Pros: You get a true taste of Italy
Cons: You'll want to go to Italy
As an art historian, Italy and its culture has always intrigued me. I've dreamed of going there and basking in what makes Italy "Italian". However, like many, my husband and I have other things that beckon for our cash-on-hand (you know--food, electricity, a place to live--silly stuff like that). We keep dreaming though--don't ever give up on the dream. "Someday we'll have the money," we say, with wide-eyed optimism.
A few years ago, a fellow dreamer introduced me to the writings of Frances Mayes by lending me Mayes' travel narrative/ memoirs/ cookbook/ "eat- your-heart-out-because-I-live-in-my-own-Tuscan-villa-in-Italy-every-summer" book. My fellow dreamer raved and ranted over this book--said it was impossible to describe what reading it does to you. So trusting said fellow dreamer, I read the book. He was right. Oh was he right!
At the time she wrote the book, Frances Mayes was a professor of creative writing at a San Francisco State University. She and her husband (also a professor) traveled every summer to Europe and found themselves spending a great deal of time in Italy. They finally decided it was just best for them to buy their own Italian villa "fixer-upper" and stay there every summer (makes sense to me--I mean, if you're there ANYWAY).
From the onset of this "project", Frances Mayes kept memoirs in a journal. Later, with 20/20 hindsight vision, she rewrote those memoirs, included travel narratives of their weekend jaunts through Italy and her favorite Tuscan recipes to weave a fabulous tapestry of a book.
She is honest about the disasters of renovating an old (I mean OLD) Italian villa in a land where the Italian language is not her forte. My favorite part is when they hire a Polish renovation crew that can't speak any English and only broken Italian.
Mayes also speaks of how she learns to love the land, the olive trees, the rose bushes, and the village. She takes the reader with her on her own journey of discovering a rich and beautiful culture.
Is it worth adding to one's personal library? Yes, most definitely! It is very different than the film of the same name, so just because you've seen the flick doesn't mean you don't need to buy this book and read it.
Cons: You'll want to go to Italy
As an art historian, Italy and its culture has always intrigued me. I've dreamed of going there and basking in what makes Italy "Italian". However, like many, my husband and I have other things that beckon for our cash-on-hand (you know--food, electricity, a place to live--silly stuff like that). We keep dreaming though--don't ever give up on the dream. "Someday we'll have the money," we say, with wide-eyed optimism.
A few years ago, a fellow dreamer introduced me to the writings of Frances Mayes by lending me Mayes' travel narrative/ memoirs/ cookbook/ "eat- your-heart-out-because-I-live-in-my-own-Tuscan-villa-in-Italy-every-summer" book. My fellow dreamer raved and ranted over this book--said it was impossible to describe what reading it does to you. So trusting said fellow dreamer, I read the book. He was right. Oh was he right!
At the time she wrote the book, Frances Mayes was a professor of creative writing at a San Francisco State University. She and her husband (also a professor) traveled every summer to Europe and found themselves spending a great deal of time in Italy. They finally decided it was just best for them to buy their own Italian villa "fixer-upper" and stay there every summer (makes sense to me--I mean, if you're there ANYWAY).
From the onset of this "project", Frances Mayes kept memoirs in a journal. Later, with 20/20 hindsight vision, she rewrote those memoirs, included travel narratives of their weekend jaunts through Italy and her favorite Tuscan recipes to weave a fabulous tapestry of a book.
She is honest about the disasters of renovating an old (I mean OLD) Italian villa in a land where the Italian language is not her forte. My favorite part is when they hire a Polish renovation crew that can't speak any English and only broken Italian.
Mayes also speaks of how she learns to love the land, the olive trees, the rose bushes, and the village. She takes the reader with her on her own journey of discovering a rich and beautiful culture.
Is it worth adding to one's personal library? Yes, most definitely! It is very different than the film of the same name, so just because you've seen the flick doesn't mean you don't need to buy this book and read it.
I have since read the book again. The second time was out loud to my husband as he drove us on a long road trip. The spell was cast on him as well.
So we may never get to Italy. But when we need a fix, we pick up Under the Tuscan Sun by Frances Mayes and read a chapter (or two), or we just salivate over a recipe she has included. Like the saying goes, "it's the next best thing to being there", and it sure is cheaper than a ticket from SFO to Italy.
So we may never get to Italy. But when we need a fix, we pick up Under the Tuscan Sun by Frances Mayes and read a chapter (or two), or we just salivate over a recipe she has included. Like the saying goes, "it's the next best thing to being there", and it sure is cheaper than a ticket from SFO to Italy.
