ITALY FUN STUFF
There are many history books on Italy. Take your pick. I'm listing lighter fare that will let you travel with a bag of popcorn and a deep sigh of anticipation. Your suggestions welcome! I'll add to this list as we go along.
MOVIES
A Little Romance (1979) Two kids on the run wind up in Venice. Charming.
Three Coins in a Fountain (1954) Enjoy an advance visit to the Trevi fountain.
Summertime (1955) Touring Venice is Katherine Hepburn as a secretary from... oh, you have to see the film!
Only You (1994) Enjoyable fluff as Marisa Tomei and Robert Downey Jr. frolic in Venice, Rome, and more.
HISTORICAL FILMS
The Agony and the Ecstasy (1965) Must see as prelude to Sistine Chapel.
Dangerous Beauty (1998) Courtesan in Renaissance Venice.
Room with a View (1986) Brits, romance, Italy, Merchant-Ivory = delicious.
Rome (HBO series 2005-06) Watch out! Highly addictive series set in Caesar's Rome.
Spartacus (1960) Stanley Kubrick and Kirk Douglas. "I am Spartacus!" Classic.
Francesco (1989) and Brother Sun, Sister Moon (1973) Get ready for Assisi and St. Francis.
Romeo and Juliet (1968) Verona, here we come!
Artemisia (1997) Female artist, a rarity in Renaissance Italy, faces huge challenges.
Tea with Mussolini (1999) World War II disrupts the lives of haughty Brit ex-pats.
BOOKS
Sarah Dunant has just published Sacred Hearts, the third of her novels on Renaissance Italy. I haven't read it yet but it's a must after Birth of Venus about Florence in the time of Savonarola and In the Company of the Courtesan which brings Venice to life. I can't recommend these two enough!
ART & ARCHITECTURE
Ross King makes the creation of the sites we are going to see as exciting as a novel!
Brunelleschi's Dome: How a Renaissance Genius Reinvented Architecture
Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling
