Books Set In Italy: Italian Novels


Italy is the 5th most visited country by international tourists, has the most UNESCO World Heritage sites in the world and is an incredible setting for literature. If you’re not already planning a trip, these books set in Italy are sure to inspire an Italian adventure (or diet at the very least!) 🍝

During my previous trips that took me through Rome, Venice, Florence, Milan and Pisa I read two books set in Italy; the heartwarming Under The Tuscan Sun followed by the heartbreaking Journey From Venice. Italian classics in this reading list include Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet and Forster’s A Room With A View while contemporary best-sellers include Dan Brown’s Angels and Demons and Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat, Pray, Love.

To help make order of these books set in Italy, titles are arranged by date of publication from oldest to newest. Some of the contemporary novels near the end are next on my to-read list; including Beautiful Ruins (one of those book covers I keep seeing prominently displayed in every bookstore I visit) and The Solitude of Prime Numbers.

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Books Set In Italy

Books Set In Italy - Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare. For more books that inspire travel visit www.taleway.com to find books set around the world. italian books, books about italy, italy inspiration, italy travel, novels set in italy, italian novels, books and travel, travel reads, reading list, books around the world, books to read, books set in different countries, italy

1.
Romeo and Juliet
by William Shakespeare, 1597

In Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare creates a world of violence and generational conflict in which two young people fall in love and die because of that love. The story is rather extraordinary in that the normal problems faced by young lovers are here so very large. It is not simply that the families of Romeo and Juliet disapprove of the lover’s affection for each other; rather, the Montagues and the Capulets are on opposite sides in a blood feud and are trying to kill each other on the streets of Verona.

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Books Set In Italy - A Room with a View by E.M. Forster. For more books that inspire travel visit www.taleway.com to find books set around the world. italian books, books about italy, italy inspiration, italy travel, novels set in italy, italian novels, books and travel, travel reads, reading list, books around the world, books to read, books set in different countries, italy

2.
A Room with a View
by E.M. Forster, 1908

Lucy has her rigid, middle-class life mapped out for her until she visits Florence with her uptight cousin Charlotte, and finds her neatly ordered existence thrown off balance. Her eyes are opened by the unconventional characters she meets at the Pension Bertolini: flamboyant romantic novelist Eleanor Lavish, the Cockney Signora, curious Mr Emerson and, most of all, his passionate son George.

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Books Set In Italy - The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim. For more books that inspire travel visit www.taleway.com to find books set around the world. italian books, books about italy, italy inspiration, italy travel, novels set in italy, italian novels, books and travel, travel reads, reading list, books around the world, books to read, books set in different countries, italy

3.
The Enchanted April
by Elizabeth von Arnim, 1922

A recipe for happiness: four women, one medieval Italian castle, plenty of wisteria, and solitude as needed. The women at the center of The Enchanted April are alike only in their dissatisfaction with their everyday lives. They find each other—and the castle of their dreams—through a classified ad in a London newspaper one rainy February afternoon. The ladies expect a pleasant holiday, but they don’t anticipate that the month they spend in Portofino will reintroduce them to their true natures and reacquaint them with joy. Now, if the same transformation can be worked on their husbands and lovers, the enchantment will be complete.

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Books Set In Italy - The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann. For more books that inspire travel visit www.taleway.com to find books set around the world. italian books, books about italy, italy inspiration, italy travel, novels set in italy, italian novels, books and travel, travel reads, reading list, books around the world, books to read, books set in different countries, italy

4.
The Magic Mountain
by Thomas Mann, 1924

Please note: this novel is not set in Italy, but close to the border in Switzerland. It does feature an Italian character, Lodovico Settembrini.

In this dizzyingly rich novel of ideas, Mann uses a sanatorium in the Swiss Alps, a community devoted exclusively to sickness, as a microcosm for Europe, which in the years before 1914 was already exhibiting the first symptoms of its own terminal irrationality. The Magic Mountain is a monumental work of erudition and irony, sexual tension and intellectual ferment, a book that pulses with life in the midst of death.

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Books Set In Italy - A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway. For more books that inspire travel visit www.taleway.com to find books set around the world. italian books, books about italy, italy inspiration, italy travel, novels set in italy, italian novels, books and travel, travel reads, reading list, books around the world, books to read, books set in different countries, italy

5.
A Farewell to Arms
by Ernest Hemingway, 1929

In 1918 Ernest Hemingway went to war, to the war to end all wars. He volunteered for ambulance service in Italy, was wounded, and twice decorated. Out of his experiences came A Farewell to Arms. Hemingway’s description of war is unforgettable. He recreates the fear, the comradeship, the courage of his young American volunteer, and the men and women he meets in Italy with total conviction. But A Farewell to Arms is not only a novel of war. In it, Hemingway has also created a love story of immense drama and uncompromising passion.

