Authors with strong Italian connections include;

Geoffrey Chaucer (1340 1400) Visited Italy as agent of King Edward III of England. On one occasion, he negotiated the marriage of Edward's, 3rd son to the daughter of a Visconti of Milan, Violante. He had links with John Hawkwood/ Giovanni Acuto and the great Italian poets, Petrarch and affinity with Boccacio.

Shakespeare (1550-1604) Elizabethan poet and dramatist used Chaucer's works as his inspiration. 16 of his plays have settings in Italy and The Sonnets have many references to Italy. "The Taming of the Shrew"(V, I) To a sailmaker in Bergamo, for they were celebrated for their fine sails. It is not known if William Shakespeare of Stratford-on Avon visited Italy.

Edward De Vere, Earl of Oxford Elizabethan poet and author who spent nearly two years of his youth living in Verona, Padua, Venice, and other towns and cities in Italy. He was owner of a company of actors and a contemporary of Shakespeare.His birthplace was Castle Hedingham. The de Vere's owned one of the earliest known "hand" written manuscripts of Chaucer's Canterbury tales "The Ellesmere Manuscripts".

The 18th Century saw many English artists, writers and painters, living for long periods in Italy, these include:

George, Lord Byron (1788-1824) Poet became the symbol of
Romanticism and political liberalism throughout Europe.

Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822) Poet, a descendant of John Hawkwood, lived in Florence.

John Temple Leader (MP) (1810-1903) The author of the definitive record on Sir John Hawkwood. Temple Leader lived in Florence, in a house in the Piazza Pitti. Friend of Georgio Barbera, Florentine Publisher and supporter for the unification of Italy.

John Buchan (Baron Tweedsmuir) (1875-1940) Author of Hitchcock's famous thriller film "The 39 Steps" had connections with the British Institute in Florence.

The list is endless. These are but a few examples.

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