This book represents a unique view of Tuscany. It does not dwell on the region's famous products, its eventful and colorful history, the extravagant art works on breath-taking landscape. What it doe s seek to do is to connect these and other traits in order to understand what is derived from them today, namely a style of life.
In her inimitable warm and evocative tone, Frances Mayes helps readers develop an eye for authentic Tuscan style, with advice on how to: Choose a Tuscan colour palette for the home, from earthy apricot tones to invigorating shades of antique blue; Cultivate a Tuscan garden, adding fountains, vine-covered pergolas, and terracotta urns among the herbs and flowers.. Make prime finds at their local antique markets - and to truly bring Tuscany home, shipping advice and market days for several Tuscan towns are included. Set an imaginative Tuscan table using majolica and vintage linens; Enjoy the abundant flavours and easy simplicity of the Tuscan kitchen, with details on everything from olive oil and vin santo to pici and gnocchi, plus special, homegrown menus and recipes.
Frances Mayes, whose enchanting #1 New York Times bestseller Under the Tuscan Sun made the world fall in love with Tuscany, invites readers back for a delightful new season of friendship, festivity, and food, there and throughout Italy. Having spent her summers in Tuscany for the past several years, Frances Mayes relished the opportunity to experience the pleasures of primavera, an Italian spring. A sabbatical from teaching in San Francisco allowed her to return to Cortona—and her beloved house, Bramasole—just as the first green appeared on the rocky hillsides. Bella Tuscany, a companion volume to Under the Tuscan Sun, is her passionate and lyrical account of her continuing love affair with Italy. Now truly at home there, Mayes writes of her deepening connection to the land, her flourishing friendships with local people, the joys of art, food, and wine, and the rewards and occasional heartbreaks of her villa's ongoing restoration. It is also a memoir of a season of change, and of renewed possibility. As spring becomes summer she revives Bramasole's lush gardens, meets the challenges of learning a new language, tours regions from Sicily to the Veneto, and faces transitions in her family life. Filled with recipes from her Tuscan kitchen and written in the sensuous and evocative prose that has become her hallmark, Bella Tuscany is a celebration of the sweet life in Italy. Now with an excerpt from Frances Mayes's latest southern memoir, Under Magnolia.
By the author of the international bestseller The Hills of Tuscany and the New York Times Notable Book A Vineyard in Tuscany: making the Tuscan life-style your own. This sun-drenched land has become synonymous with the ideal life. But it didn’t happen by chance. Since the Etruscans, the independence-loving Tuscans have treated their breathtaking countryside with sagacious respect and built hamlets and hill towns in which they perfected a culture of simplicity, beauty, neighborliness, good food, and love of daily life. Ferenc Máté has lived in Tuscany for twenty years. Through personal experience and anecdotal history he explores the sources of this idyllic existence, which provides continuous economic stability, physical and emotional security, and a fortifying sense of belonging. From their organic gardens to their mouthwatering cuisine, from high-quality, craftsmen-made products and family-run businesses, to the joys centered in human contact and community, Tuscans live a healthy, all-senses-satisfying, emotionally rich life. Máté—engaging, funny, and insightful—nudges us all to live like Tuscans. With our frantic world so storm-tossed and rudderless, this might just be the book for our times.
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The beloved memoir of self-discovery set against the spectacular Tuscan countryside that inspired the major motion picture starring Diane Lane—now in a twentieth-anniversary edition featuring a new afterword “This beautifully written memoir about taking chances, living in Italy, loving a house and, always, the pleasures of food, would make a perfect gift for a loved one. But it’s so delicious, read it first yourself.”—USA Today For more Frances Mayes, including a tour of her now iconic Cortona home, Bramasole, watch PBS’s Dream of Italy: Tuscan Sun Special! More than twenty years ago, Frances Mayes—widely published poet, gourmet cook, and travel writer—introduced readers to a wondrous new world when she bought and restored an abandoned Tuscan villa called Bramasole. Under the Tuscan Sun inspired generations to embark on their own journeys—whether that be flying to a foreign country in search of themselves, savoring one of the book’s dozens of delicious seasonal recipes, or simply being transported by Mayes’s signature evocative, sensory language. Now with a new afterword from Frances Mayes, the twentieth-anniversary edition of Under the Tuscan Sun revisits the book’s most popular characters.