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Books Set In Italy - Tender Is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald. For more books that inspire travel visit www.taleway.com to find books set around the world. italian books, books about italy, italy inspiration, italy travel, novels set in italy, italian novels, books and travel, travel reads, reading list, books around the world, books to read, books set in different countries, italy

6.
Tender Is the Night
by F. Scott Fitzgerald, 1933

This one is technically set in France, but very close to the border!

Set on the French Riviera in the late 1920s, Tender Is the Night is the tragic romance of the young actress Rosemary Hoyt and the stylish American couple Dick and Nicole Diver. A brilliant young psychiatrist at the time of his marriage, Dick is both husband and doctor to Nicole, whose wealth goads him into a lifestyle not his own, and whose growing strength highlights Dick’s harrowing demise. A profound study of the romantic concept of character, Tender Is the Night is lyrical, expansive, and hauntingly evocative.

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Books Set In Italy - Agostino by Alberto Moravia. For more books that inspire travel visit www.taleway.com to find books set around the world. italian books, books about italy, italy inspiration, italy travel, novels set in italy, italian novels, books and travel, travel reads, reading list, books around the world, books to read, books set in different countries, italy

7.
Agostino
by Alberto Moravia, 1941

Thirteen-year-old Agostino is spending the summer at a Tuscan seaside resort with his beautiful widowed mother. When she takes up with a cocksure new companion, Agostino, feeling ignored and unloved, begins hanging around with a group of local young toughs. Though repelled by their squalor and brutality, and repeatedly humiliated for his weakness and ignorance when it comes to women and sex, the boy is increasingly, masochistically drawn to the gang and its rough games. He finds himself unable to make sense of his troubled feelings. Hoping to be full of manly calm, he is instead beset by guilty  curiosity and an urgent desire to sever, at any cost, the thread of troubled sensuality that binds him to his mother.

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Books Set In Italy - The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith. For more books that inspire travel visit www.taleway.com to find books set around the world. italian books, books about italy, italy inspiration, italy travel, novels set in italy, italian novels, books and travel, travel reads, reading list, books around the world, books to read, books set in different countries, italy

8.
The Talented Mr. Ripley
by Patricia Highsmith, 1955

Since his debut in 1955, Tom Ripley has evolved into the ultimate bad boy sociopath, influencing countless novelists and filmmakers. In this first novel, we are introduced to suave, handsome Tom Ripley: a young striver, newly arrived in the heady world of Manhattan in the 1950s. A product of a broken home, branded a “sissy” by his dismissive Aunt Dottie, Ripley becomes enamored of the moneyed world of his new friend, Dickie Greenleaf. This fondness turns obsessive when Ripley is sent to Italy to bring back his libertine pal but grows enraged by Dickie’s ambivalent feelings for Marge, a charming American dilettante.

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Books Set In Italy - The Agony and the Ecstasy: The Biographical Novel of Michelangelo by Irving Stone. For more books that inspire travel visit www.taleway.com to find books set around the world. italian books, books about italy, italy inspiration, italy travel, novels set in italy, italian novels, books and travel, travel reads, reading list, books around the world, books to read, books set in different countries, italy

9.
The Agony and the Ecstasy: The Biographical Novel of Michelangelo
by Irving Stone, 1958

Florence in the year 1475 was the intellectual & artistic center of the flowering Italian Renaissance. Into this gem-like city-state, ruled by the patron of arts & letters, Lorenzo de’ Medici, was born one of the greatest geniuses the world has produced–Michelangelo Buonarroti, sculptor, painter, poet, architect & engineer. Few artists have matched the grandeur of his conceptions, or the power of his creations. To know his life is to know the history of Italy’s glory.

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Books Set In Italy - The Leopard by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa. For more books that inspire travel visit www.taleway.com to find books set around the world. italian books, books about italy, italy inspiration, italy travel, novels set in italy, italian novels, books and travel, travel reads, reading list, books around the world, books to read, books set in different countries, italy

10.
The Leopard
by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, 1958

Set in the 1860s, The Leopard tells the spellbinding story of a decadent, dying Sicilian aristocracy threatened by the approaching forces of democracy and revolution. The dramatic sweep and richness of observation, the seamless intertwining of public and private worlds, and the grasp of human frailty imbue The Leopard with its particular melancholy beauty and power, and place it among the greatest historical novels of our time.

