Under the Tuscan Sun

Under the Tuscan Sun by Frances Mayes

In this memoir of her buying, renovating, and living in an abandoned villa in Tuscany, Frances Mayes reveals the sensual pleasure she found living in rural Italy, and the generous spirit she brought with her. She revels in the sunlight and the color, the long view of her valley, the warm homey architecture, the languor of the slow paced days, the vigor of working her garden, and the intimacy of her dealings with the locals. Cooking, gardening, tiling and painting are never chores, but skills to be learned, arts to be practiced, and above all to be enjoyed. At the same time Mayes brings a literary and intellectual mind to bear on the experience, adding depth to this account of her enticing rural idyll. --Amazon review

I am in love with this book. The author has enchanted me with her vivid descriptions of the Tuscan countryside, the food, and overall the Italian life she leads whenever she can spend time in her beloved Bramasole, the villa she and her husband purchased and renovated. She writes almost entirely in present tense, which pulls the reader into a vicarious experience. I concur with the statement of another reviewer on the Amazon site, who says "Halfway into the book, I became heady with the desire to just run away to Tuscany."

If you have only seen the movie based on this book, forget everything you think you know about this story. To its detriment, the plot was changed so drastically for the screenplay that it hardly resembles the original and it captured nothing of the charm and appeal of the book.

I am now working my way through Frances Mayes' other books about her life in Tuscany: Bella Tuscany and In Tuscany.