I was thinking James and wrote Miller (whose works kind of bored me).

Cry to Heaven (1982) Anne Rice set in 18th century Italy

Funny, I was just talking about that one this afternoon. A friend had seen the opera Aknaten a couple of days ago & the title role is sung by a contra or countertenor, which once-upon-a-time would have been a castrato's part. Now I've given it away.

wow, you all are awesome, all that in less than 24 hours. Happy to say I've already read some but had forgotten (loved Name of the Rose, and enjoyed early Donna Leon, will revisit) I saw the movies for Enchanted April and a Room with a View. I want to check out the Agony and the Ecstasy. I also loved the Roman detective books by Lindsay Davis and Stephen Saylor. This is great - I will visit the library this weekend and see what I can find!

Marlena di Blasi 's books, based on her life when she fell in love and moved to Italy, enjoyable!!

Parts of Dorothy Dunnett's House of Niccolo series are set in various parts of Italy - late 15th century.

MmePerdu~ I loved that book. Maybe not to everyone's taste but I found it magical, fascinating, original.

I agree. I believe it was the 2nd of hers I read, after Interview, and rather than "magical" for me it was a compelling story about an historical subject of which I was completely unaware, certainly fascinating & original.

The Magic Mountain, by Thomas Mann, takes place in Switzerland, not Italy.

By Italian authors, I would suggest Il Gattopardo (The Leopard), or anything by Pirandello (especially il Fu Mattia Pascal, or the Late Mattia Pascal. ) The Name of the Rose is good. Il Lessico Famigliare, by Natalia Ginzburg; I don't know the English title. The Periodic Table, by Primo Levi.

There are some excellent nonfiction books as well. Galileo's Daughter by Dava Sobel is based on letters to Galileo from his daughter, who was a cloistered nun.

Sarah Bradford's Lucrezia Borgia: Love, Life, and Death in Renaissance Italy, is more exciting than many novels.

Brunelleschi's Dome, by Ross King, recounts the design and construction of the cupola of the Duomo of Florence, and gives many insights into life in Renaissance Florence.

Eric Newby's Love and War in the Apennines, and A Small Place in Italy, are excellent, carefully observed and wjtty. Newby's account of buying and renovating a house is much more insightful than Under a Tuscan Sun.

Italian Neighbors by Timothy Parks is a humorous description of his introduction to life in Italy. He has another good book about raising his children in Italy, maybe An Italian Education.

Many by Elena Ferrante, oft based on Ischia's north shore. We're about to go there and so are reading these.

Head Over Heel by Chris Harrison (Australian journalist marries woman from Puglia).
One hilarious story from Harrison's book. The author is with his fiancé and a large group of in-laws-to-be, as they all relax seaside during a Salento beach holiday. Someone suggests that they all rent paddle-boats. Anxious to impress everybody with his newly-learned Italian language skills, Harrison volunteers to approach the elderly paddle-boat vendor. He nervously approaches the aged man then unknowingly gets his words mixed up. Instead of ordering paddleboats, Harrison accidentally asks if he can rent a pedofile! Bellisimo!!

Blood, Bones & Butter by Gabrielle Hamilton. An American chef marries a man from Puglia. Painfully honest and extremely well-written.

Christ Stopped at Eboli by Carlo Levi. This is one of the definitive books about Basilicata’s modern history. The description of the rural poverty could fairly represent Matera during the 20th century.

I am done. The good book.

The Stone Boudoir by Theresa Maggio takes place in the mountains of Sicily.
Seasons in Basilicata by David Yeadon.
And novels by Jeanne Kalogridis that I've enjoyed include: The Borgia Bride; The Devil's Queen; I, Mona Lisa; and The Scarlett Contessa.

Not quite as horrific, but similar: My daughter, who suffers from asthma, instead of telling the hotel desk clerk that there was a lot of dust (polvere) in her room, accidentally reported that there were lots of poor people (poveri) in her room.

I'm a mystery buff, and while someone has already mentioned the Donna Leon series, I would also add the great Aurelio Zen books by Michael Dibdin. I'm heartbroken that he died at too early an age. He was a wonderful writer and the books are very atmospheric.

Memoirs by Tim Parks, an Englishman who moved to Verona years ago and has written some great books about his time there with his family.

Love that Gabrielle Hamilton memoir mentioned, above.