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Books Set In Italy - If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler by Italo Calvino. For more books that inspire travel visit www.taleway.com to find books set around the world. italian books, books about italy, italy inspiration, italy travel, novels set in italy, italian novels, books and travel, travel reads, reading list, books around the world, books to read, books set in different countries, italy

11.
If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler
by Italo Calvino, 1979

If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler is a marvel of ingenuity, an experimental text that looks longingly back to the great age of narration–“when time no longer seemed stopped and did not yet seem to have exploded.” Italo Calvino’s novel is in one sense a comedy in which the two protagonists, the Reader and the Other Reader, ultimately end up married, having almost finished If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler.

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Books Set In Italy - The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco. For more books that inspire travel visit www.taleway.com to find books set around the world. italian books, books about italy, italy inspiration, italy travel, novels set in italy, italian novels, books and travel, travel reads, reading list, books around the world, books to read, books set in different countries, italy

12.
The Name of the Rose
by Umberto Eco, 1980

The year is 1327. Franciscans in a wealthy Italian abbey are suspected of heresy, and Brother William of Baskerville arrives to investigate. When his delicate mission is suddenly overshadowed by seven bizarre deaths, Brother William turns detective. His tools are the logic of Aristotle, the theology of Aquinas, the empirical insights of Roger Bacon – all sharpened to a glistening edge by wry humor and a ferocious curiosity. He collects evidence, deciphers secret symbols and coded manuscripts, and digs into the eerie labyrinth of the abbey, where “the most interesting things happen at night.”

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Books Set In Italy - Italy for the Gourmet Traveler by Fred Plotkin. For more books that inspire travel visit www.taleway.com to find books set around the world. italian books, books about italy, italy inspiration, italy travel, novels set in italy, italian novels, books and travel, travel reads, reading list, books around the world, books to read, books set in different countries, italy

13.
Italy for the Gourmet Traveler
by Fred Plotkin, 1996

Fred Plotkin takes us beyond the traditional tourist experience and lures us to special places, whether in big cities or out-of-the-way villages. Under his discerning eye, we learn about the food, wines, local bakeries, olive oil distilleries, cheeses, markets, restaurants, and best kept secrets of Italy’s culinary world. Lovingly drawn portraits of the people who make world-famous regional specialties, and local history make each village, town, and city come alive.

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Books Set In Italy - Under the Tuscan Sun by Frances Mayes. For more books that inspire travel visit www.taleway.com to find books set around the world. italian books, books about italy, italy inspiration, italy travel, novels set in italy, italian novels, books and travel, travel reads, reading list, books around the world, books to read, books set in different countries, italy

14.
Under the Tuscan Sun
by Frances Mayes, 1996

Frances Mayes entered a wondrous new world when she began restoring an abandoned villa in the spectacular Tuscan countryside. There were unexpected treasures at every turn: faded frescos beneath the whitewash in her dining room, a vineyard under wildly overgrown brambles in the garden, and, in the nearby hill towns, vibrant markets and delightful people. In Under the Tuscan Sun, she brings the lyrical voice of a poet, the eye of a seasoned traveler, and the discerning palate of a cook and food writer to invite readers to explore the pleasures of Italian life and to feast at her table.

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Books Set In Italy - Midnight in Sicily by Peter Robb. For more books that inspire travel visit www.taleway.com to find books set around the world. italian books, books about italy, italy inspiration, italy travel, novels set in italy, italian novels, books and travel, travel reads, reading list, books around the world, books to read, books set in different countries, italy

15.
Midnight in Sicily
by Peter Robb, 1996

Off the southern coast of Italy lies Sicily, home to an ancient culture that with its stark landscapes, glorious coastlines, and extraordinary treasure troves of art and archeology has seduced travellers for centuries. But at the heart of the island’s rare beauty is a network of violence and corruption that reaches into every corner of Sicilian life: La Cosa Nostra, the Mafia. In an intoxicating mix of crime, travel, and food writing, Peter Robb, a writer who lived in Southern Italy for fourteen years, sets out to understand both the historic roots of the Mafia and its central place in contemporary Italian politics. And whether he’s touting the gustatory strength of Neapolitan espresso, unveiling the Arabic origins of pasta, or unraveling the criminal history of a bandit, Robb seductively brings Sicilian culture to life.

