Steven Saylor & Lindsey Davis have written fun and exciting mysteries set in ancient Rome.

Alan Epstein' book on re-locating

and living in modern Rome ("As the Roman's Do") is a good read. Colleen McCullough's series of ancient Rome is great
historical fiction.
The Agony and the Ecstacy is a very good novel based on Michelangelo's life and is interesting reading. Some or most of the
historical data concerning the Medici and Savaranola is accurate.
Bruneleschi's Dome is excellent concerning the construction of the dome on the Duomo inFlorence.
Hadrian's Empire
CAROLINE P. MURPHY, The Pope's Daughter, Faber & Faber, 2006, ISBN 0571221084. That's my nightstand reading. It's
about the life of Julius II's daughter, but gives you also a vivid picture of what the Renaissance Rome really was.
ROSS KING, Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling, Penguin Books, 2003, ISBN 0142003697. Very informative, even if some
theories are pretty surpassed thanking the discovery of new evidences about the famous commission (but in this case it's an
historian of art and not the tour guide talking!). I loved the reading anyway!
CHISTOPHER HIBBERT, Rome. The Biography of a City, Penguin Books, 1987, ISBN 0140070788. What can I say? It's a
must! The city history from Romulus to Mussolini.
HOWARD HIBBARD, Bernini, Penguin Books, 1990, ISBN 0140135987. If you say Baroque, you say Bernini and so Rome.
Very cheap, very easy to pack in your bags, ready to pace around the city with you! It's written by one of the best Bernini's
scholars.
AMANDA CLARIDGE, Rome. An Oxford Archeological Guide, Oxford Univ. Press, 1998, ISBN 0192880039. I won't never stop
saying how useful this book is! Don't forget it at home, in front of the Colosseum you will regret it! Obviously, it's not for
nightstand reading.
More titles are coming....my shelves are a gold mine! Ciao Daniela

I just read Steven Saylor's Roma and found it to be very good. It is more of a series of novellas, tracing one family from before
the founding of Rome to the ~1 AD. There are a fair number of books/series dating to the end of the Republic/the early Empire,
but I haven't seen much that goes way back. He also has a mystery series set at the end of the Republic. Additional series
might include Colleen McCullough's Masters of Rome (starting with The First Man in Rome), Lindsey Davis' Falco (stating with
The Silver Pigs), and John Roberts Maddox's SQPR (starting with SPQR I: The King's Gambit). If you're into mysteries, check
out http://italian-mysteries.com/ where you can search by location or time perio

The other thread you were given has some embedded threads so many of these suggestions may be on those. I know I have
listed some of them in the past. Definitely read the Ross King books, too, for Florence and Rome
HISTORICAL FICITON
I Claudius and Claudius the God by Robert Graves (or watch the BBC version with Derek Jacobi)
Augustus by John Williams
Julian by Gore Vidal
The Passion of ARtemisia by Susan Vreeland
The Name of the Rose--umberto Ecco
NON-FICTION
The Lost Painting by Jonathan Harr (about the search for a missing Caravaggio)
The Genius In the Design: Bernini, Borromini and the Rivalry that Transformed Rome by Jake Morrissey
Pasquale's Nose by Michael Rips (American writer in Sutri, near Rome)
Tim Parks' 3 non fiction works about Italy: Italian Neighbors, Italian Education and A Season with Verona (British author living in

Italy)
The Miracle of Castel di Sangro by Joe McGinnis (following a soccer team for a year)
Mary McCarthy: The Stones of Florence and Venice Observed
City of Falling Angels by John Berendt (Venice)
Songbirds, Truffles and Wolves: An American Naturalist in Italy by Gary Paul Nabdan
On Persephone's Island: A Sicilian Journal by Mary Taylor Simeti
You didn't ask about MYSTERIES but others might be interested and these could be light reading for the trip:
Donna Leon for Venice
Magdalen Nabb for Florence
David Hewson for Rome
Michael Dibdin -- set all around Italy
Iain Pears art history-related
The Ross King book I think you mean is "Brunelleschi's Dome" about the building of the dome on the Duomo in Florence.
Also, for non-fiction I like "Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling" The only drawback is that there aren't any really good color
illustrations in the book, only small ones, so also get a big picture book from the library to look at the frescoes.
"Galileo's Daughter" is based on letters the daughter, a nun in florence, wrote to her father and is a very good biography of him
-- and her.
"The Secret Book of Grazia dei Rossi" is a novel about a Jewish woman living in the Renaissance.
The two TV series, "I, claudius" and "Rome" are pretty good at depicting the history of the rulers of ancient Rome, although it's
not entirely accurate. But the general lifestyle and look of the place is good. Be aware that "Rome" is NOT for children. I don't
know if it really is x-rated, but I think it is.