I'm current reading The Pursuit of Italy by David Gilmour. I've been interested to learn more about Italian history, particularly the early modern Italian city states like Venice and Florence and about the Risorgimento. It hasn't done so much about the Roman period, which surprised and slightly disappointed me. In author does argue that the Roman Republic shouldn't be seen as an Italian national identity as such because the Romans didn't categorise themselves with specific reference to ethnicity, with numerous ethnicities playing roles throughout the Empire. I'm quite enjoying it - it goes into sufficient depth that I'm finding it quite interesting, it's expanding on some bits I already had a fair bit of knowledge about (e.g. Renaissance political thought and Florence) and it's a nice one volume history which isn't too lofty to read.