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Featured Categories : Travel & Holiday : Countries & Regions : Europe : Italy : Cities & Regions : Tuscany
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Often the most fascinating memoirs are written by people who seem to be quite unaware that they are actually monsters. Frances Mayes' entertainingly egocentric Bella Tuscany, the sequel to her best-selling Under the Tuscan Sun, nudges into this category. Like its predecessor, a lyrical account of an American teacher of creative writing's insertion of herself into Tuscan life and the Tuscan landscape, Bella Tuscany (shouldn't that be Bella Toscana, or is something to be inferred about the intended readership?) is a sustained, ecstatic trill of cypresses, dusty, immemorial hillsides and tile-roofed hill towns. With hunky husband Ed, Frances restores her farmhouse, plants flowers and grows vegetables, cooks, travels and generally swans about Italy, in the process transforming it into a vehicle for her glowing sensibilities. Occasionally she speculates briefly about those she encounters on the way--about the old farmers who tend her olive trees, about the Nigerian prostitutes surreally stationed along a lonely rural road by the Russian mafia--but the beam of her attention barely flickers. There is a telling moment early on: she looks out of the window; the landscape reveals itself for her to love. It is as though the whole of Tuscany, no, the whole of Italy is laid out for her benefit, for those exquisite Martha Stewart moments. And people are so kind: they just can't resist bestowing gifts on her. The lady at the nursery rushes out with a plant. The shy owner of the perfumery shop in town turns out to have paid for her cappuccino. Anselmo who manages their vegetable garden presents them with his wine-press. "This gentle courtesy happens frequently." Far more than any possible reader, she is an enthralled spectator of the pageant of her gorgeous life, which she is generous enough to share. One doesn't begrudge it her one bit. One reads, fascinated, then makes one's holiday plans for somewhere else. --Robin Davidson
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Tuscany's hill towns and countryside have enthralled inhabitants and visitors for centuries--the golden light in the afternoons, the grape arbours and rolling hillsides dotted with rustic farmhouses and villas.Private Tuscany invites us into these dwellings, giving us a glimpse of how life is lived in this warm, inviting place.The homes featured in this gorgeous volume are as enchanting as the Tuscan towns and hillsides they're built on. Many embody a style we've come to associate with Tuscany: Dark-timbered kitchens with dried herbs and garlic ropes hung from the rafters, original terra cotta tile floors, large-windowed living rooms and artfully frescoed walls. There are centuries-old furnishings crafted by skilled Italian artisans and elegantly manicured gardens containing hidden grottoes and classical statuary. But the homes also reflect the special touches of the people who occupy them. For instance, a theatre lover displays his exquisite collection of miniature theatres in the salon. The daughter of a villa owner paints traditional murals on the walls and mosaic patterns on the floors.
Simon McBride's photographs skilfully capture the magic of these Tuscan homes and feature a variety of residences, from simple farmhouses to grand villas and palaces. The book's four chapters divide the homes into types: Rustic, classic, grand and modern. An index at the back serves as an introduction to Tuscany's pleasures, providing contact information for sampling the region's wine and produce, fine dining, hotels and houses, gardens and crafts.
Several of the homeowners featured in Private Tuscany have gone to painstaking lengths to restore these buildings after decades, or even centuries, of neglect. The results, from the simplest farmhouse kitchen to an elaborately frescoed dining room, are breathtaking. --Kris Law
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