Rome's oldest English-language bookstore opened near the Spanish Steps in 1953.

Rome's Anglo American Bookshop, a landmark for the English-speaking community in the capital for more than 70 years, closed its doors for good this week.

Owner Cristina Donati, whose family has run the bookstore on Via della Vite since 1953, said she was forced to shut down due to "unsustainable" costs of rent and custom duties on books.

The closure comes a year after the death of the shop's founder Dino Donati - Cristina's father - and two years after the business moved to a smaller premises further down Via della Vite.

The move, which followed demands for a higher rent, also meant downsizing the shop's stock to 6,000 books - a seventh of the number of volumes on the shelves of the original store.

Due to its first-floor location and lack of window display at street level, the smaller premises also attracted fewer customers.

Over the decades, dozens of illustrious figures and celebrities passed through the shop's doors, including former Italian president Giorgio Napolitano, actor Leonardo Di Caprio, singer Cher and best-selling authors Paulo Coelho, John Grisham and Wilbur Smith.

Speaking to news agency ANSA, Donati recalled a memorable one-off visit from an "American tycoon" who ran up a €4,000 bill after spending hours rummaging through the shop's shelves.

"My dad worked until the last day of his life, I am retired: I have done this job here for 42 years" - Donati told ANSA - "The cost of imported books is very high and even in this place the rent is now too expensive."

Over the last couple of decades Rome has seen the closure of several English-language bookstores including the Lion Bookshop on Via dei Greci, the Economy Book Center on Via Torino and the English Bookstore on Via di Ripetta.

A handful of English bookshops in Rome have resisted this unfortunate trend, including the Almost Corner on Via del Moro 45 and the Open Door on Via Lungaretta 23 - both in Trastevere - and Otherwise on Via del Governo Vecchio 80, near Piazza Navona.

Photo Anglo American Bookshop - Facebook