Howard (1907-1987) served as an intelligence officer in WW2 throughout the Italian campaign. He married Lelia Caetani of Ninfa, where Bassani wrote a large part of The Garden of the Finzi Co... read more
An atmospheric, creepy thriller set in a remote valley in northern Italy, where a writer, investigating an apparent drowning many years before, is hampered by superstition.
One of the great patrons of the Renaissance, creator of perhaps the most remarkable library outside the Vatican, the Duke of Urbino was also the most successful and feared mercenary of the a... read more
MH constructs an enthralling narrative of Vatican intrigue by drawing on Cardinal Ippolito d'Este's records of the papal conclave of 1559. She shows how both the papacy and the political fat... read more
Set in Florence and spanning three generations of women, this novel centres on the catastrophic floods of 1966 and the international volunteers - the 'angels of mud' - who helped.
Built in 1420-1436, the dome was not painted by Vasari and Zuccari until 1572-1579. This book, with text in English & Italian, presents in detail the entire pictorial cycle.
Celebrated particularly for its classical statues (qv the excellent recent The Torlonia Marbles), this Roman villa was the C18th creation of Cardinal Albani. It was preserved with its collec... read more
A handsome illustrated book on the Palazzo Castelluccio. Built in the C18th, it fell into ruin when the family died out in the C20th and has been restored by its new owner, the author. It co... read more
Between the Alps, the Appenines and the Tyrrhenian Sea grow bitter oranges, basil, olives... The Genoese are likely to ignite if anyone disagrees that their cuisine is the best in Italy.
Patrick Leigh Fermor held that baroque architecture in Italy could never have existed without pasta in all its multitudinous and beguiling forms... Drawing on a decade and a half of living i... read more
A woman moves through her lonely days in an Italian city: Lahiri's move to Rome a few years ago must inform this sensitive and observant novel. Written in Italian, the text is translated int... read more
The 30th outing for the tireless Brunetti: joy-riders in the Venetian lagoon are linked to more sinister doings... as usual, the glittering surface masks murky depths
A villa with a Roman aqueduct in the garden that famously belonged to Princess Zenaida Wolkonsky, whose salon included Gogol, Donizetti, Thorvaldsen, Stendhal and Sir Walter Scott. The autho... read more
In 1849 Garibaldi gave up the defence of Rome to the besieging French troops and made his way northwards with a few thousand volunteers; this is an earlier phase of the attempt at Italian li... read more
In this inspired recreation of her parents' hopes and lives, MW has created a vivid memoir of post-war childhood and adventure in Cairo, Italy and London.
Kneale knows the city like few others (viz his Rome: A History in Seven Sackings, pbk £10.99). His writing is also a delight, so his account of lockdown is worth reading.