# What novels set in Italy are best for a summer holiday? Canonical: https://zestasy.com/books/novels-set-in-italy-for-summer/ Section: Books & ideas · Updated: 2026-10-13 · Publisher: Zestasy For pure holiday light, take The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim or A Room with a View by E. M. Forster. For something you will think about all summer, take Elena Ferrante's My Brilliant Friend or Lampedusa's The Leopard; for a thriller with a sea view, Patricia Highsmith's The Talented Mr Ripley. A holiday novel has a job to do. It has to survive sun cream, sand and being dropped from a sun lounger, and it should make the place you are sitting in feel a little more charged. Italy has inspired more good novels than a single suitcase can hold, so we have chosen five that cover the full range of holiday moods, from very light to properly gripping. ## The Enchanted April, Elizabeth von Arnim (1922) An unhappily married London woman answers an advertisement for a medieval castle on the Italian coast, persuades an acquaintance to share the cost, and together they recruit two more women to spend April there. The sunshine, the place and each other slowly change all four of them. Von Arnim's descriptions of Portofino are credited with helping make the resort fashionable. **Pack it for:** the first days of a trip, when you are still shaking off work. It is gentle, funny and quietly hopeful. More on our page at /books/the-enchanted-april/. ## A Room with a View, E. M. Forster (1908) Lucy Honeychurch, a young Englishwoman, arrives in Florence with her chaperone, and meets the unconventional Emerson family. The novel moves from a pensione in Florence back to Surrey, as Lucy is pulled between what she feels and what is expected of her. It is a romance and a comedy of manners, and it has great fun with English manners abroad. **Pack it for:** a city break, especially Florence. Read it in a café and enjoy recognising the tourists, possibly including yourself. ## My Brilliant Friend, Elena Ferrante (2011) The first of the four Neapolitan Novels follows two girls, Elena and Lila, growing up in a poor neighbourhood on the edge of Naples in the 1950s. Their friendship, full of rivalry and loyalty, carries the book. It is not a sunny read, but it is absorbing in a way few novels are, and holidays are when you have the time to fall all the way in. **Pack it for:** a longer trip. Be warned that you may need the next three volumes, so plan luggage accordingly. See /books/where-to-start-with-elena-ferrante/. ## The Leopard, Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa (1958) Sicily, 1860. As Garibaldi's forces advance, an aristocratic family led by the Prince of Salina faces the end of the world it has always known. Published after the author's death, the novel won the Strega Prize in 1959 and is one of the great Italian books of the twentieth century. **Pack it for:** the south, the heat, and long afternoons in the shade. It rewards slow reading. More at /books/is-the-leopard-worth-reading/. ## The Talented Mr Ripley, Patricia Highsmith (1955) Tom Ripley is sent to Italy to persuade a rich man's son, Dickie Greenleaf, to come home to America. Instead, Tom becomes fixated on Dickie's easy life, and things go very, very wrong. The novel moves through a coastal village, Rome and Venice, and the glamour makes the menace worse. **Pack it for:** a beach where you want a page-turner. You will look at fellow guests differently afterwards. ## Matching the book to the trip - **Rest and recovery:** The Enchanted April. - **Art and cities:** A Room with a View. - **A long, slow fortnight:** My Brilliant Friend. - **Southern heat:** The Leopard. - **Suspense with a spritz:** The Talented Mr Ripley. ## FAQ ### Are these available in English? Yes. Three were written in English. My Brilliant Friend and The Leopard were written in Italian and are widely available in translation. ### Which one is the lightest? The Enchanted April, by a distance. A Room with a View is a close second. ### Which have been adapted for the screen? All five have screen versions, among them the Merchant Ivory film of A Room with a View, Visconti's film of The Leopard, HBO's series of My Brilliant Friend and several adaptations of Ripley. Read first if you can; the books are richer. ### What about Italian writers beyond Ferrante and Lampedusa? Try Natalia Ginzburg's Family Lexicon or Italo Calvino. We cover both at /books/natalia-ginzburg-family-lexicon/ and /books/where-to-start-with-italo-calvino/. ## Sources - [Wikipedia: The Enchanted April](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Enchanted_April) - [Wikipedia: A Room with a View](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Room_with_a_View) - [Europa Editions: My Brilliant Friend](https://www.europaeditions.com/book/9781609450786/my-brilliant-friend) - [Treccani: Il Gattopardo](https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/il-gattopardo/) - [Wikipedia: The Talented Mr. Ripley](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Talented_Mr._Ripley) ## Related - [What is The Enchanted April about, and is it worth reading?](https://zestasy.com/books/the-enchanted-april/) - [Where should you start with Elena Ferrante?](https://zestasy.com/books/where-to-start-with-elena-ferrante/) - [Is The Leopard by Lampedusa worth reading?](https://zestasy.com/books/is-the-leopard-worth-reading/) - [How do you read more books when you're busy?](https://zestasy.com/books/reading-more-when-busy/) - [Where should you start with Italo Calvino?](https://zestasy.com/books/where-to-start-with-italo-calvino/) - [All Books & ideas answers](https://zestasy.com/books/)