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Under the Tuscan Sun

Frances Mayes (Goodreads Author)

3.76 · Rating details · 318,157 ratings · 3,719 reviews

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 garde ...more

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Published January 20th 1998 by Random House Audio (first published 1996)

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Jan 10, 2008 Ali rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: wouldntrecommend, japanreads

WARNING: THIS BOOK IS THE MEANDERING INCOMPLETE THOUGHTS OF A MIDDLE-AGEd WOMAN THAT EATS LIKE A ITALIAN SUMO WRESTLER AND BOUGHT A DISASTER OF A HOUSE THAT NEEDED A HUGE AMOUNT OF REPAIR. THAT'S ALL THERE IS TO THIS BOOK. Perfect if you are practicing speed reading. You could skip every other sentence and still understand that she actually enjoys fixing up this crappy house in Italy. Absolutely nothing like the movie. Disappointing. ...more

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Mar 02, 2010 Tara rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: top-shelf

I hear a lot of crap about how this book is silly, fluffy, boring, slow, unstructured, unserious. I've had three people now (all men =p) tell me it's "chicklit." First of all, is that supposed to be an insult? Second: What? Perhaps this all has something to do with how popular the book was and continues to be. Regardless, don't let the naysayers dissuade you from giving it a try.

The writing is poetically beautiful, illuminating a place that is equally so. Plenty of "place writing" does a disser ...more

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Apr 12, 2020 Ahmad Sharabiani rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: culture, non-fiction, memoir, biography, romance, fiction, united-states, italy, 20th-century

Under the Tuscan Sun, Frances Mayes

When Frances Mayes (Diane Lane) learns her husband is cheating on her from a writer whom she gave a bad review, her life is turned upside down. In an attempt to bring her out of a deep depression, her best friend Patti, encourages Frances to take a tour of Italy.

During the trip, the new divorce impulsively decides to purchase a rural Tuscan villa and struggles to start her life anew amid colorful local characters, including the handsome Marcello (Raoul Bova). Under the Tuscan Sun, Frances Mayes

When Frances Mayes (Diane Lane) learns her husband is cheating on her from a writer whom she gave a bad review, her life is turned upside down. In an attempt to bring her out of a deep depression, her best friend Patti, encourages Frances to take a tour of Italy.

During the trip, the new divorce impulsively decides to purchase a rural Tuscan villa and struggles to start her life anew amid colorful local characters, including the handsome Marcello (Raoul Bova).

تاریخ نخستین خوانش روز دوازدهم ماه مارس سال 2020میلادی

عنوان: زیر آفتاب توسکانی؛ نویسنده: فرانسیس مایس؛

زندگی هزاران فرصت به تو می‌دهد…؛ تنها کاری که تو بایست انجام دهی، انتخاب یکی از آنهاست؛ به دنبال طلاقی ناگهانی، فرانسیس، نویسنده و منتقد آمریکایی روحیه خود را از دست می‌دهد؛ دوستانش که نگران او هستند، ترتیبی می‌دهند که او برای گردش و تجدید روحیه همراه یک تور مسافرتی به ناحیه زیبای توسکانی ایتالیا سفر کند. فرانسیس در حین سفر یک ویلای قدیمی تقریبا مخروبه را خریداری می‌کند و سعی میکند که در آنجا زندگی جدیدی را آغاز کند

نقل از متن
فرانسیس: یه چیز عجیبی رو در مورد طلاق می‌دونی؟ مثل یه گلوله تو قلب، یا تصادف اتومبیل، واقعا تو رو نمی‌کشه. وقتی به کسی که بهش قول دادی تا مرگ همراهش باشی میگی «هیچ‌وقت دوستت نداشتم،» اون باید همون لحظه بکشدت. نباید مجبور باشی هر روز صبح بیدار بشی و سعی کنی بفهمی چی تو دنیا هست که نمی‌دونی. درسته، من باید بدونم، اما من از اینکه حقیقتو ببینم می‌ترسم. ترس از اینکه بفهمم چقدر احمق بودم.

