Maybe it’s just wanderlust but this is one of the most beautifully written and romantic books I’ve ever read. The movie is an absolute disgrace and I’m offended they even used the same name. The only similarity is that a woman buys a fixer upper in Cortona, but even that is dissimilar because Frances is happily married IRL

Next on Middling Tales of American Affluence: Under the Tuscan Sun.

Library Hardcover

I read this book throughout my trip through italy and croatia because grace told me recommended to read books about where you’re going. and wow am i so glad that i did. this is now my favorite book, and maybe that’s because i was in italy and croatia while reading it, but it just emphasized everything i was feeling about these beautiful places. I LOVE ITALY SO MUCH and to read this book made me feel even more part of italy and to see more closely. wow i loved everything about this book and experience. i’m writing this as i’m on a train from venice to zurich, brainstorming how i can move to italy. ❤️

Wanting to learn about all things Italian was the reason I picked this book. I started it as an audio book. But even as a listen while being a prisoner on the highway, I had to stop after the first CD. Her out of touch with reality pinings about her problems encountered when buying a home in Italy (who in the world can afford this in the first place!) grated. Hearing that one of the primary joys of her Italy travels was buying shoes, was a major clue that this was not a book for me. Then when she mentions sitting out at her new home and hearing the WHIRR of an owl flying close overhead--I knew I wanted to spend no more time in her description of Italy. Owls are silent. You DO NOT hear the whirr of this bird of prey's wings. If she is making up something this simple, what else is fantasy? I was hoping to learn about Italy, not hear her interpretation of what Italy should be. So I ejected the disk and put the book away. Silence won out over a pampered, middle aged woman's whimsical ramblings.

Amerikansk akademiker klagar på hantverkare. Amerikansk akademiker tillbringar tid i Italien och berättar om sina recept. Har alltid tyckt att filmen är så härlig, men nu funkade det inte, förmodligen för att jag inte gillade inläsningsrösten i Audible-versionen.

Recepten läses inte upp i sin helhet, har jag för mig, utan kanske bara rubrikerna. Packade /upp/ om/ resväskan och småpysslade hemma under tiden och lyssnade nog lite selektivt. Tyckte jag hörde Viareggio nämnas mot slutet, men nu hittar jag inte stället i boken. I alla fall är jag glad för min egen senaste séjour i Toscana, tillsammans med en kär person jag lärde känna på 90-talet, ungefär när den här utgåvan var färsk.

Har egentligen ingen passion för mat alls, men jag har precis delat med mig av bl.a. en fantastisk burrata på instagram @mindthebook

Beautiful writing, but I can only take so much description for so long. Nothing happened/was going to happen.

I hadn’t realized going in that the house she lived in was an abandoned house that she and her partner then restored, so I was very excited to realize that was the main concept of the book, as I’m a bit obsessed with house restoration and abandoned places, and love the idea of Italy. I haven’t seen the movie so I didn’t really have any expectations. The beginning of the book isn’t told chronologically, and is a little disorienting but then it picks up once they dive in fully to the work. Unfortunately the last half of the book is an almost unending barrage of Italian tourism and shopping and cuisine adventures, which sounds fascinating but is dry and unrelatable the way she does it. So many tombs! The ending focuses on one last project and then devolves into some kind of stream of conscious/creative writing essay that doesn’t really fit and only indirectly relates to the rest of the book. I do want to watch the movie, as that is likely more cohesive with a stronger and more focused through line.

This book is rich, like eating a rich dessert and I found myself reading it slowly to savor it, and also because a little bit goes a long way. I loved the conversational style of this book. I felt like I was sitting down with Francis Mays as she described her experiences in Italy. She has a wonderful way of making events seem very real and I enjoyed the way she describes people with out making fun of them. I loved her description of their first Christmas while the house was still under renovation and unlivable and they are in a deserted restaurant questioning what they have done. I also enjoyed her observation that people are characters to us until we get to know them. I liked the theme of empowerment that runs through this book. Dreams can come true if we are willing to do what it takes to bring them into reality. Beams can be sanded, doors can be added, floors can be waxed back to life, roses can be planted, tables can be painted yellow and set in the shade of ancient trees, new recipies can be learned, new friends made, and happiness....can be allowed.

I would like to own this book so I can pull a bit of summer sun off the shelf whenever I need it.

