[.ca] Bella Tuscany: The Sweet Life in Italy (ISBN 076790284X)

From Amazon.com:
Work's still not completely finished on Bramasole, the Tuscan house that California-based poet and bestselling author Frances Mayes bought a decade ago and has been fixing up every summer since. Nevertheless, in Bella Tuscany, she goes out--in search of Italy and Italian life. The sequel to Under the Tuscan Sun is awash with sensual discovery, from Sicilian markets with "rainbows of shining fish on ice" to the aqueous dream of Venice "shimmering in the diluted sunlight." Wherever she is, Mayes celebrates everyday rituals, such as picking wild asparagus, "dark spears poking out of the dirt ... stalks as thin as yarn" and driving through country rains, as "the green landscape smears across the windshield" for buffalo mozzarella and demijohns of sfuso--bulk wine kept fresh with a slick of olive oil on top. Mayes also ventures into the world of the locals, some "bent as a comma" and others throwing six-hour communion feasts where half a dozen cooks in a barn continually send out heaping platters of pasta with wild boar sauce, roasted lamb, and even the thigh of a giant cow--wrapping up the festivities with honeyed vin santo, grappa, and dancing to the accordion. Capturing the details that enrich the commonplace, in Bella Tuscany Mayes appears less like a visitor and more like someone discovering in Tuscany a real home and a real life. --Melissa Rossi

a diamond with some flaws:
OK--Many of the customers who wrote previous reviews about Bella Tuscany have some valid complaints. It is several chapters too long and we do get tired of Mayes' whining. We have little pity for her trying to restore two houses at once and we don't need to hear about every meal and shopping excursion. It certainly does not surpass her first effort, "Under the Tuscan Sun." Still, as someone who has never been to Tuscany (or Italy for that matter), many of the descriptions in "Bella Tuscany" are little treasures. Who wouldn't want to live where you can go to one local farm for ricotta, another for pecorino romano and a third for wine? Or where Roman and Etruscan ruins are to be found in so many unsuspecting places? Or where fabulous meals can be made with only the simple ingredients you grow in your garden? Or where every small local church has a major work or art or two? I do have two recommendations that would have made this book more enjoyable; a map of Tuscany and Italy would have been helpful in identifying the many places Mayes visited. Also, I would have enjoyed more photographs other than those on the dust jacket. Maybe the few "teaser" pictures are to whet our appetite for her 3rd book, "In Tuscany." In any case, while this book has some character flaws, I think potential readers need to try to overlook these and to dig deeper for the jewel within.

Exquisite!:
Mayes is a treat. I loved this book as much as her previous Italy book; can't understand the attacks herein, but it doesn't matter. I love all of the Italian references. The imagery is so powerful that it almost felt as though I were in Italy. It enriched my reading experience by teaching me the finer parts of Mediterranean culture -- and Mayes has done the same in a unique and memorable way. This is a wonderful book and I highly recommend it to anyone without an ax slung over their shoulder.

Bella Tuscany:
The Mother of the Tuscany books! The second in her series, about her home in Tuscany, not as good as the first but very good.

BELLA TUSCANY:THE SWEET LIFE IN ITALY:
SHE WRITES A GREAT BOOK ABOUT ITALY. HAVING BEEN THERE I FEEL I AM GOING BACK AGAIN. GREAT.

A must read if you love Italy:
This is a great book! It actually take you to a portal of Italy. Well written of Italian culture, Frances Mayes capture the bella of Italy. I love this book very much, I visited Italy before and I miss it so much. When I read this book, I feel that I am there again. I love the detail of it, I actually love when she talked about food, the market and the italian word with english beside it. I learned from the book. If you love Italy, this is a must read. One thing I agree with the other reader that if there's pictures and map included would make this book a plus. I really wants to see the pictures she mentioned and the map for my quick reference. I love the part she talked about mushroom and market with fresh food.