Literary Travel in London, Florence and Rome

Some travellers fall in love with a place long before they see it, guided by the lingering words of literary drifters before them.

For these travellers, the spark often begins with a novel, a poem or a beloved writer whose voice becomes inseparable from the landscape they long to experience. Literary travel bridges the gap between imagination and reality, as readers trace the footsteps of favourite characters and envision the destinations they ache to be a part of. 

Guided by the pages of influential writers, we explore the imagination behind the most romantic of European cities.  

London bound

To read Virginia Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway is to experience London through the eyes of an admirer. Explore the city through her stream-of-consciousness, beginning in Bloomsbury, where she lived, wrote and walked the streets that shaped the famous novel. From leafy Gordon Square with its elegant Georgian and Victorian terraces, to the Reading Room of the British Museum, this is the neighbourhood where Woolf’s modern London first originated. 

Further afield, lies Hampstead. Home to John Keats’ former regency-style villa, a stone’s throw away from the landscape that shaped his poem, Ode to Nightingale. Keats’ devotion to nature, light and landscape influenced the Pre-Raphaelites and a return to en plein air, a romantic ideal that endures in fiction, with Parliament Hill providing a worthy backdrop. Journey here and sketch the skyline, a view cherished by the likes of D.H. Lawrence and Penelope Lively, who wrote in her modern classic, Moon Tiger, that “London from Hampstead looked almost tender”. Return to Brown’s Hotel, your masterpiece in hand, for a literary themed afternoon tea. 

A love letter to Florence

In the eyes of Italian poet and writer, Dante Alighieri, Florence surpasses all other cities. Steeped in history, its medieval streets are woven with the real-life love stories they have inspired, few more enduring than that of Dante and his muse Beatrice Portinari. His spiritually significant Divine Comedy, went on to influence generations of artists, including founder of the Pre-Raphaelite brotherhood, Dante Gabriel Rossetti.

Explore Florence through Alighieri’s eyes, beginning at Palazzo Portinari Salviati, believed to be Beatrice’s childhood home, or at the church of Santa Margherita dei Cerchi, where the pair are said to have first met. Cross the Ponte Santa Trinita, the world’s oldest elliptical-arch bridge and the setting for Henry Holiday’s 1883 painting of Dante and Beatrice. 

From Hotel Savoy, the Duomo, Ponte Vecchio and Via de Tornabuoni are just moments away. Or for a modern chapter, contrast the city’s Renaissance beauty with a tour of its contemporary sculptures, from Henry Moore and Antonio Signorini. 

Rome, written in fiction 

Italy’s capital has long served as a canvas for dreamers, its streets a muse for generations of authors. Move through the city after dark, when it becomes a theatrical set up of ruins and candlelit dinners, recalling the elegance and allure of The Talented Mr Ripley. 

Dine beneath twinkling lights, before exploring Piazza di Spagna’s historical presence and the labyrinth of lanes that lie behind it. A short walk away lies Villa Medici, rising from an ancient Roman estate in a landscape once inhabited by the Etruscans, it continues its tradition offering residencies for contemporary authors. From here explore ancient Rome as Robert Harris envisioned in his Cicero trilogy - picture the senate houses, courts and villas of an ambitious city played out through a complicated dance of love and loyalty across the ages.

Later, climb the historic Spanish Steps between Piazza di Spagna and Piazza Trinità dei Monti. At the summit sits Hotel de la Ville, your historic sanctuary and source for inspiration. Honouring the era of Grand Tours, it continues to captivate modern travellers, inspiring a quest for learning. 

Start your own literary journey with Rocco Forte Hotels.