آخر كتاب قبل توقف رمضان
لا يمكن تصنيفه كرواية أو ككتاب ، هو أقرب لسيرة ذاتيه لمنزل ! أو قل سيرة ذاتيه لفصل من حياه احد سكانه.
الامريكان دوما مبهورون بأي بلد يزيد سنون تاريخه عن ال ٥٠٠ ، له اصل و له ماض ، ففاقد الشيء يشتاق إليه!
وهنا تضع الكاتبه الامريكيه بصمتها -ببراعتهم في تغليف و بيع كل ما هو إنساني و بشري- و تنتج لنا كتابا يدور حول رحلتها لشراء بيت في بلدة ايطاليه و اعاده ترميمه وما يدور حول تلك التجربة من احداث .
فالدولار الأمريكي كما نعرف له القدرة علي شراء التجارب و الخصوصيات بل و الشمس الواقعه علي شجره زيتون في أصيل في شهر أغسطس!
تصنع من تلك التجربه البشريه الخالصه في تلك المدينة التاريخيه كتابا ، تشوق به كل سكان علب الطعام المجمد - اشاره الي ناطحات السحاب- الي حياه اخري ، فيها معني بالفعل و ليست مفرغه أو روبوتيه.
و السائح /القاريء الامريكي دوما في جوع ونهم الي المعني.
تحصد هي ايراداتها و تتعاقد مع هوليود-اصل الشرور- لتصنع فيلما مبنيا علي فكره الكتاب.
Let it rain!
يخيل لقاريء المراجعة أنني كرهت الكتاب لكن الحقيقه علي العكس تماما فأنا كالساءح الأمريكي في الافتتان بالتاريخ الايطالي و تداخله في الحياه الحديثه و بيننا في مصر و بينهم تراث طويل يعرفه كل طالب تعلم عن الإسكندر الاكبر.
لكني لا يغيب عن ناظري دنو الإنسان الأبيض و حقاره اجندته و القوي الناعمة التي تعد المحتويات المرأيه والمسموعة أهمها.
استمتع بكلامها عن اللازانيا و عجينه البيتزا ثم انتقد الرؤيه الاستعلاءيه للامريكان ، أعجب بوصفه الحبش المتبل و سلطه الكابريزي ثم العن الاستهلاكيه المبطنة.

وأهي ماشيه ، والي لقاء بعد رمضان ان شاءالله:)

“ It’s not fair that some people get to live like this!” she said, throwing the book down on her unwashed, non- authentic linoleum floor. “ A wonderful companion that willing does chores, looks good without his shirt, never argues, likes to travel; cash to buy and then renovate a villa in Tuscany where you live every summer and at Christmas and bottle your own olive oil from your own trees; have tons of flowers, fruit trees and terraces with lounge chairs; find Etruscan stones in your back yard; have a fabulous job as the head of the Humanities department at a major University in San Francisco when you are not in Tuscany; interesting and famous literary friends; still look good in a sun dress and gladiator sandals; have a movie made about your life staring Diane Ladd (which is really nothing like the book, by the way); and speak Italian with a charming southern accent! It’s not fair! It’s not fair!” Later, that night, she crawled under the table and retrieved it, determined to try one of those recipes, included in the book, for Chicken with Chickpeas, Garlic, Tomatoes, and Thyme.

I first heard about this story when the film version was being hyped. For some reason I never bothered to view it, perhaps because it appeared amidst other seemingly trite films that did not interest me. However I found this copy in the used library bookstore and from the inside cover description I realized that it's subject matter greatly interested me. Frances Mayes' Under the Tuscan Sun, At Home in Italy is her personal account of a life shifting and settling in the landscape of the Italian countryside. But it is more than a merely picturesque recounting of her experiences, her story has many layers that together recall that sense of nostalgia that can only be found in the true sweetness of memory. The smells and sounds that create that subtle ache for the events and experiences that in remembering achieve their deepest meaning. Her life undone becomes her greatest practice of living in the now.It gives me joy to accompany her on this path through her own poetic journaling and to read beneath and in between her words the discovery of a life deconstructed along with her old farmhouse which like her is being reborn through years of neglect.May she and all of us continue to learn to live creating the lives we desire with plenty of local grown food, wine and personal harvest!