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Books Set In Italy - Almost Blue by Carlo Lucarelli. For more books that inspire travel visit www.taleway.com to find books set around the world. italian books, books about italy, italy inspiration, italy travel, novels set in italy, italian novels, books and travel, travel reads, reading list, books around the world, books to read, books set in different countries, italy

16.
Almost Blue
by Carlo Lucarelli, 1997

A serial killer is terrorising the people of Bologna and rookie Detective Inspector Grazia Negro is determined to solve the case. She only has one witness who can identify the killer – and he is blind. Simone spends his nights listening to Chet Baker and scanning the radio waves of the city, eavesdropping on other people’s lives. He imagines what people are like – based on the ‘colour’ of their voice – and his acute hearing sets alarm bells ringing when he tunes in to the killer. Together Simone and Negro are the only people able to stop the killer, before he closes in on Simone.

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Books Set In Italy - Letters from the Palazzo Barbaro by Henry James. For more books that inspire travel visit www.taleway.com to find books set around the world. italian books, books about italy, italy inspiration, italy travel, novels set in italy, italian novels, books and travel, travel reads, reading list, books around the world, books to read, books set in different countries, italy

17.
Letters from the Palazzo Barbaro
by Henry James, 1998

Henry James first came to Venice as a tourist and instantly fell in love with the city – particularly with the splendid Palazzo Barbaro, home of the expatriate American Curtis family. This selection of letters covers the period 1869-1907 and provides a unique record of the life and work of this great writer.

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Books Set In Italy - Angels & Demons (Robert Langdon 1/5) by Dan Brown. For more books that inspire travel visit www.taleway.com to find books set around the world. italian books, books about italy, italy inspiration, italy travel, novels set in italy, italian novels, books and travel, travel reads, reading list, books around the world, books to read, books set in different countries, italy

18.
Angels & Demons (Robert Langdon 1/5)
by Dan Brown, 2000

When world-renowned Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon is summoned to a Swiss research facility to analyze a mysterious symbol — seared into the chest of a murdered physicist — he discovers evidence of the unimaginable: the resurgence of an ancient secret brotherhood known as the Illuminati… the most powerful underground organization ever to walk the earth. The Illuminati has surfaced from the shadows to carry out the final phase of its legendary vendetta against its most hated enemy… the Catholic Church.

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Books Set In Italy - Journey from Venice by Ruth Cracknell. For more books that inspire travel visit www.taleway.com to find books set around the world. italian books, books about italy, italy inspiration, italy travel, novels set in italy, italian novels, books and travel, travel reads, reading list, books around the world, books to read, books set in different countries, italy

19.
Journey from Venice
by Ruth Cracknell, 2000

The Serene City beckons, promising Paradise regained for Ruth Cracknell and her husband, Eric, as they set forth on a carefully planned holiday. What they are seeking is time. Time to think, time to gaze, time for each other. But from the moment the holiday becomes an uncharted journey, their time is measured.

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Books Set In Italy - I’m Not Scared by Niccolò Ammaniti. For more books that inspire travel visit www.taleway.com to find books set around the world. italian books, books about italy, italy inspiration, italy travel, novels set in italy, italian novels, books and travel, travel reads, reading list, books around the world, books to read, books set in different countries, italy

20.
I’m Not Scared
by Niccolò Ammaniti, 2001

In this immensely powerful, lyrical and skillfully narrated novel, set in southern Italy, nine year-old Michele discovers a secret so momentous, so terrible, that he daren’t tell anyone about it.

The hottest summer of the twentieth century. A tiny community of five houses in the middle of wheat fields. While the adults shelter indoors, six children venture out on their bikes across the scorched, deserted countryside.

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Books Set In Italy - Timeskipper by Stefano Benni. For more books that inspire travel visit www.taleway.com to find books set around the world. italian books, books about italy, italy inspiration, italy travel, novels set in italy, italian novels, books and travel, travel reads, reading list, books around the world, books to read, books set in different countries, italy

21.
Timeskipper
by Stefano Benni, 2001

A young boy is given a magical gift: an internal ‘duoclock’ that allows him to see the future. Timeskipper sees and foresees the big events of his era, from postwar reconstruction to the birth of television. These events are offset by his own experiences: first love, first job, and wild adventures with oddball acquaintances.

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Books Set In Italy - The Birth of Venus by Sarah Dunant. For more books that inspire travel visit www.taleway.com to find books set around the world. italian books, books about italy, italy inspiration, italy travel, novels set in italy, italian novels, books and travel, travel reads, reading list, books around the world, books to read, books set in different countries, italy

22.
The Birth of Venus
by Sarah Dunant, 2003

Alessandra Cecchi is not quite fifteen when her father, a prosperous cloth merchant, brings a young painter back from northern Europe to decorate the chapel walls in the family’s Florentine palazzo. A child of the Renaissance, with a precocious mind and a talent for drawing, Alessandra is intoxicated by the painter’s abilities.

