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Best of Italy in 17 Days: Recommended Reading & Viewing

Italy is 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. Here's a list of some sources we've found helpful. 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

• Italian Days — Barbara Grizzuti Harrison
• Desiring Italy — Susan N. Cahill
• Italian Neighbors — Tim Parks
• The Italians — Luigi Barzini
• The Sunny Side of the Alps; Umbria; That Fine Italian Hand; The Seasons of Rome — Paul Hofmann
• Eat Pray Love — Elizabeth Gilbert
• Under the Tuscan Sun — Frances Mayes
• Stones of Florence; Venice Observed — Mary McCarthy
• Christ Stopped at Eboli — Carlo Levi
• Excellent Cadavers — Alexander Stille
• Culture Shock: Italy — Raymond Flower
• Travelers' Tales: Italy — Ann Calcagno
• Pomp And Sustenance: Twenty Five Centuries Of Sicilian Food — Mary Taylor Simeti
• Marling Menu — Master for Italy

Fiction

• Divine Comedy — Dante Alighieri
• Decameron — Giovanni Boccaccio
• Romeo and Juliet, The Merchant of Venice, Much Ado About Nothing, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, and The Taming of the Shrew (among others) — William Shakespeare
• Italian Journey — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
• The First Man in Rome — Colleen McCullough
• I, Claudius — Robert Graves
• The Leopard — Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa
• A Soldier of the Great War — Mark Helprin
• A Bell for Adano — John Hersey
• Pompeii — Robert Harris
• In the Company of the Courtesan — Sarah Durant
• The Birth of Venus — Sarah Durant

General Europe

• Europe 101 — Rick Steves & Gene Openshaw: A fun and informative look at European history and art; including the Italian Renaissance.
• A World Lit Only by Fire — William Manchester: Vivid account of Europe's transition from the Roman Empire to the Reformation and the Renaissance.
• Innocents Abroad — Mark Twain: Classic, humorous account of an American group's 1867 "Grand Tour" through Europe and the Holy Land.
• Civilization — 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 an Italian Accent

Open City (1945) • Bicycle Thieves (1949) • Roman Holiday (1953) • Ben-Hur (1959) • Spartacus (1960) • La Dolce Vita (1961) • 1900 (1977) • Room with a View (1986) • Cinema Paradiso (1990) • Enchanted April (1991) • Ciao, Professore! (1994) • Il Postino (1995) • Life Is Beautiful (1997) • Bread and Tulips (2000) • Gladiator (2000) • The Italian Job (2003)

Mood Music

Big Night soundtrack; Ezio Pinza; Andrea Bocelli; Three Tenors; Respighi's Pines of Rome; Puccini's Tosca; Leoncavallo's I Pagliacci; Verdi's Rigoletto; Pino Daniele, Lucio Dalla, Zucchero