OltreOceano - Transatlantic Transitions is a book series that looks at the American presence in Italy in the 19th century. The various volumes focus on documenting and exploring the lives of American artists and authors during their sojourns in Italy as well as studying the effects and influence Italy had on their lives and their creative work.
The first volume of the series is on American writers in Florence. The subsequent works will examine the concept of the American 19th-century Grand Tour concentrating on the tour in Italy; the presence of American artists, mainly painters, in Italy as they were studying, working, and interacting with Italian artists; and the Italian sojourns of American female authors.

Set in Stone: 19th-century American Authors in Florence is a study (112 pages) of American authors whose Florentine sojourns have been honored with commemorative plaques in the city as well as its immediate surroundings. The writers included in the volume are Mark Twain, James Fenimore Cooper, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry James, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and James Russell Lowell. They all resided temporarily in Florence in the 19th century and most of them found the relaxed, dolce-far-niente, atmosphere of the city ideal for creative work. The city and its long history inspired the authors, stirring their imaginations. In the volume are gathered written testimonies of the impressions Florence awoke in these acclaimed visitors. Quotations have been taken from their writings, be they diaries, letters, autobiographies, novels or poems, in testimony of the importance of the Florentine sojourn in their lives and careers. Photographs and old postcards accompany the selected excerpts in order to offer the reader the possibility of comparison between the literary texts produced by the authors and the physical reality that served them as a source of inspiration.

The author, Sirpa Salenius, came from the United States to Florence, Italy approximately ten years ago and since then has been continuously traveling between the two continents. She has written several articles on American authors in Florence and her essays often concentrate on one specific author at a time. Ms. Salenius has been working for several years with American Universities´ Academic Programs in Florence as a guest lecturer as well as a professor of American literature.