What is the best-known book set in Italy?

[nwhyte]

See note on methodologyI have to be honest with you. I felt I could get away with disqualifying the most-widely owned book which has been tagged "France" by the users of Goodreads and LibraryThing on the basis that, as well as being utter tosh, not all that much of it is set in France. Unfortunately, the top-ranked book, by users on both LT and GR

Comments

[damnedscientist]

They may not be as famous as some of your other books, but you should consider the Don Camillo books by Giavannino Guareschi. They are hilarious, wonderful to read and have such an Italian flavour about them.

[smhwpf]

To be fair, Dante's Inferno is set in a very Italianate version of Hell. It is certainly more distinctively Italian in its setting than R&J or Catch 22 for example.

I wonder if the Montalbino novels are climbing up the list.

[unwholesome_fen]

They actually renamed a town in Sicily to capitalise on Montalbano tourism, so Porto Empedocle is now Porto Empedocle Vigàta!

There's also Romanzo Criminale, which has now had both a film and a TV series.

[unwholesome_fen]

Boccacio? Ariosto?

Shakespeare does tend to get Italian cities wrong (see also the Merchant of Venice). I've always found that a useful thing to throw at the Oxfordians - since their candidate had actually visited most of these places, he would have had no excuse for such ignorance.

[surliminal]

The Zen novels were recently televised ( modern Roman detective, heavy on recent murky Italian. Politics) and made quite good Sherlock methadone and the one i read was v good indeed - think you would enjoy.

Angels and Demons isn't mostly in Italy

[po8crg]

There's at least as much in Vatican City as in Italy.

There's your excuse to disqualify it as well as it being total tosh.