Read around Italy - Rome (The Eternal City)

Come with me on a reading journey around Italy's stunning twenty regions.

As a book blogger/book reviewer for books set in Italy, from mysteries to histories, from crime to cookbooks, from thrillers to travel guides, cosy up in an armchair and let me take you on a journey around all of Italy’s beautiful regions.

Festa della Liberazione 25 APRIL

My love of Italy started as a child, living in the north of England, when my grandparents went to Rome on holiday ( 1960’s) and brought me back a snow globe showing Romulus and Remus and a wolf. The story of the twin brothers, the legendary founders of Rome, who were safely carried to the area of the seven hills, captivated me even then. There, the boys were found by a she-wolf called Lupa, who nursed them in her lair in Palatine Hill until they were found by a shepherd and his wife, who raised them as shepherds.

I am lucky enough to live close enough to Rome to visit as a day tripper, and the city still excites me. It always reveals something new. The eternal city provides an immersive experience where 3,000 years of living history, art, and spirituality blend with vibrant modern life. It is a “living museum” where ancient ruins like the Colosseum coexist with bustling cafes. It is a city of layering—Renaissance palaces on top of Roman ruins—offering romantic, illuminated nights, hidden, narrow cobblestone streets, and a passionate, timeless atmosphere.

I am celebrating Rome with my selection of books for Liberation Day, a national holiday in Italy that takes place on 25 April, commemorating the victory of the Italian resistance movement against Nazi Germany and the Italian Social Republic, a puppet state of the Nazis and rump state of the fascists, in the Italian Civil War, a civil war in Italy fought during World War ...

She Seduced Me

by Mark Tedesco

“a unique book that immerses readers in a magical world where places, monuments, and artists come alive through their stories. The reader becomes an active participant in the city’s ebb and flow, gaining insight into why so many people have fallen in love with Rome despite its flaws.”

I loved this book. It is a blog, a memoir, a travel guide. It’s a journal of not only the author’s personal thoughts and feelings but also those born in Rome, people who live and work there. Each chapter takes an in-depth look at every aspect of Rome. From restaurants and people-watching to shop owners, saints and weirdos.

What does it mean to be a Roman? Is it a cultural identity or a nationality? The author interviews local people to find out. Through vibrant interviews with street performers and locals, he skilfully illuminates the city’s intricate architecture, diverse art scene, and the colourful tapestry of its people.

You do not know Rome until you have read this book. The author skilfully combines his knowledge, research, and experience of Rome’s culture, which is a mix of many influences, including religion, art, architecture, and daily life traditions from both past and present, into a beautiful narrative.

The Woman of Rome

by Alberto Moravia (Author), Tami Calliope (Translator)

"A profoundly realistic and compassionate story which continually transcends its subject; which is in effect the story of modern Italy."

The glitter and cynicism of Rome under Mussolini provide the background of what is probably Alberto Moravia’s best and best-known novel, The Woman of Rome. It’s the story of Adriana, a simple girl with no fortune but her beauty who models naked for a painter, accepts gifts from men, and could never quite identify the moment when she traded her private dream of home and children for the life of a prostitute.
One of the very few novels of the twentieth century which can be ranked with the work of Dostoevsky, The Woman of Rome also tells the stories of the tortured university student Giacomo, a failed revolutionary who refuses to admit his love for Adriana; of the sinister figure of Astarita, the Secret Police officer obsessed with Adriana; and of the coarse and brutal criminal Sonzogno, who treats Adriana as his private property. Within this story of passion and betrayal, Moravia calmly strips away the pride and arrogance hiding the corrupt heart of Italian Fascism.

The Ghosts of Rome

by Joseph O’Connor

An acclaimed wartime thriller - in a city under siege, no one can be trusted

February 1944. Six months since Nazi forces occupied Rome.
Inside the beleaguered city, the Contessa Giovanna Landini is a member of the band of Escape Line activists known as ‘The Choir’. Their mission is to smuggle refugees to safety and help Allied soldiers, all under the nose of Gestapo boss Paul Hauptmann.

During a ferocious morning air raid, a mysterious parachutist lands in Rome and disappears into the backstreets. Is he an ally or an imposter? His fate will come to put the whole Escape Line at risk.

Meanwhile, Hauptmann’s attention has landed on the Contessa. As his fascination grows, she is pulled into a dangerous game with him – one where the consequences could be lethal.

The Villa of Mysteries

by David Hewson

"David Hewson’s Rome is dark and tantalising, seductive and dangerous, a place where present-day crimes ring with the echoes of history”

An ancient ritual. A modern-day crime.

A body is found in a peat bog near the banks of the Tiber River. Teresa Lupo, a maverick pathologist, believes it was a young woman sacrificed long ago in an ancient Roman ritual. But she’s wrong. While the method of killing is ancient history, this murder happened very recently. The horror of these ritualistic killings is very much alive and it’s up to Nic Costa to get to the bottom of it.

Early One Morning

by Virginia Bailey

This epic novel is an unforgettably powerful, suspenseful, heartbreaking and inspiring tale of love, loss and the reverberations of war down the years.

A grey dawn in 1943: on a street in Rome, two young women, strangers to each other, lock eyes for a single moment.

One of the women, Chiara Ravello, is about to flee the occupied city for the safety of her grandparents' house in the hills. The other has been herded onto a truck with her husband and their young children, and will shortly be driven off into the darkness.

In that endless-seeming moment, before she has time to think about what she is doing, Chiara makes a decision that changes her life forever. Loudly claiming the woman's son as her own nephew, she demands his immediate return; only as the trucks depart does she begin to realise what she has done. She is twenty-seven, single, with a sister who needs her constant care, a hazardous journey ahead of her, and now a child in her charge - a child with no papers who refuses to speak and gives every indication that he will bolt at the first opportunity.

Three decades later, Chiara lives alone in Rome, a self-contained, self-possessed woman working as a translator and to all appearances quite content with a life which revolves around work, friends, music and the theatre. But always in the background is the shadow of Daniele, the boy from the truck, whose absence haunts her every moment. Gradually, we learn of the havoc wrought on Chiara, her family and her friends by the boy she rescued, and how he eventually broke her heart. And when she receives a phone call from a teenage girl named Maria, claiming to be Daniele's daughter, Chiara knows that it is time for her to face up to the past.

Two Women In Rome

by Elizabeth Buchan

This is a multistranded saga set in the ‘eternal’ city of Rome, so-called because the ancient Romans believed that no matter what happened to the world, or how many empires rose or fell, Rome would go on forever.

This was one of the first books I reviewed, and I was also lucky enough to interview the author about the inspiration behind her story of sacrifices, consequences and choices.

Lottie Archer arrives in Rome excited to begin her new job as an archivist. When she discovers a valuable fifteenth-century painting, she is drawn to find out more about the woman who left it behind, Nina Lawrence.

Nina seems to have led a rewarding and useful life, restoring Italian gardens to their full glory following the destruction of World War Two. So why did no one attend her funeral in 1978?

In exploring Nina’s past, Lottie unravels a tragic love story beset by the political turmoil of post-war Italy. And as she edges closer to understanding Nina, she begins to confront the losses in her own life.

I hope you enjoy my selection of books.

Italy is my home now, and I hope you will join me in honouring the country's liberation in books.