Little Bit of Italy Book List
By no means a
comprehensive list. I've tried to offer variety, but I admit I may favor the south a tiny bit in this list.
Rome scene during Corona virus lock downs in Italy 2020
Literature/Classics/Oldies
Ovid- Roman Poet
Dante's Divine Comedy- 1300’s- Long narrative poem, also known as The Inferno
Aeneid by Virgil- Latin poem approx. 20 BC Aeneas the Trojan travels to Italy
Odyssey by Homer-Greek hero Odysseus travels after the fall of Troy (Straits of Messina/Calabria)
I, Claudius by Robert Graves
The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon
Giovanni Verga: (Late 1800's) (Italian realist writer):
The House by the Medlar Tree
Under the Shadow of Etna
Cavalleria Rustica
Little Novels of Sicily
The Italian by (1797) by Ann Radcliffe
The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe
The Leopard by Giuseppe Di Lampedusa (Sicily)
William Shakespeare:
Romeo and Juliet
Two Gentlemen of Verona
Italian Journey (1786-88) Johann von Goethe
A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway
Death in Venice by Thomas Mann
Memoirs/Cultural Essays/ Travel Writing
Italian Hours (1909)
The Wings of a Dove by Henry James
Old Calabria (1915) by Norman Douglas
By the Ionian Sea (1901) by George Gissing
Extra Virgin (1983) by Annie Haws
La Bella Figura, Ciao America (2002) both by Beppe Severgnini
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| Ancient Greek temple in Agrigento, Sicily |
Mary Taylor Simeti:
On Persephone's Island: A Sicilian Journal by
Pomp and Sustenance: Twenty-Five Centuries of Sicilian Food
Bitter Almonds: Recollections and Recipes of a Sicilian Girlhood
Travels with a Medieval Queen. The Journey of a Sicilian Princess to Reclaim Her Father's Crown
Sicilian Summer: An Adventure in Cooking with My Grandsons
The Italians (1964) by Luigi Barzini
A Tuscan Childhood by Kinta Beever
Pasta, Pane, Vino by Matt Goulding
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| Actress Sophia Loren's memoir book |
Recipes and Memories by Sophia Loren
Dolce e Salata
A Taste of Southern Italy
Regional Foods of Northern Italy
Regional Foods of Southern Italy
Antonia and Her Daughter
Lady in the Palazzo
A Thousand Days in Tuscany
A Thousand Days in Venice
That Summer in Sicily
The Umbrian Thursday Night Supper Club by Maria Di Blasi
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| Scilla, Reggio Calabria |
Ann Cornelisen:
Women of the Shadows
Where it All Began
Any Four Women Could Rob the Bank of Italy
Torregreca: Life, Death, and Miracles in a Southern Italian Town all by
Strangers and Pilgrims- The Last Italian migration
Vendetta of Silence
The Reverse Immigrant
Gaetano's Trunk
Figghu Beddu all by Alfred M. Zappala
Seeking Sicily
Hidden Tuscany
A Sweet and Glorious Land: Revisiting the Ionian Sea
Venice Against the Sea all by John Keahey
Stolen Figs by Mark Rotella
Dreaming of Sicily by Betsy Vincent Hoffman
Nonna's House: Cooking and Reminiscing with the Italian Grandmas of Enoteca Maria by Scaravella and Petrini
Italian Neighbors by Tim Parks
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| Author Frances Mayes |
Under the Tuscan Sun
In Tuscany
Bella Tuscany by Francis Mayes
Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
The Enchanted April by Elizabeth Von Arnim
Midnight in Sicily by Peter Robb
My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante
The Betrothed by Alessandro Manzoni
Salerno, Italy
Historical/Non Fiction
Brunelleschi's Dome: How a Renaissance Genius Reinvented Architecture (Florence Italy)
Leonardo and the Last Supper
Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling all by Ross King
Garibaldi's Ghosts; Essays on the Mezzogiorno and the Risorgimento by Thomas De Angelo
Christ Stopped at Eboli (time between WW1 and WW2) by Carlo Levi
Calabria: The Other Italy by Karen Haid
Letters from Calabria by Marty Sturino
The Borgia's and Their Enemies
Rome: Biography of a City
