Read Italian books, of course.
David Gilmour's - The Pursuit of Italy is one of my favourites and R J B Bosworth's Mussolini's Italy is another fascinating read. But for real escapism I love the Montalbano detective novels. The scenery, quirky characters, amazing food and sheer love of humour jump off the pages.
Another highly enjoyable element of Andrea Camilleri's series is the superb cover artwork in the Picador series. I find it a tough call to decide where Camilleri or Michael Dibdin is my favourite at the moment. The Zen detective novels are another really well crafted series, and whereas Montalbano is set in Sicily where the dry, arid landscape often dominates, the Zen novels are by and large set in Rome with frequent interludes in Venice. As you can imagine the sophisticated Rome life-style seeps on to the pages and the escapes to Venice bring that watery wonderland to vivid life. Both series are finding huge popularity in Britain now withe t.v. adaptations lending a boost to their coverage.
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