مارتینی: نه، این حماقت نیست، خانم میز

فرانسیس: آه، آره، عشق کوره. فقط همینو داریم بگیم

مارتینی: همه اینو میگن چون این واقعیته

– خب حالا من صاحب یه ویلایی هستم که دوتا گاو، دو روز طول می‌کشه تا زمینشو شخم بزنن؛ من نه گاو دارم، نه گاوآهن، مجبورم خودم دست به کار بشم؛ پایان نقل؛
ا. شربیانی ...more

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Nov 22, 2007 SJ rated it it was ok · review of another edition

I didn't finish it. And, frankly, that's not like me at all. The book is well reviewed, and well written. And yet, somehow, I just really didn't like it. The author can truly write, and the topics were of great interest to me, but I felt the entire time like she was untouchable. She was encased in her own experience and at no point did I feel welcomed or able to understand her. Her life path never really found a commonality with my own, nor did she make me love her. In the end, I did myself the ...more

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Sep 29, 2007 Leftbanker rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Recommends it for: fanny pack owners

Shelves: travel

File under "Lifestyle Porn."

I need to preface this by saying that had this book been anything less than a monster success, I wouldn't trash it. But for the life of me, I can't understand why it's so popular. What if she had written about remodeling a house in North Dakota? Would that be interesting? Of course not, so why are the tedious details of doing the same in Italy any different? This book has about as much to do with Italy as it does with North Dakota. The movie is even worse if that is p ...more

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Apr 18, 2013 Amanda rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: untumbled-turds, blog

At 66 pages in, I'm throwing in the towel.

Somewhere around the age of 22 or 23, I decided I was done with library books. Now, don't get me wrong, I love and appreciate libraries. I became a reader because of access to wonderful libraries. But, as an adult, I'm OCD enough not to enjoy the concept of library books. Wondering how many people read them while on the toilet, encountering books that smelled like ash trays, finding potato chip crumbs wedged between pages 32 and 33, encountering a sticky ...more

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Jan 22, 2014 Bam cooks the books ;-) rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: memoir, library-book, 2014-reads, foodie-lit, italy

I am surprised by how many bad reviews this book has received here on goodreads. Yes, the movie version is very loosely based on this book, so don't come looking for that story here. And yes, it is a memoir and not a novel. And yes, Mayes is a privileged woman who has earned the ability to buy a decrepit villa in Tuscany as a second home, renovate it and furnish it. So? Who hasn't dreamed of doing just that? I thoroughly enjoyed her descriptions of the renovation process, the land, the people, t ...more

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Dec 02, 2011 Deb rated it did not like it · review of another edition

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 sh ...more

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Aug 11, 2009 Laura C. rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction

“ 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; ...more

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Mar 20, 2008 Heather Vance rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

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 c ...more

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Nov 11, 2020 Sawsan rated it it was ok · review of another edition

First of all it's not a novel, it's a memoir by American author Frances Mayes
about getting into new life in a foreign country when she decided to buy and restore an old villa in the beautiful Tuscan countryside in Italy
Mayes writes passionately about the vibrant Tuscan.. pleasures, people, landscape, culture and delicious recipes
all the challenges of renovating a dilapidated villa and the new acquaintances make her feel at home even it was a place to spent only the summers ...more

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Aug 18, 2016 Connie G rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: italy, non-fiction, travel, autobiography-memoir, intl-book-discussion

Frances Mayes bought a neglected villa in the Tuscan town of Cortona. The house was called "Bramasole", meaning "yearning for the sun", and the sunshine and warmth of Italy comes shining through Mayes' enthusiastic descriptions.

One gets a sense that Mayes is being reborn. After a midlife divorce, she is in a relationship with her future husband, Ed. The two poets both have demanding jobs as the heads of creative writing departments in their California universities. Both worked hard, along with I ...more

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Aug 08, 2013 Kay rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: memoirs, 2013

The movie made her far more interesting than the book did.

Movie version: her best friend is a lesbian and they send Mayes on a gay tour of Tuscany since the friend's wife doesn't want her to travel in the first trimester. The trip is to help Mayes recover from the divorce. She falls in love with the country, finding magic in unexpected places and buys a villa. In restoring it, she learns to love herself again, as she learns Italian ways of living.