Mussolini: The Rise and Fall of il Duce
The House of Medici all by Christopher Hibbert
Florence, Italy (Pepperdine University)
A Small Place in Italy
Love and War in the Apennines by Eric Newby
Naples 44 by Norman Lewis
Rome by Robert Hughes
The Architecture of the Italian Renaissance by Peter Murray
The Life and Times of Lucrezia Borgia by Maria Bellonci
The Medici: Godfather's of the Renaissance by Paul Strathem
Magnifico: The Brilliant Life and Violent Times of Lorenzi de Medici by Miles J. Unger
Catherine de Medici by Leonnie Frieda
The Prince by Nicolo Machiavelli
SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome by Mary Beard
The New History of the Italian South by Lumley and Morris
Saving Italy: The Race to Rescue a Nation's Treasures From the Nazi's by Robert Edsel
Italian Witchcraft by Raven Grimmasi
The Peoples of Sicily: A Multicultural Legacy by Mendola and Alio
The Kingdom of Sicily by Louis Mendola
Women of Sicily: Saints, Queens, Rebels by Jaqueline Alio
The Stones of Florence by Mary McCarthy
Venice by James Morris
A Concise History of Italy by Christopher Duggan
A History of Venice
The Normans in the South (The Normans in Sicily)
Sicily: An Island at the Crossroads of History by John Julius Norwich
A Reed in the Wind: Joanna Plantagenet Queen of Sicily by Rachel Bard
The Pope and Mussolini: The Secret History of Pius IX/ Rise of Fascism in Europe by David I. Kertzer
City of Fortune: How Venice Ruled the Seas by Roger Crowley
Italy's Many Diasporas by Donna R. Gabaccia
Novels and Historical Fiction
A Room with a View
Where Angels Fear to Tread both by E.M. Forster
The Agony and the Ecstasy by Irving Stone
The Tigress of Fiorli by Elizabeth Lev
The Birth of Venus by Sarah Dunant
Chasing the Rose by Andrea di Robelant
Only Salt Remains (Sicily) by Meryl Mc Queen
Sacred Hearts by Sarah Dunant
Tomorrow or Never by Maria Martin
Beneath a Scarlet Sky by Mark Sullivan
From Sand and Ash by Ann Harmon
The Wedding Officer by Anthony Capella
Love and Gelato by Jenna Evans Welch
Beautiful Ruins: A Novel by Jess Walter
A Pillar of Iron (Ancient Rome) by Taylor Caldwell
The Godfather
The Fortunate Pilgrim
The Sicilian
The Family
The Last Don
Omerta all by Mario Puzo
City of Falling Angels (Venice) by John Berendt
Commissario Guido Brunetti Mysteries (a good dose of culture and a detective story in each/many titles/usually centered around Venice) by Donna Leon
Madame Serpent
The Italian Woman
Queen Jezebel
The Borgias
Historical Fiction all by Jean Plaidy
Assassin's Creed: Renaissance
Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood
(set in Florence) by Oliver Bowden
The Light in the Ruins by Chris Bohjalian
The Path to the Spider's Nests by Italo Calvino
The Wine Dark Sea
To Each His Own
Sicilian Uncles
The Day of the Owl all by by Leonardo Sciascia (1959-1972)
Leonardo's Swans by Karen Essex
Juliet by Ann Fortier
I, Mona Lisa by Jeanne Kalogridis
The Book of Unholy Mischief by Elle Newmark
True Crime
The Monster of Florence
Trial by Fury (Amanda Knox) both by Douglas Preston
King of the Mountains: The Remarkable Story of Giuseppe Musolino Italy's Most Famous Outlaw by Dan Possumato
Gomorrah by Roberto Saviano
Folk Tales/Youth
Catarina the Wise (Sicilian Folk Tales) by Pitre and Zipes
Italian Folk Tales by Italo Calvino
Strega Nona books by Tomie de Paola
The Thief Lord by Cornelia Funke
Italian Ancestry
They Came by Ship by Mario Toglia
Finding Italian Roots
They Came in Ships both by John P. Coletta
Discovering Your Italian Ancestors by Lynn Nelson
Sicilian Genealogy and Heraldry by Louis Mendola
Forging the Chain: Italian Migration to North America, 1880-1930 il Circolo Calabrese
Were You Always an Italian? by Maria Laurino
Blood of My Blood by Richard Gambino
Chiaroscuro: Essays of Identity by Helen Barolini
Are Italians White? by Salvatore Salerno
The Italian American Reader by Bill Tonelli
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| Assissi, Italy |