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Books Set In Italy - The City of Falling Angels by John Berendt. For more books that inspire travel visit www.taleway.com to find books set around the world. italian books, books about italy, italy inspiration, italy travel, novels set in italy, italian novels, books and travel, travel reads, reading list, books around the world, books to read, books set in different countries, italy

23.
The City of Falling Angels
by John Berendt, 2005

Venice, a city steeped in a thousand years of history, art and architecture, teeters in precarious balance between endurance and decay. Its architectural treasures crumble—foundations shift, marble ornaments fall—even as efforts to preserve them are underway. The City of Falling Angels opens on the evening of January 29, 1996, when a dramatic fire destroys the historic Fenice opera house. The loss of the Fenice, where five of Verdi’s operas premiered, is a catastrophe for Venetians. Arriving in Venice three days after the fire, Berendt becomes a kind of detective—inquiring into the nature of life in this remarkable museum-city—while gradually revealing the truth about the fire.

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Books Set In Italy - Gomorrah by Roberto Saviano. For more books that inspire travel visit www.taleway.com to find books set around the world. italian books, books about italy, italy inspiration, italy travel, novels set in italy, italian novels, books and travel, travel reads, reading list, books around the world, books to read, books set in different countries, italy

24.
Gomorrah
by Roberto Saviano, 2006

A groundbreaking major bestseller in Italy, Gomorrah is Roberto Saviano’s gripping nonfiction account of the decline of Naples under the rule of the Camorra, an organized crime network with a large international reach and stakes in construction, high fashion, illicit drugs, and toxic-waste disposal. Known by insiders as “the System,” the Camorra affects cities and villages along the Neapolitan coast, and is the deciding factor in why Campania, for instance, has the highest murder rate in all of Europe and why cancer levels there have skyrocketed in recent years.

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Books Set In Italy - Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. For more books that inspire travel visit www.taleway.com to find books set around the world. italian books, books about italy, italy inspiration, italy travel, novels set in italy, italian novels, books and travel, travel reads, reading list, books around the world, books to read, books set in different countries, italy

25.
Eat, Pray, Love
By Elizabeth Gilbert, 2006

Around the time Elizabeth Gilbert turned thirty, she went through an early-onslaught midlife crisis. She had everything an educated, ambitious American woman was supposed to want—a husband, a house, a successful career. But instead of feeling happy and fulfilled, she was consumed with panic, grief, and confusion. She went through a divorce, a crushing depression, another failed love, and the eradication of everything she ever thought she was supposed to be.

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Books Set In Italy - The Glassblower of Murano by Marina Fiorato. For more books that inspire travel visit www.taleway.com to find books set around the world. italian books, books about italy, italy inspiration, italy travel, novels set in italy, italian novels, books and travel, travel reads, reading list, books around the world, books to read, books set in different countries, italy

26.
The Glassblower of Murano
by Marina Fiorato, 2006

Venice, 1681. Glassblowing is the lifeblood of the Republic, and Venetian mirrors are more precious than gold. Jealously guarded by the murderous Council of Ten, the glassblowers of Murano are virtually imprisoned on their island in the lagoon. But the greatest of the artists, Corradino Manin, sells his methods and his soul to the Sun King, Louis XIV of France, to protect his secret daughter. In the present day his descendant, Leonora Manin, leaves an unhappy life in London to begin a new one as a glassblower in Venice. As she finds new life and love in her adoptive city, her fate becomes inextricably linked with that of her ancestor and the treacherous secrets of his life begin to come to light.

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Books Set In Italy - Call Me by Your Name by André Aciman. For more books that inspire travel visit www.taleway.com to find books set around the world. italian books, books about italy, italy inspiration, italy travel, novels set in italy, italian novels, books and travel, travel reads, reading list, books around the world, books to read, books set in different countries, italy

27.
Call Me by Your Name
by André Aciman, 2007

Call Me by Your Name is the story of a sudden and powerful romance that blossoms between an adolescent boy and a summer guest at his parents’ cliff-side mansion on the Italian Riviera. Unprepared for the consequences of their attraction, at first each feigns indifference. But during the restless summer weeks that follow, unrelenting buried currents of obsession and fear, fascination and desire, intensify their passion as they test the charged ground between them. What grows from the depths of their spirits is a romance of scarcely six weeks’ duration and an experience that marks them for a lifetime.

