They had met and married on perilously short acquaintance, she an American chef and food writer, he a Venetian banker. Now they were taking another...
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reviews
Jul 19, 2010
Linda
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A Thousand Days in Tuscany was a very tough book to read. Now I want to go to Tuscany, rent a villa and live among the locals. I'm under employed therefore my ability to travel to wonderful and interesting places is out of the question. The stories of cooking and baking and gathering chestnuts and olives from the field made me hungry. My mouth drooled while reading the author's descriptions of each meal. I'm on a diet. It was torture.
And then there's the whole wine thing. All More...
And then there's the whole wine thing. All More...
Aug 17, 2009
Carol
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This non-fiction account of Marlena De Blasi's life adventure in Italy is a continuation of her love story that began in A Thousand Days In Venice. I am enjoying her adventures and will also read the next installment of her story but found this book not as cohesive as the first. She is a good writer and her food descriptions make you want to go to the kitchen and snack but I feel the breakdown of the story was more of an editor problem than a writer problem. She continues to express her love for
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Aug 08, 2008
Elane
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enjoyed reading about the building of their outdoor stone oven, the scene during the annual olive press and the making of the bruschetta, and one of the stories told by one of the village people about when times were scarce and a mom had to give her hungry son one small piece of bread and stretched it out with her imagination by pretending it was a sandwich made with his favorite cheese. the recipes sounded good too...might try out the chestnut cookies.
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Dec 17, 2009
Carolyn
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Was highly recommended to me as preparation for an upcoming trip to Tuscany. Beautiful descriptions of a rustic life through four seasons, each with mouth-watering, belly-warming recipes. Also a nice way to pick up a few Italian phrases.
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Jul 05, 2009
Janet
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Don't expect this to be a literary sensation but I thought that this tale achieved what it set out to acheive.
At first the author's griping at having to relocate from Venice to Tuscany to fulfil her husband's desire to escape his Venice banking life grated somewhat. Doesn't she know how lucky she is? However, her growing sense love for the new part of Italy soon began to shine through as she throws herself into the life of the community. The author has journalism and food criticism More...
At first the author's griping at having to relocate from Venice to Tuscany to fulfil her husband's desire to escape his Venice banking life grated somewhat. Doesn't she know how lucky she is? However, her growing sense love for the new part of Italy soon began to shine through as she throws herself into the life of the community. The author has journalism and food criticism More...
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Apr 17, 2010
Bess
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From my blog:
A Thousand Days in Venice is the first in Marlena de Blasi's series of travel books about her time in Italy. I found it on her agent's website when I was researching that particular agent and her tastes, and it caught my eye. I sensed that I wasn't quite the target audience—it's a story of a middle-aged woman finding love late in life, both with a person and a place— but I was still intrigued by its love story and, well, Italy.
But I was right. In fact, this seems t More...
A Thousand Days in Venice is the first in Marlena de Blasi's series of travel books about her time in Italy. I found it on her agent's website when I was researching that particular agent and her tastes, and it caught my eye. I sensed that I wasn't quite the target audience—it's a story of a middle-aged woman finding love late in life, both with a person and a place— but I was still intrigued by its love story and, well, Italy.
But I was right. In fact, this seems t More...
Jul 30, 2009
Ken
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A Thousand Days in Tuscany is the second part of the trilogy of books tracing De Blasi's new life in Italy. Where the first book left of with her and her new husband's resolution to leave the city of Venice for a simpler country life, this book begins with the move from Venice.
In their new home, they meet two residents who become the other major characters in the memoir: Barlozzo and Flori, two long-time residents of their city who, throughout the year chronicled in the book, help More...
In their new home, they meet two residents who become the other major characters in the memoir: Barlozzo and Flori, two long-time residents of their city who, throughout the year chronicled in the book, help More...
May 25, 2008
LindyLouMac
rated it: 
In search of a new life Fernando cuts all his ties with his birthplace Venice and takes his wife Marlena to live in Tuscany. She is not keen to leave the Venice she loves but understands her husbands desire to leave the demons that trouble him behind. Will this new beginning work for them or will his melancholy follow them.
