Under the Tuscan Sun

Under the Tuscan Sun by Frances Mayes

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


"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 sensuous and evocative language, she brings the reader along as she discovers the beauty and simplicity of life in Italy. An accomplished cook and food writer, 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. A celebration of the extraordinary quality of life in Tuscany, Under the Tuscan Sun is a fest for all the senses."
~~back cover

My friend Maui Jim told me a long time ago that this was a good book. I thought it strange he would say so, since I somehow had got hold of the notion that this was a romance. I'm not big on romances. But then somehow or other the film is coming up in my Netflix queue, and I decided to read the book before watching the movie -- I seem to get what's going on in the movie better if I've read the book first.

I'm sure all of you are snickering behind your hands -- it's NOT a romance! It's a lovely recapturing of falling in love with a place, needing to and determined to be living there, and how the author and her husband achieved that goal. Reading, you feel as though you're there -- the light, the people, the old stone buildings. It's almost a shock to look up and find yourself in your own home, when just moments ago you were sitting on the patio with breakfast, soaking up the light and the quiet morning sounds of Tuscany.

The only thing I didn't like about the book was its eternal summer, with only a few hasty winter sketches. The author and her husband are both university professors in America, and therefore required to spend nine months here, with the Tuscany house shut up and waiting for them.