Not making it there this summer? No matter. The right novel can whisk you away for a slice of la dolce vita (though conjuring a slice of pizza is perhaps a trick too far) almost as effectively as an Easyjet flight. And if you are so lucky as to packing your suitcase for a last-minute escape to a Tuscan idyll, these are the books to tuck inside it. Whether your Italy is one of faded aristocratic villas, bustling Naples or the languid shores of a northern lake, these novels bottle its singular magic.
Villa Coco by Andrew Sean Greer
Named the book of the summer (it was published in June this year) and called 'an enchantment threaded through with hope' by The Guaridan, this novel is whimsical in every detail. It's a wonderful journey of elegant prose that wanders through Tuscany, bringing to life all that is lovely about Italy, the art, love, food and landscape. This is a novel you can truly get lost in and we can't recommend it highly enough. Buy it.
My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante
Few writers capture the rhythms of Italian life with quite the intensity of Elena Ferrante. Beginning in post-war Naples, My Brilliant Friend follows the complicated lifelong friendship between Elena and Lila as they navigate poverty, ambition and changing Italy. The city itself is as vivid a character as either woman: noisy, chaotic, beautiful and unforgiving. Read one and you'll almost certainly end up devouring the entire quartet. Buy it.
The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim
If ever there were a literary holiday in book form, this is it. Four very different English women escape drizzly London for a month in a castle on the Italian Riviera. Wisteria tumbles over ancient walls, lunches are of the lengthy kind conducted beneath olive trees and, gradually, everyone's life begins to change. Gentle, funny and deeply restorative, it's impossible to finish without wanting to book a Ligurian escape. Buy it.
The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith
Italy has rarely looked more seductive – or more dangerous. Patricia Highsmith's psychological masterpiece unfolds between the sparkling coastlines and elegant cities of 1950s Italy, where beauty and menace sit side by side. All aching glamour and frothy, beautiful people, the country’s impossibly blue seas provide the backdrop to one of literature's greatest antiheroes. Buy it.
Call Me by Your Name by André Aciman
Set during one glorious northern Italian summer, this modern classic evokes languorous afternoons, lazy bicycle rides, apricot trees heavy with fruit and dinners that stretch late into warm evenings. Even if you've seen the film, the novel offers an even richer sense of place, making Lombardy feel impossibly romantic. Buy it.
The Leopard by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa
For readers seeking one of the great novels of the twentieth century, The Leopard is indispensable. Set in Sicily during the upheaval of Italian unification, it follows Prince Fabrizio of Salina as he watches the old aristocratic order slowly give way to a new Italy. At once elegiac and deeply sensual, the novel is steeped in the island's heat and beauty: grand palazzi, dusty gardens, glittering balls and landscapes bleached by the Sicilian sun. Both a love letter to Sicily and a meditation on the passing of a world. Buy it.
A Room with a View by E. M. Forster
No literary trip to Italy would be complete without Florence. Forster's beloved classic begins with a young Englishwoman whose carefully ordered life is transformed beneath Tuscan skies. The city's churches, galleries and gardens provide the perfect backdrop for a story that celebrates beauty, spontaneity and the first flush of romance. Buy it.
FAQs: Books Set In Italy
Which is the best novel to read before visiting Italy?
If you're travelling widely, A Room with a View offers a wonderful introduction to Florence, while The Enchanted April perfectly captures the romance of the Italian Riviera.
Which book best evokes modern Italy?
My Brilliant Friend provides an extraordinarily vivid portrait of twentieth-century Naples and remains one of the defining novels of contemporary Italy.
Are these all literary classics?
No. The selection mixes enduring classics with modern favourites, offering everything from sweeping historical fiction to psychological thrillers and contemporary literary fiction.
Which book is the most atmospheric?
Each conjures a different Italy, but The Enchanted April is perhaps the most transporting, filled with gardens, sunshine and the restorative pleasures of la dolce vita.
I'm looking for something lighter for holiday reading. Which should I choose?
The Enchanted April is charming, uplifting and easy to dip into by the pool, while A Room with a View combines wit, romance and plenty of Italian sunshine.
What if I've already read all of these?
Try The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O'Farrell for Renaissance Florence, Still Life by Sarah Winman for post-war Florence, or The Garden of the Finzi-Continis by Giorgio Bassani for a haunting portrait of Ferrara before the Second World War.
