Italy. It’s the place of pasta and Puccini, and hundreds of stories. If you’re visiting Italy, you should be reading books about Italy and books set in Italy! Reading books set in Italy is a great way to learn more about the history and culture of the country, as well as imagine yourself there to get more excited for your trip – or to re-live your Italian memories!
Here are a few to consider:
If you’re headed to Cinque Terre or especially Portofino, this is a fun read. It’s an old book (quite the classic), but it sets the stage of Portofino just magically. If you want to appreciate what you’re looking at along the coast, this book puts words to it!
Read this one with The Medicis and Leonardo da Vinci listed above. This is a fictional take on the Florence of the Medicis. The town is richly illustrated, and the storyline is gripping. If you want a tour of Florence but don’t like non-fiction, this will give you a great sense of the place.
This is a different take on Italy, that’s for sure! But if you haven’t read this funny classic about an American military man stationed in southern Italy, you’ll be laughing for quite some time.
This is an incredible, sweeping, and gorgeous tale. It’s partly set in the US, and partly set in the Italian Alps. It was one of my absolute favorite books of 2016.
If you like WWII fiction but you want a change from the usual set in Germany or France, this is a unique book about the Italian side of the war.
This is a really good fictionalized account of Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo in the height of Renaissance Florence. If you’re an art lover, a history lover, a historical fiction lover – this book hits on all points. It’s interesting, illuminating – and humanizing. When we look at these two historical greats, we forget about what the challenges and lives were like before they etched their place fully into history.
Set in ancient Rome, this reads like a modern crime mystery novel. So it’s the perfect vacation book if you love a good true crime story! An ancient Roman (female) private investigator? Bound to be a fun read!
Set in Tuscany (and also in England), this novel is one of star crossed lovers, a villa in Tuscany, and a country house by the sea. This has more substance than a standard romance novel or beach read, and is a stunning story told over the course of 40 years.
There’s something about a villa in Italy that just captures the imagination, isn’t there? The Villa in Italy is a novel set in a villa on the Mediterranean coast, with four people who all come for the reading of a will. They don’t know each other, or how they’re related – or why they were invited. Each has different problems in their life, and this is the story of them coming together to find how they’re related, and discovering what they want out of life.
Set in both the modern-day Vatican as well as ancient Rome, The Mystery of Julia Espicopa is the perfect novel to intertwine the intrigue of the Catholic church with ancient Rome. It’s an interesting intellectual thriller as well as a behind the scenes tour of the Vatican – perfect for when you’re visiting Rome.
Set in Tuscany starting in WWII, Still Life focuses on the life of Ulysses – a British soldier. In a wine cellar in an Italian villa, he meets Evelyn, who is trying to save art from the war. After he goes home to the UK, he manages to make it back to Tuscany, and the woman he left there. This is a story about a life spent creating family, and creating the life one wants to live.
Another novel set in Tuscany in WWII, The Light in the Ruins is perfect if you love a murder mystery, dive into ancient history, and thriller. The Rosatis keep coming up dead from a serial killer – after a mysterious interaction with two soldiers in WWII. Who is killing them? And what secrets does their villa hold?
Ready for a fun read that’s like a romp through Italy? Try one of these beach reads set throughout Italy!
If you haven’t read Angels and Demons, do so before you go to Italy! If nothing else, you’ll look at the art in a whole new light.
Perfect for a glimpse into the old world of Venice, told through two girls who wed into warring families.
A fun book set across continents (but with many scenes in Naples!), you’ll find fun, love and redemption inside!
If you’re a fast reader, you’re in luck – there are three more in this series. Set in Naples and along the Amalfi coast, these are fun reads that are great for setting the scene!
Set in Naples, get ready to get hungry. Lots of romance and food are featured in this novel. Warning: You’re going to want to cook!
More food! This is a fun take on how Amaretto di Saronna came to be. So if you love a good stiff drink, enjoy this romantic ride set in the hills of the Italian Alps.
A Wedding in Lake Como is set in Lake Como – and of course, it’s all the fun of well-to-do society weddings on Lake Como. You’ve got three successful friends – all who said they’d go to each other’s weddings – secrets from the past (they were in Lake Como together in college) – and all the elements of a delicious beach (or lake) summer read.
Summer on the Italian Lakes is set in a high-end villa on Lake Garda, as Brie (a writer of best-selling steamy love stories) is having a case of writer’s block. So she goes to lead a writing workshop on Lake Garda – and of course, what could possibly happen next? Exactly what you think, and it’s delicious and delightful as it evolves!
Set in Sicily and the Italian countryside, The Sicilian Inheritance is a fast-paced beach read for people who love a good thriller and murder mystery. Not only is the protagonist, Sara, looking for her family secrets (which include murder!), she’s also trying to find herself in a midlife crisis.
Set in Verona and narrated by Romeo and Juliet’s daughter – yep, that Romeo and Juliet – this is a fun take on if they didn’t really die together but instead lived and had a family. Rosie is the main character, and is their daughter who is of an age to find a husband. Sweet, funny, and a great re-take on one of history’s most-told stories.
Sex, love, glamour, movie stars and wealth – what more could you ask for? The Invitation is a love story wrapped in a mystery, so it’s a great option when you love both genres. It’s set on a yacht along the Italian Riviera, as the stars aboard head to Cannes for the film festival. Who knows what trysts and secrets will ensue?
If you’re looking for something to give more historical context about what you’re seeing, these non-fiction books can add color. From the Medicis to personal memoirs, there are many great non-fiction books about Italy for you to discover the country!
If you want to understand modern Italy, start understanding the Medici family. The great patrons of many of the arts, this book brings much of Tuscany to life. You’ll look at Florence with new eyes, and see Siena anew, not to mention Milan! If you’re headed to Rome, you’re also going to be surrounded by the papacy – and understanding the Medicis is great for seeing the art in Rome too!
A new biography by Walter Isaacson, he looks at the life of Leonardo da Vinci. If you want to understand Italy, look at one of its most favorite sons. This is also a great book to read alongside the Medicis – da Vinci was able to share his genius with the world because of the support of the Medicis.
Before Italy unified, it was a collection of city-states, with Venice as one of the most dominant. This is a great survey of history and how one, small, island city came to rule much of the seas, and thus, the world.
A first-person memoir set in Tuscany, this is a fun walk through Italy – not just as a tourist!
Want more books about Italy? You can find books set in Florence or books set in Amalfi, Capri and Naples!
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