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Books Set In Italy - The Solitude of Prime Numbers by Paolo Giordano. For more books that inspire travel visit www.taleway.com to find books set around the world. italian books, books about italy, italy inspiration, italy travel, novels set in italy, italian novels, books and travel, travel reads, reading list, books around the world, books to read, books set in different countries, italy

28.
The Solitude of Prime Numbers
by Paolo Giordano, 2008

A prime number can only be divided by itself or by one—it never truly fits with another. Alice and Mattia, both “primes,” are misfits who seem destined to be alone. Haunted by childhood tragedies that mark their lives, they cannot reach out to anyone else. When Alice and Mattia meet as teenagers, they recognize in each other a kindred, damaged spirit.

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Books Set In Italy - The Blind Contessa’s New Machine by Carey Wallace. For more books that inspire travel visit www.taleway.com to find books set around the world. italian books, books about italy, italy inspiration, italy travel, novels set in italy, italian novels, books and travel, travel reads, reading list, books around the world, books to read, books set in different countries, italy

29.
The Blind Contessa’s New Machine
by Carey Wallace, 2010

In the early 1800’s, a young Italian contessa, Carolina Fantoni, realizes she is going blind shortly before she marries the town’s most sought-after bachelor. Her parents don’t believe her, nor does her fiancé. The only one who understands is the eccentric local inventor and her longtime companion, Turri. When her eyesight dims forever, Carolina can no longer see her beloved lake or the rich hues of her own dresses. But as darkness erases her world, she discovers one place she can still see – in her dreams. Carolina creates a vivid dreaming life, in which she can not only see, but also fly, exploring lands she had never known. Desperate to communicate with Carolina, Turri invents a peculiar machine for her: the world’s first typewriter. His gift ignites a passionate love affair that will change both of their lives forever. Based on the true story of a nineteenth-century inventor and his innovative contraption, The Blind Contessa’s New Machine is an enchanting confection of love and the triumph of the imagination.

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Books Set In Italy - Every Day in Tuscany: Seasons of an Italian Life by Frances Mayes. For more books that inspire travel visit www.taleway.com to find books set around the world. italian books, books about italy, italy inspiration, italy travel, novels set in italy, italian novels, books and travel, travel reads, reading list, books around the world, books to read, books set in different countries, italy

30.
Every Day in Tuscany: Seasons of an Italian Life
by Frances Mayes, 2010

Frances Mayes—widely published poet, gourmet cook, and travel writer—opens the door to a wondrous new world when she buys and restores an abandoned villa in the spectacular Tuscan countryside. In evocative language, she brings the reader along as she discovers the beauty and simplicity of life in Italy. Mayes also creates dozens of delicious seasonal recipes from her traditional kitchen and simple garden, all of which she includes in the book. Mayes writes about the tastes and pleasures of a foreign country with gusto and passion.

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Books Set In Italy - The Things We Cherished by Pam Jenoff. For more books that inspire travel visit www.taleway.com to find books set around the world. italian books, books about italy, italy inspiration, italy travel, novels set in italy, italian novels, books and travel, travel reads, reading list, books around the world, books to read, books set in different countries, italy

31.
The Things We Cherished
by Pam Jenoff, 2011

An ambitious novel that spans decades and continents, The Things We Cherished tells the story of Charlotte Gold and Jack Harrington, two fiercely independent attor­neys who find themselves slowly falling for one another while working to defend the brother of a Holocaust hero against allegations of World War II–era war crimes.

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Books Set In Italy - The Stranger’s Child by Alan Hollinghurst. For more books that inspire travel visit www.taleway.com to find books set around the world. italian books, books about italy, italy inspiration, italy travel, novels set in italy, italian novels, books and travel, travel reads, reading list, books around the world, books to read, books set in different countries, italy

32.
The Stranger’s Child
by Alan Hollinghurst, 2011

In the late summer of 1913, George Sawle brings his Cambridge schoolmate – a handsome, aristocratic young poet named Cecil Valance – to his family’s modest home outside London for the weekend. George is enthralled by Cecil, and soon his sixteen-year-old sister, Daphne, is equally besotted by him and the stories he tells about Corley Court, the country estate he is heir to. But what Cecil writes in Daphne’s autograph album will change their and their families’ lives forever: a poem that, after Cecil is killed in the Great War and his reputation burnished, will become a touchstone for a generation, a work recited by every schoolchild in England. Over time, a tragic love story is spun, even as other secrets lie buried – until, decades later, an ambitious biographer threatens to unearth them.