The new Francis MAyes book, SEE YOU IN THE PIAZZA is non-fiction, about her travels to other regions with her husband...lots of great info on places to stay and eat and, above all, descriptions of little-known towns and the artworks they contain. It is not gloppy like you might expect..even ifi you did not like her first, famous book, this might be of interest--to anyone wanting to travel to the off-the-beaten-path towns. For example, she loves Lazio south of Rome..both the coast and inland. I suspect that would make a great trip for people who have seen many of the more popular areas.

I like David Hewson's Nic Costa (police detective) series. Most take place in Rome, although there is one in Venice and the most recent is on the remote Calabrian coast.

If you like a good romance, I like Elizabeth Alder's Summer in Tuscany.

Venice, by Francesco da Mosto, history and legends of the city with great pictures.

I liked BVlenci's story! My parents were in a hotel in Spain and my Dad called the front desk and asked if they could bring some soap. They seemed very puzzled by this request but, the way my Dad told the story, a half hour later a man showed up with a giant Iberico ham leg with the slicer and all on a rolling cart. My Dad had asked for "jamon" instead of "jabon," the word for soap.

Sorry for the digression!

If you are interested in food, I recommend the books by Matthew Fort about traveling around Italy, and anoher about traveling on Sicily, on a Vespa....he is a good writer and makes the places come alive. I think he has a new one, on the Italian islands, but I've not read that one..yet.

The very first time I was invited to a French family dinner in Paris at one of those aristocratic old spacious apartments with things on display from centuries of ancestors, a bell to call the servants, and such, the lady of the house asked me how I was feeling (we had just arrived from overseas that morning and I was fading fast), I answered in what I thought was good French that I was suffering a bit from jet lag...but what I actually told her was that I was having difficulty with my plunging neckline.

Happens to a lot of people. Even after many years. I sometimes get confused between the words aspirateur and ventilateur. When we first moved here I asked our electrician if we could have a ceiling vacuum cleaner. We have a friend who confuses serviette and assiette and will ask wait staff if he can have a napkin of French fries or a napkin of green salad.

I've never forgotten the 2 words I learned while shopping for gloves on my first day in Paris in January, gants, of course, & savon. The 2 ladies helping me were trying happily to decipher my pantomime and soap was the first guess, followed shortly by the correct one. It left an impression, my first non-English exchange.

But there are English words I have to stop & think about, too. Its vs it's. Farther vs further which I thought were interchangeable but are not (how's that for veering further or farther? off-topic).

Oh how I agree with everything that BC just said. The English Patient mesmerized me. As for Tim Parks, I wasn't coming from it from a British perspective, but from an American longing to live in Europe, and Tim Parks provided everything I needed, from the prosaic to the absurd. I sill wanted to live in Italy, but knew it would probably outwit me.

But glad I chose France.

. Loved the book and will read it again.

When I was at the airport heading to Rome (2003), I came across: Angels & Demons by Dan Brown. I read it on my flight and it was fun to recognize many of the sights mentioned in the book. It wasn't a bad book if you read it quickly and ignore some of the illogical parts :) But definitely should be available at your library.

Susan,
Mrs Z and I met Francesco da Mosto in Venice about 4 years ago. I spied him about to disembark the crowded tragheto that we were about to climb on. The two of us stayed off the boat, then introduced ourselves. The three of us then had a nice chat, wherein my wife and I told him just how much we'd enjoyed his various BBC series. It was he who finally suggested that we take photos together---it would never have occurred to us non-cell phone owners.
I'll bet that an hour long interview with da Mosto, with the focus on the current plight of Venice, would be most informative.
I am done. The end.

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My problem with Under a Tuscan Sun is that it's totally ficticious, masquerading as truth. You learn almost nothing about Italy from reading it. Tim Parks and Eric Newby both understand the country.

The first time I met with an insurance agent here, I nearly broke up laughing, because his spiel was almost exactly as described by Tim Parks. You have to keep in mind that both authors describe times now decades in the past.

I absolutely loathed both A Year in Provence and Under The Tuscan Sun. Who ARE these people with no real connections to their adopted lands who just come with money and pretentions? It's not the way I see living in a new country, and profiting off it with bad writing just makes it worse.

Also there are a few books by Beppe Severigni that are superb, including one (CIAO AMERICA) where he turns the tables and writes about his time in America.