They settle in the small village of San Casciano dei Bagni near the borders of Tuscany, Umbria and Lazio meet. Life is still ruled here as it has been for centuries by t More...
They settle in the small village of San Casciano dei Bagni near the borders of Tuscany, Umbria and Lazio meet. Life is still ruled here as it has been for centuries by t More...
Jun 10, 2007
Sarah
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A Thousand Days in Tuscany, the sequel to A Thousand Days in Venice finds Marlena and Fernando moved from the bustle of Venice to the quiet countryside of Tuscany. While they try to find their piece with the seasonal rhythms of the village, they also balk at convention, trying to bring their own version of rural life to fruition. For example, Marlena to the astonishment of her neighbors, has a wood oven built in her yard so she can make her own bread.
A Thousand Days in Venice is a mo More...
A Thousand Days in Venice is a mo More...
Apr 12, 2009
Lana
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Quote from the book: "Hell is when nothing is cooking and no one is waiting." This book is all about food and cooking--oh, and there is a sweet story of relationships and finding joy in the moment. My problem was that the life in which she found joy (cooking constantly) sounded so unappealing to me, although I'd love to visit and let her cook for me for a week while I hiked around the countryside. I did enjoy the story behind the food, but there were too many pages all about the foo
Mar 03, 2010
Barb
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This is book #2. #1 is A Thousand Days in Venice where the author meets, marries, and moves to Venice. In this installment, the couple moves to Tuscany. You'll find this book in the cookbook section (641) but while it is a lot about food, there are only a couple recipes. Basically it is about how the food cycles affect life. Really well written and fun to read and dream of life in a rural village in Tuscany.
Jan 03, 2010
Hali
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What can I say. There's a lust in me to live in Italy. For now, reading about others who have lived that life is a joy. Marlena de Blasi is a lyrical writer, really can turn a beautiful phrase.
I definitely will read her other books on living in other parts of Italy. Of course, it helps, that while she is an American, she speaks fluent Italian. And being married to an Italian certainly helps as well.
I definitely will read her other books on living in other parts of Italy. Of course, it helps, that while she is an American, she speaks fluent Italian. And being married to an Italian certainly helps as well.
Dec 21, 2008
Krista
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This is the follow-up book to "A Thousand Days in Venice" which I really loved. I didn't love this one as much, but hang in there until the end. It does get better.
Although I'm not a 'foodie' I enjoyed reading about all the really simple ways fresh food was fixed in the Tuscan countryside. Once in awhile the book veered into some rather strange philosophical and pshycological musings of the author. But sometimes those veering wanderings struck a chord with me and made More...
Although I'm not a 'foodie' I enjoyed reading about all the really simple ways fresh food was fixed in the Tuscan countryside. Once in awhile the book veered into some rather strange philosophical and pshycological musings of the author. But sometimes those veering wanderings struck a chord with me and made More...
Oct 02, 2011
Monica
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Yeah, yeah - it's another chick book about Italy. But since I didn't get to go there this year - again - I needed a fix. And the descriptions of places, people, and food are done well enough to be some consolation. Good enough to make me forgive her occasional frou frou side trips into fabrics and self decorating. Good enough to make me wish I could go to her village and meet those folks.
Mar 17, 2009
Diane C.
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This book is as close to really being there as I will ever come, unless I actually go someday.
Lovely, honest, journal like prose about the author's move to Tuscany with her former banker husband, and their adaptation to and increasing love for their new home.
Her writing about the food, people and experiences with food lacks the pretenstion that often sullies books like this.
Lovely, honest, journal like prose about the author's move to Tuscany with her former banker husband, and their adaptation to and increasing love for their new home.
Her writing about the food, people and experiences with food lacks the pretenstion that often sullies books like this.
