Pete Austin is the popular moderator of our Life In Abruzzo Facebook group whose members he enchants as he delves into his bookcase to share the history and culture of Abruzzo through photography and illustrations.

Here is his ever-growing Abruzzo book list on his Italian bookshelf, it does include four books he does not have (the last four) but dreams of one day owning

• Anne Macdonell & Amy Atkinson – In the Abruzzi, 1908
  Anne Macdonell – The Life of Benvenuto Cellini.1903
  Estella Canziani – Through The Apennines And The Land of the Abruzzi. 1928
  Maud Howe – Roma Beata, 1904
  Maud Howe – Two in Italy. 1905
  Norman F Carver Jr – Italian Hilltowns 1979
  Donald Hall – Eagle Argent, 1956
  Anthony Rhodes – A Sabine Journey, 1950
  John Miller – Friends and Romans: On the Run in Wartime Italy. 1989
  Frances Toor – Festivals and Folkways of Italy, 1953
  Vincenzo Battista – La Cultura degli oggetti. 1984
  tuttitalia series – Abruzzo Molise 1965
  Ferrovie dello Stato – State railway guide to Abruzzo. 1910
  Mario Moretti – Architettura Medioevale in Abruzzo. 1971
  The Studio – Peasant art in Italy – 1913
  Le Regioni d’Italia, volume 12 – Abruzzo e Molise. 1970
  Ente Nationale Industrie Turistiche & Ferrovie Dello Stato – L’Aquila. 1943
  Emidio Agostinoni – IL FÙCINO. 1908
  Emidio Agostinoni – Altipiani d’Abruzzo. 1910
  Fratelli Alinari – Abruzzo. 2003
  Michael Montgomery – Lear’s Italy. 2005
  Touring Club Italiano – Abruzzo e Molise. 1948
  Touring Club Italiano – Abruzzo Molise. 1970
  John Verney – A dinner of Herbs. 1966
  H.V. Morton – A Traveller in Southern Italy.1969
  Giovanni Tavano – Abruzzo, una terra di scoprire.1990 ( 2nd edition 2008)
  Fulvio Roiter – Terra d’Abruzzo. 1983
  Vienna Tordone – Thomas Ashby, Viaggi in Abruzzo 1901/1923
  Vincenzo Balzano – Abruzzo e Molise. 1927
  Folco Quilici – Abruzzo e Molise, 1970 (Canesi publisher)
  Mario Fondi – Abruzzo e Molise, 1970 (UTET)
  Pepi Merisio – L’Abruzzo nell’Italia di ieri, 2011
  Kurt Hielscher – Unbekanntes Italien. 1939
  Edward Lear – Illustrated Excursions in Italy, Volume 1. 1846
  Richard Keppel Craven – Excursions in the Abruzzi and northern provinces of Naples. 1837
  Sir Richard Colt Hoare – A classical tour through Italy and Sicily. 1819
  Henry Swinburne – Travels in the Two Sicilies. 1783

Must Reads on Abruzzo

Pete’s posts have sparked other members of the community to share their favourites too which we have included here

• Ignazio Silone – Abruzzo Trilogy
• Donato De Simon – Suffer the Children,
• Richard Walmsley – Trilogy of fiction set in Abruzzo – The Case of the Sleeping Beauty, A Close Encounter with Mushrooms, and The Vanishing Physicist
• Cheryl Hardacre – Chewing Gum in Holy Water
• Giuseppe Ferrone – The History of Molise and Abruzzo Italy
• Donatella Di Pietrantonio 0 A Girl Returned and A Siter’s Story
• Edward Lear’s Illustrated Excursions
• Electa Napoli 1999 – Francesco Paolo Michetti Prima Edizione Aa.vv.

Click here to see reviews, cookbooks and a list of our Abruzzo travel companion books, and don’t forget to follow Pete’s feed on our Instagram feed, #abruzzofotobypeet!