The best books on Rome ברומא

In a nutshell: from practical guides to the definitive histories and the novels that catch the city's mood, this is the reading list to work through before you go. Back it with the city's history, the ancient Rome chapter and the films set in Rome, and grab the planning essentials in before you go, so the pages line up with what you will actually see.

Rome has inspired more great books than almost any city on earth. Here is our curated reading list, in English, split into practical guides, history and the novels that will change the way you walk the Forum.

Practical travel guides

• ✦Lonely Planet Rome - the most comprehensive practical guide, strong on neighbourhoods, the ancient sites and eating
• ✦Rick Steves Rome - the best guide for first-timers: opinionated, practical, full of walking tours and honest advice
• ✦DK Eyewitness Rome - the most visual guide, with superb cutaway illustrations of the Colosseum, St Peter's and the Pantheon
• ✦Time Out Rome - the best for food, bars and contemporary Rome

History and culture

• ✦SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome by Mary Beard - the modern classic: a sweeping, readable history of Rome from its foundation myth to the emperor Caracalla
• ✦The Roman Revolution by Ronald Syme - the 1939 masterwork that recast Augustus's rise as a ruthless political takeover, and still the essential academic account
• ✦Rome: A Cultural, Visual, and Personal History by Robert Hughes - the great art critic's passionate, opinionated portrait of 2,700 years of the city
• ✦Augustus by John Williams - a National Book Award-winning historical novel told through letters and memoirs, a quiet masterpiece set in imperial Rome

Fiction set in Rome

• ✦I, Claudius by Robert Graves - the wickedly entertaining chronicle of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, narrated by the stammering Claudius
• ✦The Agony and the Ecstasy by Irving Stone - the classic biographical novel of Michelangelo and his battles with popes and patrons
• ✦Angels & Demons by Dan Brown - the thriller that turns Rome's churches and Bernini sculptures into a breathless treasure hunt
• ✦The Eternal City by Hall Caine - the Edwardian bestseller that made Rome's political and religious drama a global sensation
• ✦The Marble Faun by Nathaniel Hawthorne - the first great American novel set in Rome, a romance of artists and murder among the ruins
• ✦Memoirs of Hadrian by Marguerite Yourcenar - the emperor's imagined autobiography and one of the great historical novels of the 20th century