Book version: straight lady buys house with hus ...more

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Feb 09, 2008 Ryan rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Plot: Author summers in Tuscany, buys an old farmhouse, refurbishes it, travels through Italy, and cooks constantly.

Review: Open up a "Sunset" or a "National Geographic Traveler" magazine, and imagine reading a beautifully descriptive & evocative 6-page essay on what it's like to live & work & cook in Italy. Then, when you finish it, flip the pages back and start the article again. But substitute the Zuppa Toscana with Porcini Risotto. The Pesto Crostini for the Fontina Bruschetta. A full-bodied ...more

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Jan 10, 2008 Samantha rated it liked it · review of another edition

While i thoroughly enjoyed the book, i WILL say that its not what i expected since i had seen and enjoyed the movie first. most of the story is completely different than the movie.....but what bothered me is that there was no real story plot here besides the fixing up of the house over time. as she fixes the house, she fixes her life, and in the end "turns italian" and finds where she belongs (not that she seemed out of place at the beginning). I guess i was slightly disappointed in 2 things: 1) ...more

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Jan 11, 2008 Donna rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: memoir, travel

This was a re-read, and I loved it again. I know there's plenty here who
don't think much of this book, but it totally appeals to my utterly romantic
notions of running away to live in Europe someday....sigh.... ;-) Haven't
been to Italy yet, but this book *was* largely responsible for my subsequent
trips to France, Spain, and Turkey. And my list (TBV list - "to be
visited" - tee hee) has been growing ever since.

This was also my first PalmPilot read, and I was pleasantly surprised to
find that I compl ...more

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Feb 26, 2011 mossum rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: tried-to-read

I so rarely stop reading mid-book, but I found this one to be so rambling and uninteresting and I'm at a point in life where I feel no obligation to push through such an experience, even (or especially) to please someone who thought for sure they knew what I'd like.

The prospect of buying a shambles of a house, no matter where, and restoring it, is a subject that is of tremendous interest to me. Although I'm not "traveled," I can well image that the effort of obtaining a passport, packing, and f ...more

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Jul 19, 2018 Ivana Books Are Magic rated it liked it · review of another edition

Having read Under the Tuscan Sun, I can certainly see what the hype was about. It is an interesting little book, not a novel exactly, more a sort of a diary of a divorced woman who decided to buy a house in Tuscany and documents her experiences. Her narrative voice is friendly and charming, and yet despite revealing some information about her private life, she never lets the reader in too close. Under the Tuscan Sun is not an autobiographical novel, so don't expect someone pouring their heart op Having read Under the Tuscan Sun, I can certainly see what the hype was about. It is an interesting little book, not a novel exactly, more a sort of a diary of a divorced woman who decided to buy a house in Tuscany and documents her experiences. Her narrative voice is friendly and charming, and yet despite revealing some information about her private life, she never lets the reader in too close. Under the Tuscan Sun is not an autobiographical novel, so don't expect someone pouring their heart open to you sort of read. This book is a pretty light read, albeit packed with some interesting information. At no point does the narrative question the meaning of life, nor does it go into lengthily discussions. It's more a collection of author's thoughts and impressions, all bound together by her decision to buy a house in Italy. The book often functions as a reconstruction and food journal.

Who is the protagonist? She is a divorced University professor, and her summers are free. She decides that the perfect thing do to is to spend them in Italy. Why not buy a house there and really immerse herself in the experience? She is drawn to one particular house and area. Her partner Ed also has his summers off ( I think he is a teacher as well). Together they set on an adventure of restoring the old villa and spending their summers in Italy.

Under the Tuscan Sun is a lovely book written by an intelligent lady. It has a lot going in for it, and could easily be called a nice summer read. However, it is neither a meaningful nor a memorable book. It doesn't talk about any subject in detail, and often it feels like a collection of notes. At times, it is also a bit repetitive and predictable. I had a feeling that the author was almost pushing this idea about her great adventure- but really is buying a house in Italy really that revolutionary? I could sympathize with her as she recounted her 'construction problems' as I moved in my new home only a year ago, but after a while all that reconstruction talk got a bit old.

