Florence is the city I love the most in Italy and I would even say the most (in competition with London). So many memories in this city, dating so far away and with so many friends. I love the colours of this town, the sound of this singing language, the streets that lead all to the duomo and then suddenly, around a corner, a piazza that you have never seen. Reading books set in Florence is an absolute pleasure when you can extract the exact location that the author is describing from your brain.
This
Guardian’s series is introduced by Christobel Kent, who wrote several thrillers set in Florence, the last one that triggered this article being “The Viper”. She chose for this series books showing the dark side of Florence, dangerous, seductive, chiaroscuro.
The Ten Books
A Room with a View – E. M. Forster (1908)
Innocence – Penelope Fitzgerald (1986)
Florence: A Delicate Case – David Leavitt (2002)
The Decameron – Giovanni Boccaccio (～1350)
The Rise and Fall of the House of Medici – Christopher Hibbert (1974)
Secrecy – Rupert Thomson (2013)
A Tale of Poor Lovers – Vasco Pratolini (1947)
The Monster of Florence – Magdalen Nabb (1996)
Hannibal – Thomas Harris (1999)
My Cousin Rachel – Daphne du Maurier (1951)