Under the Tuscan Sun – at home in Italy

This may be a best seller but for some reason I just didn’t enjoy it. I couldn’t seem to get into it. It was written in a lot of sort of thrown in sentences so to speak rather than a smooth flow. I have enjoyed other books on people settling into a new country and converting a house but this one just didn’t seem to have the same attraction to me.

I finished it because I am part of a casual book group with a few friends and we are reading books and sharing with each other. As yet I hadn’t finished any because as I said I didn’t really enjoy this one but also I read a few others in between! Maybe that is why I didn’t click with it, I read it literally in chapters!

Under the Tuscan Sun – at home in Italy

Written by American author  Frances Mayes in 1996, it is a story of her home in Italy. It was adapted by director Audrey Wells for the 2003 film Under the Tuscan Sun starring Diane Lane.

The book, published by Random House, was a New York Times bestseller for more than two and a half years, and was a New York Times Notable Book of 1997. 

Mayes also creates dozens of delicious seasonal recipes from her traditional kitchen and simple garden, all of which she includes in the book and describes how she bought and restored an abandoned villa in the Tuscan countryside.

Frances entered a wondrous new world when she began restoring an abandoned villa in the spectacular Tuscan countryside. There were unexpected treasures at every turn: faded frescos beneath the whitewash in her dining room, a vineyard under wildly overgrown brambles in the garden, and, in the nearby hill towns, vibrant markets and delightful people. She writes about the tastes and pleasures of a foreign country with gusto and passion.In Under the Tuscan Sun, in evocative language, she brings the reader along as she discovers the beauty and simplicity of life in Italy. Being a widely published poet, gourmet cook, and travel writer  she brings the lyrical voice of a poet, the eye of a seasoned traveler, and the discerning palate of a cook and food writer to invite readers to explore the pleasures of Italian life and to feast at her table.

FRANCES MAYES is the author of other books about Tuscan, Bella Tuscany and two illustrated books, In Tuscany and Bringing Tuscany Home. She is also the author of the novel, Swan, six books of poetry, and The Discovery of Poetry. Her books have been translated into more than twenty languages.