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An Italian Affair

An Italian Affair
  • Author(s): Caroline Montague
  • Location(s): Tuscany
  • Genre(s): Fiction, Historical
  • Era(s): WW2 onwards

Italy, 1937. Alessandra Durante is grieving the loss of her husband when she discovers she has inherited her ancestral family seat, Villa Durante, deep in the Tuscan Hills. Longing for a new start, she moves from her home in...

Simonetta

Simonetta
  • Author(s): Fay Picardi
  • Location(s): Florence
  • Genre(s): Biography, Fiction
  • Era(s): 15th Century

Have you ever wondered about who Botticelli chose to depict in his immortal painting Birth of Venus? Was she a real person, his model or his mistress? Most people recognize her image, but few can name her. Even fewer...

Still Life

Still Life
  • Author(s): Sarah Winman
  • Location(s): Tuscany, East London
  • Genre(s): Fiction, Historical
  • Era(s): Mid 20th Century

1944, in the ruined wine cellar of a Tuscan villa, as bombs fall around them, two strangers meet and share an extraordinary evening. Ulysses Temper is a young British soldier, Evelyn Skinner is a sexagenarian art historian and possible...

The Artisan’s Star

The Artisan’s Star
  • Author(s): Gabriella Contestabile
  • Location(s): Florence, Grasse
  • Genre(s): Fiction
  • Era(s): Modern

Elio Barati’s perfumery shop in Florence marks its entrance with a mosaic star. This shop immerses Elio in the artisanal world he loves, but he harbors a regret. As a young man he created a full-fledged perfume of jasmine,...

The Birth of Venus

The Birth of Venus
  • Author(s): Sarah Dunant
  • Location(s): Florence
  • Genre(s): Fiction, Historical
  • Era(s): 15th Century

Alessandra is not quite fifteen when her prosperous merchant father brings a young painter back with him from Holland to adorn the walls of the new family chapel. She is fascinated by his talents and envious of his abilities...

The Girl with the Scarlet Ribbon

The Girl with the Scarlet Ribbon
  • Author(s): Suzanne Goldring
  • Location(s): Florence, Cornwall, London
  • Genre(s): Fiction
  • Era(s): WWII and 2019

Italy, 1943. A missing painting. A war-scarred city. A brave young girl on a black bicycle risking her life for the country she loved… When Sofia loses her adored father, famous painter Riccardo, she is broken-hearted. Desperate to bring...

The Medici Boy

The Medici Boy
  • Author(s): John L'Heureux
  • Location(s): Florence
  • Genre(s): Fiction, Historical
  • Era(s): 15th Century

The worlds of art, politics and passion collide in John L Heureux s masterful new novel, The Medici Boy. With rich composition, L Heureux ingeniously transports the reader to Donatello s Renaissance Italy directly into his bottega, (workshop), as...

The Towers of Tuscany

The Towers of Tuscany
  • Author(s): Carol M Cram
  • Location(s): San Gimignano, Siena, Tuscany
  • Genre(s): Fiction, Historical
  • Era(s): 1338-1348

Sofia is trained in secret as a painter in her father’s workshop during a time when women did not paint openly. She loves her work, but her restless spirit leads her to betray her extraordinary gifts to marry a...

Cooking with Fernet Branca

Cooking with Fernet Branca
  • Author(s): James Hamilton-Paterson
  • Location(s): Tuscany
  • Genre(s): Fiction, Food and Drink, Humour
  • Era(s): Modern

Gerald Samper, an effete Englishman, lives on a hilltop in Tuscany. He is a ghostwriter for celebrities, and a foodie, whose weird tastes include ‘Mussels in Chocolate and Garlic’ and ‘Fernet Branca Ice Cream’. His idyll is shattered by...

Love and Gelato

Love and Gelato
  • Author(s): Jenna Evans Welch
  • Location(s): Tuscany
  • Genre(s): Fiction, Romance
  • Era(s): Contemporary

A summer in Italy turns into a road trip across Tuscany in this sweeping debut novel filled with romance, mystery, and adventure. Lina is spending the summer in Tuscany, but she isn t in the mood for Italy s...

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