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Best of Florence in 7 Days: Recommended Reading & Viewing

Italy and Florence are overwhelmingly rich in history, art and culture. Any preliminary reading, viewing or listening you can do will help you get the most from your trip. For more information on any of these books, visit your favorite bookstore or check out amazon.com; for video information, go to imdb.com. Rick Steves guidebooks are available at our office in Edmonds and also on our website's Travel Store.

Recommended Reading

Non-Fiction  

• The Prince; Florentine Histories — Niccolo Machiavelli
• The City of Florence — R.W.B. Lewis
• Florence: A Portrait — Michael Levey
• The Stones of Florence — Mary McCarthy
• Brunelleschi's Dome — Ross King
• The Architecture of the Italian Renaissance — Peter Murray
• Lives of the Artists — Giorgio Vasari
• Italian Renaissance Art — Laurie Adams
• The House of Medici; Florence: The Biography of a City — Christopher Hibbert
• Fortune Is a River — Roger Masters
• The Hills of Tuscany — Ferenc Máté
• A Tuscan Childhood — Kinta Beevor
• A Small Place in Italy — Eric Newby
• Under the Tuscan Sun — Frances Mayes

Fiction

• Romola — George Eliot
• A Room With a View — E. M. Forster
• The Passion of Artemisia — Susan Vreeland
• The Sixteen Pleasures — Robert Hellenga
• Birth of Venus — Sarah Dunant
• Galileo's Daughter — Dava Sobel
• A Rich Full Death — Michael Dibdin
• Death of an Englishman — Magdalen Nabb
• The Dante Game — Jane Langton
• Bella Donna — Barbara Cherne
• The Agony and the Ecstasy — Irving Stone
• The Light in the Piazza — Elizabeth Spencer
• The Decameron — Giovanni Boccaccio

General Europe

• Europe 101 — Rick Steves & Gene Openshaw. History and art overview for the traveler; humorous and easy to read.
• A World Lit Only by Fire — William Manchester. A vivid account of Europe's transition from the Roman Empire to the Reformation and the Renaissance.
• Innocents Abroad — Mark Twain. Humorous classic recounts an American group's 1867 "Grand Tour" through Europe and the Holy Land.
• Civilisation — Kenneth Clark. BBC-TV series and book that teaches European art and civilization like nothing else.
• Connections — James Burke. Fascinating book and TV series that links historical events and scientific discoveries across the centuries.

Rick Steves' Travel DVDs

For a fun, informative preview of your next tour destination, watch a DVD from our "Rick Steves' Europe" TV series! Our online Travel Store has 70 shows available on 12 DVDs (a generous five to eight shows per disc).

Films With a Florentine Accent

• Prince of Foxes (1949) • The Light in the Piazza (1962) • A Room With a View (1986) • Where Angels Fear to Tread (1991) • Much Ado About Nothing (1993) • Life Is Beautiful (1997) • Tea with Mussolini (1999) • Under the Tuscan Sun (2003)

Mood Music

Andrea Bocelli; Three Tenors; Ezio Pinza; operas by Verdi, Leoncavallo's I Pagliacci, Puccini's Tosca; Big Night soundtrack