Under the Tuscan Sun has some minor faults, the book isn't paced all that great, and there were some boring parts, but altogether I can say I enjoyed reading it. Reading her impressions about Italy was interesting, as she is someone coming from a different culture and continent. As fun a read as it often was, as soon as I have finished the last page, I knew it is a book I will easily forget. Honestly, I don't think I would have missed much if I haven't read it. It's a nice book, I could feel the author's passion about finding 'new life' and trying something different, but in the end it's just not a book that will stay with me. ...more

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Jan 02, 2009 Antof9 rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: 2005-read, la-cocina

I saw the movie first and didn't realize it was based on a book.

So first of all, this is not a novel. It's a woman's journal of the purchase and clean up of an old house in Tuscany. It includes recipes, gardening directions, weather reports, menus, etc. And if that's what you were expecting, it's actually very good. However, I unfortunately saw the movie when it came out, in complete ignorance that it was a book first.

And. . . I'm still confused about how *this* book got made into *that* movie. ...more

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Sep 29, 2019 Yelda Basar Moers rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: memoir, history, women-s-studies

To prepare myself for Tuscany this summer, I read Under the Tuscan Sun, and well...if you can’t make it to Tuscany, this book is the next best thing! Author Frances Mayes tells her story of buying an old abandoned house in Cortona and her efforts in trying to remodel and rebuild it. In her narrative she weaves in the history and food of Tuscany (her property itself has an old, Etruscan wall). The book is exquisitely written. The language itself is as much of an offering as the incredible wine an To prepare myself for Tuscany this summer, I read Under the Tuscan Sun, and well...if you can’t make it to Tuscany, this book is the next best thing! Author Frances Mayes tells her story of buying an old abandoned house in Cortona and her efforts in trying to remodel and rebuild it. In her narrative she weaves in the history and food of Tuscany (her property itself has an old, Etruscan wall). The book is exquisitely written. The language itself is as much of an offering as the incredible wine and food of this immaculate countryside (I have to admit that we did ship home several boxes of wine from Montepulciano and the Chianti region!).

This is a kind of Eat Pray Love, I got divorced, have a new boyfriend and I'm making big life change like-- buying an old, dilapidated 250 year-old stone house in a country that's not mine, that's changed its government regime 61 times since WWII, that moves very slowly, almost at backwards pace, in the countryside of a place that's removed, and starting something new! I enjoyed reading all of her challenges and unexpected joyful moments. I loved this book!

Here is a passage from the book to give you a sense of the depth and rich tapestry of the language:

"Italy always has had a magnetic north pull on my psyche. Houses have been on my mind for four summers of renting farmhouses all over Tuscany. In the first place Ed and I rented with friends, we started calculating on the first night, trying to figure out if four pooled savings would buy the tumbled stone farm we could see from the terrace. Ed immediately fell for farm life and roamed over our neighbors' land looking at the work in progress. The Antolinis grew tobacco, a beautiful if hated crop. We could hear workers shout "Vipera!" to warn the others of a poisonous snake. At evening, a violet blue haze rose from the dark leaves. The well-ordered farm looked peaceful from the vantage point of our terrace. Our friends never came back, but for the next three vacations, the circuitous search for a summer home became a quest for us--whether we ever found a place or not, we were happening on places that made pure green olive oil, discovering sweet country Romanesque churches in villages, meandering the back roads of vineyards, and stopping to taste the softest Brunelli and the blackest Vino Nobile. Looking for a house gives an intense focus." ...more

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Apr 22, 2008 Tamara rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Recommended to Tamara by: Conifer book friends, I think?

CRAP CRAP CRAP...HATED IT!!! This is the epitome of nauseating travelogues. This woman thinks she is Italian because she renovated and lived in a small property in Tuscany??? And she is clearly so much smarter, knows better, and has more experience in everything (not JUST renovating and living in a small house in Tuscany) than anyone else on earth because she renovated and lived in a small house in Tuscany. Blech.

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Sep 05, 2014 GoldGato rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: travel, memoir, summer, cooking-food-wine-cocktails

...for here there is no place
that does not see you. You must change your life.
- RILKE

I was at an airport.
I needed a book.
It was the 1990s (no e-books).
Another cross-country business trip.
This was it.

