Recommended reading

Roma Amora and Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling are two great books to read before you go to Rome.

I recommend A Tale of Two Cities by Dickens - especially since you will be visiting both cities on this trip . I re-read this classic several years ago while in Paris and believe it added to the experience.

The Sweet Life in Paris - David Lebovitz

Browse through the topic about recommended novels on the Graffiti Wall. I re-read "The Agony and the Ecstasy" by Irving Stone (biographical novel of Michelangelo) before my last trip to Italy. I had a much greater appreciation for marble sculpture in general afterward. Many of his works are in Rome as well as many of the Greek and Roman works that inspired him.

If you are prepared for some not so light reading then for Ancient Rome, the ancient historians Livy and Tacitus are both worth reading. Livy wrote about Rome's early years when it was still a rising city state. Tacitus wrote about the early Imperial period when Rome was at its most powerful. When you are in Rome you will be told about Romulus and Remus, about the geese that saved Rome from being attacked by the Gauls etc. These stories come from Livy. The stories about emperors such as Nero and Tiberius come from Tacitus.

Steven Saylor's mysteries set in Ancient Rome are fun and give you a picture of what life was like then.

Paris To The Moon by Adam Gopnik is excellent. Though it is basically a personal memoir of the American writer's time living in Paris with his wife and baby, he gives a lot of insight into modern Paris.

The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire.

Robert Harris's books are good. Imperium is set in Rome, and Pompeii is, of course, about the eruption, but is still a good read about the Roman Empire at that time.

David McCullough's "The Greater Journey, Americans in Paris" chronicles the experiences of Americans in the often tumultuous 19th century in France. It's an easy to read look at both US and French history.