Reading

The Italian bookshelf

Long train journeys are the best reading you'll get all year. These are the books that make the window more interesting, chosen for the places the rail network actually takes you.

Read before you go

The Italians

John Hooper

The clearest modern explanation of why the country works the way it does.

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A History of Italy

Christopher Duggan

Unification to the present, in one readable volume.

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The Pursuit of Italy

David Gilmour

Argues Italy is a collection of city-states wearing a nation's clothes. You'll believe it by Bologna.

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Read on the train

My Brilliant Friend

Elena Ferrante

Naples, and the best possible preparation for arriving at Napoli Centrale.

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The Leopard

Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa

Sicily. Read it on the ferried Intercity across the strait.

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Death in Venice

Thomas Mann

Short enough for Milan to Venice, atmospheric enough to change the arrival.

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The Talented Mr Ripley

Patricia Highsmith

Trains, coastlines and menace. Perfect for the Ligurian run.

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Food and place

The Food of Italy

Waverley Root

Region by region, and still the reference.

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Heat

Bill Buford

Tuscany, butchery and obsession.

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Pasta Grannies

Vicky Bennison

What the regional shapes mean and where they come from.

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In your pocket

Collins Italian Phrasebook

Collins

Small, cheap, and better than a phone with no signal in Calabria.

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Italian Short Stories for Beginners

Olly Richards

Twenty minutes a train ride and you'll order dinner properly by day five.

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