The Tuscan sun has warmed me to the marrow.

I read the whole thing from cover-to-cover on that journey. Maybe it was the writing, maybe it was the locale, maybe it was because I was leaving sun and flying into snow, but I really enjoyed this book. Frances Mayes had me turning pages to discover the ...more

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Jul 26, 2007 Cinco rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: nonfiction, travel

I love travel writing and was really looking forward to reading this book. Sadly for me, about a third of the way through I realized that I wasn't reading a book about Italy or travel, I was reading a very long, very dry book about home improvement that just happened to take place in Tuscany. ...more

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Oct 18, 2016 Marjorie rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Edit: I mentioned in my review that the author paid $1,000,000 for this abandoned villa because she said in the book that she wrote "milione" at the closing so many times. But Ms. Mayes sent me a tweet questioning where I got that price and that it was a fifth of that or $200,000. That was when I realized that I hadn't converted the milione that she mentioned from lire to dollars! It was her entire savings from her marriage that she put into this home. Plus they did a lot of the work themselves. Edit: I mentioned in my review that the author paid $1,000,000 for this abandoned villa because she said in the book that she wrote "milione" at the closing so many times. But Ms. Mayes sent me a tweet questioning where I got that price and that it was a fifth of that or $200,000. That was when I realized that I hadn't converted the milione that she mentioned from lire to dollars! It was her entire savings from her marriage that she put into this home. Plus they did a lot of the work themselves. Quite a difference with the conversion. So thank you, Ms. Mayes, for this clarification!

I’ve long been familiar with this book but until now had never had the chance to read it. The 20th Anniversary Edition is being released so I grabbed the chance to read it all these years later.

This memoir is beautifully written and pulls you right into the atmosphere that exclusively belongs to Italy. Though I’ve never visited Italy, I do enjoy reading about it and believe it’s a very unique place. Ms. Mayes and her husband had the privilege and daring to buy a run-down villa in Tuscany 20 years ago and she and her husband undertook the extensive renovation of it. I must say that it left me quite astonished to hear that they paid $1,000,000 for this villa, were still able to put so much money into the renovation and that this was only to be their summer home. I couldn’t quite relate to that but regardless of that disconnect, I very much enjoyed reading of their adventures over the years.

The beginning of the book details their search for a home, their finding of Bramasole in Tuscany, their search for contractors and decisions made as to what the renovation would entail and the actual renovation. I love watching “This Old House” and other shows like it so enjoyed the first part of this section. However, I did become a bit bored with some of the renovation details.

But then she goes on to talk about her exploration of the neighboring areas and her finding of little known paths, roads and churches that she finds and I was entranced. And then, since she’s apparently a gourmet cook, there are the wonderful descriptions of the food of Italy and pages of her recipes that I definitely will be trying over the winter.

All in all, the author has shared her delight in Italy with her readers in a completely captivating way. Recommended.

This book was given to me by the publisher through Blogging for Books in return for an honest review.

...more

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Oct 06, 2010 Tarah rated it liked it · review of another edition

Here's the thing. I loved this book when I first read it (was I 20? maybe 22...). Because I was young, and hadn't learned how to resent those people who gallivant around the globe with too much money on their hands telling us how charmed their lives are while describing the picturesque landscape. That being said, the book is well-written and the descriptions of Tuscan life are, of course, deeply seductive. Because that's the point: a life where you worry whether your wrought-iron gate is cast in ...more

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Oct 19, 2008 Anne rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Frances Mayes wrote this book based on her experience of buying and restoring a villa in Tuscany. I read it summer 2001 while I was visiting Meredith in St. Croix and left it for her to read. The descriptions of life, light, food and wine made me want to move to Italy. I remember a lot of the recipes contained pine nuts, which I didn't think I liked at the time.

Frances Mayes used to teach at UGA, and John knows her. I told my brother to read this book; he told me it changed his life.

The movie i ...more

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Apr 30, 2017 Sophia rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction, first-reads-shelf

A chance to journey along looking over a person's shoulder as they go from summer holiday tripper in Tuscany to owning an old Tuscan farmhouse needing a vast deal of TLC was an intriguing prospect.