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Books Set In Italy - Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter. For more books that inspire travel visit www.taleway.com to find books set around the world. italian books, books about italy, italy inspiration, italy travel, novels set in italy, italian novels, books and travel, travel reads, reading list, books around the world, books to read, books set in different countries, italy

33.
Beautiful Ruins
by Jess Walter, 2012

The story begins in 1962. On a rocky patch of the sun-drenched Italian coastline, a young innkeeper, chest-deep in daydreams, looks out over the incandescent waters of the Ligurian Sea and spies an apparition: a tall, thin woman, a vision in white, approaching him on a boat. She is an actress, he soon learns, an American starlet, and she is dying.

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Books Set In Italy - Summer at the Lake by Erica James. For more books that inspire travel visit www.taleway.com to find books set around the world. italian books, books about italy, italy inspiration, italy travel, novels set in italy, italian novels, books and travel, travel reads, reading list, books around the world, books to read, books set in different countries, italy

34.
Summer at the Lake
by Erica James, 2013

It was a wedding invitation that changed everything for Floriana. If she hadn’t been so distracted at the thought of having to witness the one true love of her life get married, she would have seen the car coming and there would have been no need for elderly spinster Esme Silcox and local property developer Adam Strong to rush to her aid. If she hadn’t met them she would never have had the courage to agree to attend Seb’s wedding in Lake Como. For Esme, Lake Como awakens memories of when she stayed at the lake as a 19-year-old girl and fell in love for the first time. So often she’s wondered what happened to the man who stole her heart all those years ago, a man who changed the course of her life.

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Books Set In Italy - Chasing the Rose: An Adventure in the Venetian Countryside by Andrea di Robilant. For more books that inspire travel visit www.taleway.com to find books set around the world. italian books, books about italy, italy inspiration, italy travel, novels set in italy, italian novels, books and travel, travel reads, reading list, books around the world, books to read, books set in different countries, italy

35.
Chasing the Rose: An Adventure in the Venetian Countryside
by Andrea di Robilant, 2014

From the author of the best-selling A Venetian Affair, here is the charming chronicle of his search for the identity of a mysterious old rose. Andrea di Robilant’s tale takes us back to the time of Josephine Bonaparte, as well as into some of the most delightful rose gardens in Italy today, brought to colorful life on the page in the watercolors of artist Nina Fuga.

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What do you think of these books set in Italy?

Are you planning a trip to Italy? Have some great books set in Italy that I’ve missed? I’d love to hear about more books set in Italy in the comments below!

 

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Books Set In Italy. Italian books that inspire travel, visit www.taleway.com for books set around the world. italian books, books about italy, italy inspiration, italy travel, novels set in italy, italian novels, books and travel, travel reads, reading list, books around the world, books to read, italy, books set in different countries

Books Set In Italy. Italian books that inspire travel, visit www.taleway.com for books set around the world. italian books, books about italy, italy inspiration, italy travel, novels set in italy, italian novels, books and travel, travel reads, reading list, books around the world, books to read, italy, books set in different countries

Books Set In Italy. Italian books that inspire travel, visit www.taleway.com for books set around the world. italian books, books about italy, italy inspiration, italy travel, novels set in italy, italian novels, books and travel, travel reads, reading list, books around the world, books to read, italy, books set in different countries

Books Set In Italy. Italian books that inspire travel, visit www.taleway.com for books set around the world. italian books, books about italy, italy inspiration, italy travel, novels set in italy, italian novels, books and travel, travel reads, reading list, books around the world, books to read, italy, books set in different countries

Books Set In Italy. Italian books that inspire travel, visit www.taleway.com for books set around the world. italian books, books about italy, italy inspiration, italy travel, novels set in italy, italian novels, books and travel, travel reads, reading list, books around the world, books to read, italy, books set in different countries


28 comments
    1. Hi Kelly, I hadn’t heard of this one before, it certainly has some great reviews – thanks for the tip! 🙂

  1. Boungirno Ash,
    Saw your website. I have written three books over the last seven years entitled Italian Trilogy by Paul Wright.
    I am hoping you might feature them on your Italy page.. They feature what it is really like to live on Lake Como. I have lived on the lake for 28 years. The books are for sale on Amazon in paperback and e-book.
    Looking forward to hearing to hear from you.
    Regards Paul

    1. Buongiorno Paul! Thanks so much for sharing your novels, I’d love to check them out! I’m happy to include them here in the comments, I’ve added links so they are super easy to find. Sending greetings to Lake Como, such a beautiful part of the world! 🙂

  2. Tomorrow Or Never by Maria Martin is amazing!! It begins in small town southern Italy in the 30s and follows a young woman through Rome and Milan over the next decades. I’ve been searching for something even half as good ever since!

