Instantly Italy

Italian language, culture and travel tips

[Italian Books] Resto qui by Marco Balzano, The Story of A Woman and Her Family Set in The Long-gone Village of Curon, South Tyrol

If you want to Be Italian For A Weekend, you can join the Vespa ride and get a three-day email crash course about Italian culture! You will also get full access to Your Italian Toolbox, a library of Italian learning materials.

It all began with a Netflix Tv show, a series titled Curon. 

When Netflix announced this new Tv show, here in Italy, many online magazines and websites started writing about the history of Curon, a village that was drowned on purpose to create a reservoir, which was built right after the end of World War II to produce electricity through hydro-electric power.

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[Italian Books] The Garden of Monsters by Lorenza Pieri: A Novel About Life, Human Relationships and A Beautiful Garden

If you want to Be Italian For A Weekend, you can join the Vespa ride and get a three-day email crash course about Italian culture! You will also get full access to Your Italian Toolbox, a library of Italian learning materials.

As you may already know, I am always on the hunt for good Italian books. 

This should be a very easy and entertaining task because I really love books but I have made this task a bit more difficult for myself because I want to select good Italian books that have an English translation as well.

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[Italian Books] At The Wolf’s Table by Rosella Postorino

If you want to Be Italian For A Weekend, you can join the Vespa ride and get a three-day email crash course about Italian culture! You will also get full access to Your Italian Toolbox, a library of Italian learning materials.

Feel like reading an Italian book that is not about Italy?

I have been recommending quite a few Italian books and books about Italy in this blog but I have realized this is the first time I am writing about an Italian book that has nothing to do with Italy.

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[Italian Books] The Chimera by Sebastiano Vassalli, a Story of Witchcraft and Life in 17th-Century Rural Italy

If you want to Be Italian For A Weekend, you can join the Vespa ride and get a three-day email crash course about Italian culture! You will also get full access to Your Italian Toolbox, a library of Italian learning materials.

I am a book hoarder, I have to admit it.

One of my favorite pastimes is browsing books in a bookstore and every time I do so it is really hard for me not to bring a book home.

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[Italian Books] Ties by Domenico Starnone

If you want to Be Italian For A Weekend, you can join the Vespa ride and get a three-day email crash course about Italian culture! You will also get full access to Your Italian Toolbox, a library of Italian learning materials.

I didn’t know much about this book when I started reading it.

Actually, I did this on purpose. I had read so many positive comments about the book that I decided to give it a go without doing much research about it. I just wanted to dive in and enjoy it. And that’s exactly what happened!

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From Scratch by Tembi Locke: A Memoir About Italy and About Love, Loss and New Beginnings

If you want to Be Italian For A Weekend, you can join the Vespa ride and get a three-day email crash course about Italian culture! You will also get full access to Your Italian Toolbox, a library of Italian learning materials.

This is not another memoir about visiting Italy and falling in love with an Italian man. Well, somehow it is but the book is way more complex than that. 

I have discovered this book via the lovely Jasmine on Instagram. If you have been following this blog for a while, you may remember her interview for my Expats in Italy section. She has a very interesting Instagram account, which shows her love for Italy and gives you a nice way to learn more about expat life in Italy (in her stories, especially).

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Contemporary Italian Literature: Two Books That Will Help You Understand Life in The Italian Province

If you want to Be Italian For A Weekend, you can join the Vespa ride and get a three-day email crash course about Italian culture! You will also get full access to Your Italian Toolbox, a library of Italian learning materials.

Italy is not only Florence, Rome, Venice, Naples or Milan. And most of the times life in Italy is way different from the one you can live in those big cities.

Most of Italy is made of tiny little villages that nobody knows, where life is absolutely not as glamorous as they show you on Instagram accounts about la dolce vita and sweet life in Italy. Forget about Aperol Spritz drunk at sunset by the seaside or breathtaking sceneries or memorable art and historical treasures.

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Some of my favorite Italian classic novels (available in English too)

If you want to Be Italian For A Weekend, you can join the Vespa ride and get a three-day email crash course about Italian culture! You will also get full access to Your Italian Toolbox, a library of Italian learning materials.

“Can you recommend some good Italian books?” is one of the questions I get asked the most. 

Reading is one of my most favorite things in life, so this question always makes me really happy. I try to write about books as much as I can, here on my blog, and I am always looking for interesting reads to suggest you.

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[Italian Books] The Eight Mountains by Paolo Cognetti: A Great Novel by One of The Best Italian Contemporary Authors

If you want to Be Italian For A Weekend, you can join the Vespa ride and get a three-day email crash course about Italian culture!

I am so happy I can finally recommend you one of my most favorite Italian books!

What was stopping me from doing so? well, I was waiting for it to be translated into English and now it’s finally done. So now I can tell you everything about one of the best books I have read lately: The Eight Mountains by Paolo Cognetti.

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Il Bel Centro: a book about moving to Italy with kids and experiencing expat life as a family

If you want to Be Italian For A Weekend, you can join the Vespa ride and get a three-day email crash course about Italian culture!

Even if I am Italian and I know quite a lot about living in Italy, I am a big fan of books about expat life in my country.

I started reading this kind of books before Instantly Italy was even a remote idea in my mind and enjoyed them very much. I started with Under The Tuscan Sun by Frances Mayes, back in the days, and kept on looking for other accounts of life in Italy as a foreigner ever since.

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