Instantly Italy

Italian language, culture and travel tips

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

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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

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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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[Italian Books] Eva Dorme, A Book About a Long-Forgotten Cultural Issue in Italian Contemporary History

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Are you interested in Italian contemporary history? Do you think you know everything about it? Well, there might be something you still don’t know. 

It is an issue that has to do with Alto Adige, or South Tyrol, as it is known in English, and what is now the autonomous province of Bolzano. Alto Adige is part of Trentino-Alto Adige, Italy’s northernmost region, which is now famous for the amazing mountains, some of the highest in Europe, and the breathtaking views of the Dolomites.

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[Italian books] A contemporary Italian writer I am sure you will fall in love with

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I have recently discovered a new Italian writer which you absolutely need to know! 

Her name is Donatella Di Pietrantonio and I am sure that – once you know her – you will love her work as much as I do. She has written three books so far: I have read two of them in the last couple of weeks and I loved them so much that I immediately wanted to share such love with you!

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Trying to understand Italy while traveling by train: Tim Parks’ Italian Ways

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What is the best way to know a foreign country?

Over the last 30 years or so, Tim Parks has tried to understand Italy in every possible way. As a matter of fact, as Parks says, “Italy is not a country for beginners” and it takes some time to go beyond the surface and dive deeper into Italian culture and lifestyle, in order to understand certain behaviors and attitudes.

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13 Classic Books Every Italian Has Read When in School

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Or, to say it better: 13 classic books every Italian SHOULD have read when in school. 

Let’s be honest: how many of you have read all the classics that have been assigned to you, when you were a student? Well, I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to be a liar and I can easily tell you that I haven’t. I was a good student and have always loved reading, but some of the assigned reads stayed on my desk almost untouched.

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A book about moving to Italy and finding happiness in the Italian countryside

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If you go to a bookstore, you’ll surely find a lot of memoirs about moving to Italy and living the Italian dream.

One of the most famous is undoubtedly Under The Tuscan Sun by Frances Mayes, but there are many others. I have read quite a few of them and I had to admit they tend to follow the same cliché: moving to Tuscany, buying property there and finding the love of your life. Which isn’t quite a bad scenario at all, to be honest.

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10 contemporary Italian novels you should read this summer

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Summer is definitely a great time for reading. 

You probably are going on holiday for a few days and have more free time than usual. There might be long days at the beach or some time spent in a cabin in the woods. Even if you are staying at home, this summer, I am sure that everything will be a tad more relaxed and you’ll be looking for some good books to read.

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[Italian books] A book about learning Italian and falling in love with it

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I haven’t been reading many Italian books lately, but luckily I’ve come across a really interesting one. 

The book is In altre parole by the Pulizer Prize winner Jhumpa Lahiri, basically a declaration of love for the Italian language. In a sort of memoir, the writer depicts her relationship with the language and the challenges she had to face while learning it. She takes us by the hand and describes the journey she had to make from being an absolute beginner to being able to even write a book in Italian.

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