    Beneath a Scarlet Sky by Mark Sullivan is also brilliant, set in Milan during World War II and based (loosely) on a true story of Pino Lella.

    From Sand and Ash by Amy Harmon, also set in WWII Italy, following two resistance members in 1943

    The Book of Unholy Mischief by Elle Newmark is wonderful, one of my all time favourite books. Set in 1498 in Venice it’s evocative and magical, with mystery thrown in for good measure.

    Christobel Kent’s Sandro Cellini thriller/mystery series is also delightful – my favourite is The Dead Season, which is number 3 in the series. Christobel Kent had a new murder mystery A Florentine Revenge released last month which I am dying to read on holidays in Florence next week!

    1. Hi Selina! Wow! Thanks so much for your wonderful and detailed recommendations. I hadn’t heard of these, so am happy to have more titles for my to-read list! I’m most intrigued by Tomorrow Or Never, it seems less widely read and I love discovering titles like this. Hope you have a wonderful time Florence, hope it’s filled with sunshine and reading 🙂

      1. Thanks Ash! I’m always on the hunt for new books set in Italy, am looking forward to working through the rest of this list 🙂 Tomorrow Or Never is so good, I hope you love it too. I’m really hoping they make a film of it!

      1. I would whole heartedly recommend the Elena Ferrante novels. Not only do they tell a great coming of age story, they are written by an Italian author and are hugely descriptive of Naples.

        1. Thanks Carolyn! I really can’t wait to read them, I’ve got a feeling I’m going to love them 🙂

  3. This is an amazing list. Being Italian myself, I’ve read most of these titles and I’ve loved them (especially Alberto Moravia and Paolo Giordano).
    If I can add one more title to this list, I think it should be “The Story of a New Name” by Elena Ferrante, which narrates vividly the lives of the Neapolitan outskirt in the 50s and 60s. It’s a series of 4 novels and it’s marvelous.
    Thank you for the list, I really like this blog.

    1. Hi Maggie, thanks so much for stopping by and for your kind words! So happy to hear you enjoyed this list, amazing that you’ve read most of the titles! Thanks for your recommendation too, Janine another commenter above also recommended the Neapolitan Novels – so they are now very high on my to-read pile! 🙂

  4. My book, The Ride, is a great motorcyclist escapist piece set in Italy during World War 2, probably one of the best war novels told from that era, with a suspenseful romance revolving around a Waffen SS soldier and partisan woman, who escape the ravages of fueding political powers, to find love in a fleeing adventure.

  5. Please consider Retirement Italiano : Adventures and Misadventures in a Foreign Culture. It is garnering five star reviews. Readers find it entertaining and insightful in that it provides them with a picture of Italy that they don’t see along the typical tourist route. To quote just one reader; “If Peter Mayle had gone to Italy… A very entertaining read, to be sure. Coen’s style is the literary equivalent of the Italian comfort food he so deliciously describes. Highly recommended for anyone wishing to avoid tourism and actually live in the global village.”
    Terrence Coen

    1. Hi Terrence! Thanks so much for sharing your book, huge congratulations to you on its release! I’m currently in the midst of writing my first book and am learning just how much goes into it. I think your book will have me dreaming of a move to Italy! Do you have a link to share for your B&B, just in case any of our readers would like to come and visit? 🙂

  6. The Magic Mountain is set in Engadine, Switzerland: very close, but completely different from Italy. Death in Venice by Thomas Mann is of course set in Italy, as already pointed out by someone else. Being Italian myself I have read many of the books in the list, but Itaòians nowadays are reading something else: Camilleri, who I think is translated in English, and maybe a thriller by Antonio Manzini. Good choices about Stefano Benni and Italo Calvino, two of my favourite authors, and I’d add something by Primo Levi.

    1. Hi Chiara, thanks so much for taking the time to share such wonderful recommendations! My mistake, The Magic Mountain is set in Switzerland indeed! Thanks for pointing this out, I’ve added a note to the list above for readers to take note. Apart from being set close to the border, its only other connection is an Italian character, Lodovico Settembrini. Really appreciate your insights on what Italians are reading at the moment, love the sound of all these authors works – thanks for sharing them with us! 🙂

    1. Thank you so much for your amazing recommendations Hildred! Absolutely love discovering series just like these, they sound fantastic and looking at the reviews – are most certainly well-loved! 🙂

    1. Hi Ellen, thanks for your kind words and for sharing these recommendations too! I’ve added links to your comment for those who’d like to read more about this series.

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