Under the Tuscan Sun:
  At Home in Italy
   Frances Mayes
  1998 Thorndike Press, Maine
   ISBN: 0767900383


Frances Mayes is a poet, gourmet cook, college professor & travel writer who fell in love with Italy & bought a home there that dramatically changed her life.

With her partner Ed, she found a wondrous new world as they restored an abandoned villa, Bramasole (meaning to yearn for the sun), in the Tuscan countryside.

They discovered faded frescoes beneath the whitewash in the dining room, a vineyard under wildly overgrown brambles, even a scorpion or two. From her traditional kitchen & simple garden, Mayes created dozens of recipes, many of which are included. In the local markets & neighboring hill towns, she explored the landscape, history & cuisine of Italy which she generously shares with me, her reader.

Under the Tuscan Sun goes well with cotton pajamas, a bottle of a favorite chianti & a fluffy down comforter to snuggle under. It requires leisurely reading if one is not to miss the feel of the many Italian traditions Mayes describes, such as the mid-day siesta.

From the beginning, Bramasole was the spirit-home of the author. I recognize this because I have a spirit-home in Canada, a home I happily share but never try to persuade others to care about as I do. I recognize a kind of madness that accompanies this form of attachment.

Under the Tuscan Sun is a book of details, full of lore about Italy for lovers of lore -- & I am a lore lover. The book wouldn't have worked without them. The details kept me hungry for more floors needing to be tiled, more searches for water, more rose bushes, more stories.

Mayes goes back 26 centuries in her wanderings throughout Italy, redefining my sense of old. Occasionally she loses her feeling of wonder & becomes pedagogic. She mentions a ballet troupe from Russia that she watched “thump around for two hours.” I doubt Russia ever had a ballet troupe that thumped around anywhere.

I read the big print copy of Under the Tuscan Sun, & turned many pages wishing there were maps & pictures. I hope they were included in the original edition. I kept my atlas close by.

I have never traveled to Italy, but now feel I have. My husband calls this a Scottish vacation -- stay home & let your mind wander. I now carry textured pictures of Italy in my mind & on my taste-buds. With the help of a few Italian words, the book gives me an appreciation of homegrown olive oil & memories of some extraordinary meals I never ate. The book is best at the beginning & end when Mayes is focused on Bramasole, weak when she becomes a tourist. Still, I give Under the Tuscan Sun 4 teapots.

More from Frances Mayes: Bella Tuscany: The Sweet Life in Italy; Discovery of Poetry & Ex Voto: The arts of fire and After such pleasures; Tuscan Pleasures 2002 Engagement Calendar & In Tuscany.
(04/01/01)

Carolyn Stearns
2003©Alma Bond
A RebeccasReads.Com Sr. Staff Writer/Reviewer

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Reviewer's Bio:
Carolyn Stearns is a professional modern dancer, choreographer, teacher, masseuse, hypnotist & writer who began her 39 year dance career as a butterfly in first grade. She received an MS in dance from Smith College & studied with modern dance legends Martha Graham, Hanya Holm & Jose Limon.

As Carolyn Coles, she performed with prominent dance companies including Karamu Dancers & the Jose Limon Dance Company in Philadelphia, taught dance at Smith, Swarthmore & Connecticut Colleges & the University of Maryland. For years she was a dance critic for Choice Magazine.

After she retired from dance, she taught her own bodywork program Stretch and Meditation, gave psychic body readings & grief massages -- out of which came her six Blessing Tree Self-Empowerment audio tapes.

Then she began to write, publishing: Spirit-Walking & Where Did All The Water Go? Excerpts of her work have appeared in Reality Change, Fodderwing, The Washington Post, Pilgrimage, The New Bay Times, Chesapeake, earthlight! and Choice Magazine.

She live in Mason's Beach, Maryland & at Weslemkoon Lake, Ontario with her husband, Chris, & her special teachers: a Great Pyrenees dog Jean-Luc & cats Black Angus & Calico Phoebe. They share six children & six grandchildren.