Painting Mona Lisa by Jeanne Kalogridis is a great Italian historical yarn with plenty of twists.
Background to the Plot
Lisa di Antonio Gherardini Gioconndo, who is known simply as Madonna Lisa, sets the scene for this novel in the prologue. (Of course, if you are of common class, you will know her as Mona Lisa.) In the Florence of 1490, she is just coming up to the celebration of her 18th birthday, and she requests what I think is an unusual present.
