No. 01Fiction1958
The Leopard
Il Gattopardo
by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa
A Sicilian prince watches the old aristocracy dissolve into a new Italy. Lush, melancholic, and quietly devastating — the definitive Sicilian novel.
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No. 02Fiction1980
The Name of the Rose
Il Nome della Rosa
by Umberto Eco
A medieval murder mystery set in a labyrinthine Italian abbey, equal parts thriller and meditation on books, faith, and forbidden knowledge.
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No. 03Essay2006
La Bella Figura
A Field Guide to the Italian Mind
by Beppe Severgnini
A witty ten-day tour through the Italian psyche — airports, autostradas, piazzas, and bedrooms — by one of Italy's sharpest observers.
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No. 04Essay2015
The Italians
by John Hooper
A foreign correspondent's clear-eyed portrait of modern Italy: its contradictions, its history, and the threads that hold a complicated country together.
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No. 05Cookbook2009
La Cucina
The Regional Cooking of Italy
by The Italian Academy of Cuisine
More than 2,000 authentic recipes gathered region by region — the most comprehensive document of Italian home cooking ever published in English.
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No. 06Essay2011
The Pursuit of Italy
by David Gilmour
A sweeping history of the Italian peninsula and its peoples — from the Romans to the Risorgimento — that asks what 'Italy' has ever truly meant.
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No. 07Essay1532
The Prince
Il Principe
by Niccolò Machiavelli
The essential Florentine treatise on power, politics, and statecraft — as ruthlessly clear today as it was four centuries ago.
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No. 08Essay2007
The Book of Dreams
Il Libro dei Sogni
by Federico Fellini
The legendary director's private illustrated dream journals — a haunting, playful window into the subconscious mind that shaped some of cinema's greatest visions.
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No. 09Essay2003
Italy and the Grand Tour
by Jeremy Black
A rich history of how generations of travelers — from Milton to Goethe — shaped and were shaped by their journeys through Italy, and how the Grand Tour became a cultural phenomenon.
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No. 10Essay1974
The House of Medici
by Christopher Hibbert
A masterful chronicle of the Medici dynasty — from Cosimo the Elder to the tragic Anna Maria Luisa — and how one family bankrolled the Renaissance and shaped the destiny of Florence.
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No. 11Cookbook1891
Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well
La Scienza in Cucina e l'Arte di Mangiar Bene
by Pellegrino Artusi
The beloved bible of Italian home cooking — over 700 recipes gathered by a passionate gastronome who believed the table is where Italian culture truly lives. Warm, opinionated, and utterly timeless.
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No. 12Essay2013
Masterpieces of Italian Design
by Charlotte & Peter Fiell
A lavish survey of Italy's most iconic design objects — from the Vespa to the Arco lamp, Memphis to Alessi — revealing how Italian design became a global language of style, audacity, and cultural expression.
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