“This beautifully written memoir about taking chances, living in Italy, loving a house and, always, the pleasures of food, would make a perfect gift for a loved one. But it’s so delicious, read it first yourself.”—USA Today The 20th anniversary edition of the classic, updated with a new afterword. Don’t miss Frances Mayes in PBS’s Dream of Italy: Tuscan Sun Special! Frances Mayes—widely published … Italy: Tuscan Sun Special!
Frances Mayes—widely published poet, gourmet cook, and travel writer—opens the door to a wondrous new world when she buys and restores an abandoned villa in the spectacular Tuscan countryside. In evocative language, she brings the reader along as she discovers the beauty and simplicity of life in Italy. Mayes also creates dozens of delicious seasonal recipes from her traditional kitchen and simple garden, all of which she includes in the book. Doing for Tuscany what M.F.K. Fisher and Peter Mayle did for Provence, Mayes writes about the tastes and pleasures of a foreign country with gusto and passion.
Now with an excerpt from Frances Mayes’s latest southern memoir, Under Magnolia
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Perfect story before my trip to Italy this Spring.
Late to the party in reading this one, but the ‘visit’ in Tuscany was wonderful. The issue of a divided life was interesting, how to make two entirely different locations both “home” and what home actually means. The recipes were worth the time,- on a Kindle, I marked them for easy references….and craved some basil and local cheese and wine.
A lot of renovating of an ancient house in Italy, could have been more about the people.
excellent .. need photos
Took me happily back to when we lived in Italy. I recognized the characters relating them to people I had met and enjoyed!
I expected it to be like the movie but the storyline is different. Not as interesting.
The language is so lush and inviting, if you never yearned for a summer house in Tuscany, you will now.
Frances Mayes descriptive story of her purchase and restoration of an classic old home in Italy makes you feel as if you were there with her and her husband as they worked through the challenges and the enjoyment of establishing their new home, meeting their neighbors and making new friends, and immersing themselves in the food and culture of …
Makes me want to be in Tuscany! Beautifully written.
A great European travel classic. Things Italian I didn’t know about. Found the native people to be even friendlier, open & helpful to foreigners than I have heard or read. Inspires you to want to visit as soon as possible. Highly recommend!
The area is beautiful but it is not my kind of book
Love this story
This is one of the few times I’ve come to book after seeing the film. Though the film has charming moments, the book is thoroughly alluring. Mayes writes well and her deft ability to place the reader in Tuscany is refreshing and engaging. However, the depth of memoir that we do not get in the film is what separates the two. I can now see …
I found it to be an “okay” read. I didn’t think it was as good as the movie, and I usually always like the book better than the movie made of the same title. I thought it was just plain boring in parts.
Wonderful, discriptive writing!
Parts if this book was interesting some just boring .
Good recipes .
Love this book.. It’s so much more that the Movie version. Author tells what it’s really like to live and renovate a home in Italy and all the cultural delights and challenges that they faced 🙂