Aug 17, 2009
Dale
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I guess I like to read books I can relate to with regards to my ancestry, my experience of life on this earth. Italy calls to me since my maternal grandparents were born there. This book had me speaking Italian and eating pasta and drinking wine. I now carry a picnic basket in my trunk in case the opportunity should arrise.
Loved this book!
Loved this book!
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Dec 01, 2011
Lauri
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I struggled a bit with this book. Given that the author is a food writer by trade, the descriptions of Tuscan food and the preparation of it are wonderful. However, I found some of the book to be overly philosophical and somewhat melancholy in mood, which is not normally what I'm looking for in a travel memoir.
Feb 21, 2011
Heather
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A Thousand Days in Tuscany is a beautifully written autobiographical account of the artist's adventures with love and food in Italy. Ms. DeBlasi's writing though some may see it as too decadent, is near flawless in vocabulary and description. It's a very simple read, and will leave you feeling just happy in general.
Jan 22, 2011
Cindy
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The mouthwatering descriptions of food (with some recipes included!) made me want to immediately head to a market and buy zucchini flowers to deep-fry (I don't even know what zucchini flowers are...), and the descriptions of village life in Tuscany made me long to bring a pot of food to the local bar to share with my fellow villagers. Unfortunately, a lot of the dialogue seemed more like an unrealistically long course of soliloquies..
Dec 26, 2011
Halle
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Marlena's descriptions of Tuscany are transcendent in their rollicking, delightful worship of all things Italian. Though she never uses a single adjective when 3 or 4 will do (usually charming, sometimes annoying) her narrative was one of the best travel memoirs I have ever read.
Sep 07, 2009
Sue
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If anything, this is more beautiful than its predecessor, A Thousand Days in Venice. De Blasi captures life in a small town in Italy and the people who inhabit it with prose that makes you weep and laugh as much as her descriptions of the food make you salivate.
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Feb 05, 2012
Susan
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I have only recently read Marlena DeBlasi's first book, A Thousand Days in Venice and her third, Lady in the Palazzo. This was the story of the yers in-between in a tuscan town. Once again I really enjoyed it all - her very romantic approach, "luscious" prose style, wonderful descriptions of food and apt observations on the Italians.
Aug 28, 2011
Tina
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Marlena De Blasi has my dream job! She writes, travels and eats. Perfect. This book inspired me to make a Tuscan Flatbread with sea salt and rosemary. For full review and a pretty photo of my loaf of flatbread, check me out here:
http://www.novelmeals.com/2011/08/thousa...
http://www.novelmeals.com/2011/08/thousa...
Jul 26, 2010
Bethany
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Read for book club. Not a page turner, but beautiful descriptions of Tuscan life. Made me wish our lives were a bit slower so we could spend that kind of time enjoying the creation and consumption of our meals.
Jan 03, 2010
Bree
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This captures everything that I adore about life in the small towns of Italy. De Blasi is a vividly descriptive writer and beautifully portrays the towns, people, and food of Tuscany and Umbria just as they are.
Oct 07, 2009
Saturday's
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I'm not into cooking but I do enjoy reading about poeple's adventures or lives in other contries. I found this an enjoyable read that has inspired me to one day visit this part of the world.
Feb 24, 2009
Tammy
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Wow so loved this book - It makes you wan to be there, eating there, living there, I was so engrossed in this book - She lives life - embraces it- Great memoir of her time in Tuscany
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Oct 05, 2011
Kevin
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At points, I felt the story was more about the author and less about Tuscany -- which I was not looking for -
Glad I read it -- but moreso to save me from buying this author again.
Glad I read it -- but moreso to save me from buying this author again.
Aug 15, 2011
Kathy
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Somewhat interesting story of a couples continuing journey through the first yesr of marriage and a new home in Tuscany. Also focuses on the food and relationships in the village.
Aug 08, 2011
Toxiclectrice
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un vrai plaisir une fois de plus. J'avais eu un coup de coeur pour "1000 jours à Venise" (difficile de le trouver en librairie). Un livre trop court mais un moment savoureux.