I had seen the movie adaption of this book, but the movie is only one small facet of all that is covered in gently-paced slightly distant reflections on a years' long labor of love and life. This book reads like a blend of journal-scrapbook-ideas-memorabilia-organizer all wrapped in one. And that's pre A chance to journey along looking over a person's shoulder as they go from summer holiday tripper in Tuscany to owning an old Tuscan farmhouse needing a vast deal of TLC was an intriguing prospect.

I had seen the movie adaption of this book, but the movie is only one small facet of all that is covered in gently-paced slightly distant reflections on a years' long labor of love and life. This book reads like a blend of journal-scrapbook-ideas-memorabilia-organizer all wrapped in one. And that's pretty much what the author says it is- the tidied version that is.

I immersed myself in Frances and Ed's (two American university professors) summer and other holiday adventures in buying and restoring an old Tuscan farmhouse. There are details of their personal projects, the entertaining attempt and moderate success of working with Italian contractors and laborers in spite of a limited knowledge of the language. Details of acquiring their home pieces and indulging in the amazing produce and other foods of the region from growing their own, to markets, to cooking and entertaining. Social engagements of encounters with the locals, meeting for dinners around at the homes of an international community of ex-pats including a famous writer that Frances is a fan. The anguish of disappointment and humor, too, in the contractor hired to work while they are away back in America and then the hum of industry while they pull out all stops to deliver a fabulous wedding for their friends. There is so much more including a section of her Italian recipes that I was grateful to find in the center of the book after all that talk of food.

I will say, that I'm probably the opposite of most readers. I got bored during her sightseeing trips in the region, reminiscing of the past during her childhood in Georgia, or her thoughts on her life and how its changing, but I was really into the restorations and projects around their home along with talks of marketing and cooking.
It is slow-paced for certain and meanders a great deal. It reads better in small bites of time rather than larger consumption of pages at a time. It follows a general linear time line and offers episodes in their Tuscan summers so its not messy, but it won't read crisply or quickly either.

All in all, it was a pleasant reading experience that gave me a lovely vicarious trip to Tuscany. I definitely don't think I'm up to restoring an old Tuscan farmhouse, but staying in one and shopping in the market or eating in the restaurants or going tourist on the region would definitely be a dream come true. ...more

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Dec 05, 2008 Rob rated it it was ok · review of another edition

I'd never heard of this book until the autumn of 1999, a few days after I arrived in Cortona, the town/subject of this book. Every time I turned around, all these baby boomers were asking me if I knew where Francis Mayes lived. I had know idea who she was. I soon learned, however, that she was the author of this very book, which was about her experience rehabbing a home on the other side of the hill from Cortona.

My experience in Cortona was life changing. When I returned to the states, I was sa ...more

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Feb 08, 2015 Emma Iadanza rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: abandoned

Before I started this book, I read some of the other reviews on Goodreads, and I really must say. I agree. I didn't want to agree at first, but now I do.

Let me say. I did not love this book. I did not despise it. But I simply disliked it it. A lot. I really wanted to like it, but I can't.

Basically, this woman and her husband/boyfriend(?) buy a house in Tuscany after wanting to and not wanting to and wanting to and not wanting to and really wanting to but having a lot of other things discourage ...more

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Oct 07, 2009 Davis Aujourd'hui rated it really liked it · review of another edition

This is an inspirational book written by a woman who is going through a transition in her life. While visiting Tuscany, she decides to take a leap of faith and to begin a brand new life. Even though she can't afford the home which she wants to buy, the owner realizes that how much the author values the home and that it should be hers. Consequently the owner accepts the author's modest offer. That was spiritual! I especially appreciated this aspect since I am the author of a spiritually-themed bo ...more

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About Frances Mayes

Frances Mayes

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Frances Mayes's new book is See You in the Piazza: New Places to Discover in Italy published by Crown. Her most recent novel is Women in Sunlight, published by Crown and available in paperback in spring 2019. With her husband, Edward Mayes she recently published The Tuscan Sun Cookbook. Every Day in Tuscany is the third volume in her bestselling Tuscany memoir series.

In addition to ...more