Bella Tuscany

Name: Bella Tuscany
Brand: Penguin Random House
Availability: InStock
Rating: 3 (1 reviews)
Author: Frances Mayes
ISBN: 9780553751567

Author: Frances Mayes

Narrator: Frances Mayes

Unabridged: 10 hr 14 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download (DRM Protected)

Publisher: Random House Audio

Published: 07/05/2000

Categories: Nonfiction, Travel, Essays & Travelogues, Biography & Autobiography, Memoirs, Europe, Italy

Synopsis

Frances Mayes, whose enchanting #1 New York Times bestseller Under the Tuscan Sun made the world fall in love with Tuscany, invites readers back for a delightful new season of friendship, festivity, and food, there and throughout Italy.

Having spent her summers in Tuscany for the past several years, Frances Mayes relished the opportunity to experience the pleasures of primavera, an Italian spring. A sabbatical from teaching in San Francisco allowed her to return to Cortona—and her beloved house, Bramasole—just as the first green appeared on the rocky hillsides.

Bella Tuscany, a companion volume to Under the Tuscan Sun, is her passionate and lyrical account of her continuing love affair with Italy. Now truly at home there, Mayes writes of her deepening connection to the land, her flourishing friendships with local people, the joys of art, food, and wine, and the rewards and occasional heartbreaks of her villa's ongoing restoration. It is also a memoir of a season of change, and of renewed possibility. As spring becomes summer she revives Bramasole's lush gardens, meets the challenges of learning a new language, tours regions from Sicily to the Veneto, and faces transitions in her family life.

Filled with recipes from her Tuscan kitchen and written in the sensuous and evocative prose that has become her hallmark, Bella Tuscany is a celebration of the sweet life in Italy.

About The Author

In addition to her other Tuscany memoirs, Under the Tuscan Sun and In Tuscany, Frances Mayes is the author of Swan, a novel, The Discovery of Poetry, a text for readers, and five books of poetry, most recently Ex Voto. A frequent contributor to food and travel publications, she divides her time between the San Francisco Bay Area and Cortona, Italy.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Sarah

Ennchanting though Italy may be, it's hard to keep caring about the endless details of exactly what the author ate or what broke in the house or was planted in the garden. This book is often alleged to be a "meditation," which seems to be a polite term for "has no plot or real character development,......more

Goodreads review by Heidi

I loved Under the Tuscan Sun but was greatly disappointed by this follow-up. While the first book was beautifully crafted and each word seemed to be carefully chosen, this book seemed slapped together with little care. It's as though her editor said, "Hey, your first book is a hit! Give us more of......more

Goodreads review by Heather

Frances Mayes’ Bella Tuscany was, in my opinion, a gem of travel writing. Her work is flowing and brilliant, with amazing pictures painted in easy and unpretentious words. If I could, I would write just like this. The book gives a beautiful, honest picture of real life in Tuscany, and after reading i......more

Goodreads review by Meghan

If you want to be transported and transformed this summer, read this book. Frances Mayes lulls you into the restorative cycle of Italian life. Perched in her idyllic villa, she journals sparsely with a writer’s mind and a food-lover’s heart. She effortlessly recreates the tastes, sights, sounds, and......more

Quotes

Critical Acclaim for Frances Mayes and Under the Tuscan Sun:

"Tuscany may have found its own bard in Frances Mayes."
--New York Times

"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

"So enchanting that an armchair traveler will find it hard to resist jumping out of the chair and following in her footsteps."
--Publishers Weekly

"Graceful . . . at once joyful and full of common sense . . . as intimate as a lover's whisper, honest and true."
--San Francisco Chronicle Book Review

"Irresistible . . . a sensuous book for a sensuous countryside."
--Minneapolis Star-Tribune