Renowned restaurateur, bon vivant, and armchair philosopher Pino Luongo presents a year of Tuscan menus, with recipes for living the good life. Pino Luongo is Tuscan to his toes--by birth, in sensibility, philosophically, and in the way he lives his life. To be Tuscan, Pino says, "is to honor all your senses." And he believes that everyone would benefit from having a little bit of Tuscany in his or her life, which is why he has written Simply Tuscan. Welcome in the spring with a menu of quintessentially seasonal recipes, such as Artichoke, Romaine, and Pea Soup, followed by Roasted Veal with Lemon and Sage, and sweetened with Panna Cotta with Strawberries and Balsamic Vinegar. Or welcome your in-laws with a meal they'll never forget: Zucchini Soup with Mint, Ricotta Ravioli with Osso Buco Gremolata, and Upside-Down Warm Apple Tart. Follow Pino to the seashore in summer, where, as he says, "the beach makes us wild with energy," to partake of a Summer Night Seafood Extravaganza--Crispy Fried Shrimp with Summer Vegetables in Sweet and Sour Vinaigrette, Trout Roasted Porchetta-Style, and Lobster and Cannellini Beans in Guazzetto. Celebrate Thanksgiving Tuscan-style and, Pino promises, it will give you something else to be thankful for. Start the meal with Farro, Swiss Chard, and Butternut Squash Soup. Follow it up with Goose with Vineyard Stuffing instead of the usual turkey. Try Mashed Potatoes with Leeks in place of the candied sweets, and finish with Spiced Poached Pears with Vin Santo Sabayon. Winter means comfort food all over the world, and in Tuscany this might mean Oven-Baked Leg of Pork Glazed with Chestnut Honey, a Carrot and Apple Puree, and Caramelized BabaScented with Orange. All of these recipes and many more, accompanied by Pino's wise and witty commentary on the occasions for which they were devised, are intended, in his words, to "convert you to Tuscanism...once you get a taste for it, there's no turning back." And this beautifully designed, lavishly illustrated, deliciously tempting book of recipes is certain to do just that. Some of the recipes, such as Cacciucco, a fish and shellfish stew, or the Easter Torta with Cheese, are totally, typically, traditionally Tuscan; others, like Crabmeat Ravioli in Ginger-Scented Vegetable Broth and the Bay Scallop and Asparagus Risotto are modern interpretations, which, nevertheless, remain truly Tuscan in spirit. SIMPLY TUSCAN is intended, in Pino's words, to "convert you to Tuscanism--once you get a taste for it, there's no turning back." And this beautifully designed, lavishly illustrated, deliciously tempting book of recipes is certain to do just that. -->
When Isobel Dusi visited Italy with her Australian husband Lou, little did they imagine that life would change forever. But, utterly besotted with the fragrant warmth and good-natured conviviality of Southern Tuscany, they decided to sell up their lives in the big city and move thousands of miles to follow the dream of a life more in keeping with ancient rhythms and time-honoured traditions of the Mediterranean. After months of searching they settled upon Montalcino, an intriguing hilltop medieval village with a reputation for some of the finest wine in Italy. VANILLA BEANS AND BRODO is an account of Isobel's hard-won acceptance into this tempestuous, warm-hearted and proudly independent community, whose voluble passions for home grown wine and Tuscan cuisine, for football and ancient traditions and festivals, puts paid to the myth that life in rural Tuscany is tranquil. Isobel and Lou are gradually transformed into Isabella and Luigi in this charming account of Tuscan village life that really gets to the beating heart of an Italian community - its joys, pleasures, anxieties, but above all, its absorbing eccentricities.
The design of the Tuscan house has remained virtually unchanged since the Middle Ages, when landowners built country retreats drawing on the natural resources of the region. Indeed, it is these materials that give the Tuscan house its unique character: stone and marble; hard woods, like chestnut, oak, and elm; terracotta and brick; and water, used in ponds, fountains, and pools. These elements are captured here in exquisite detail: thick stone interior walls; terracotta-tiled roofs and floors; sienna-hued stucco finishes and luminous frescoes; exposed wood beams and scrubbed oak dining tables; and sunny courtyard gardens with the all-important water feature, whether an ancient well or an exquisite pool. In this glorious collection of color images, Simon McBride artfully evokes the magic and pleasures of Tuscan living. Simon McBride has been photographing interiors and gardens for over two decades, working regularly for House & Garden and Architectural Digest.
If you feel stuck with no idea what you should do next, lifestyle celebrity and TV pioneer Debbie Travis's bestseller is for you. Drawing on the lessons she learned in her own leap into a new way of living, along with a multitude of stories, tips and ideas to jumpstart your dreams, Debbie's created an inspiring roadmap for change. A few years ago, Debbie Travis realized that she was no longer challenged by her wildly successful TV career, yet she was so busy she was missing out on the people and things that made her happy. She dared to dream about a whole new direction in life--a plan to turn a 13th-century farmhouse in Tuscany into a unique hotel and retreat for people who need a change as much as she did. And now she is not only living that dream but sharing it with others. Her new book draws directly on her own experiences (when she started, Debbie could barely make a bed, let alone run a hotel in a foreign county) and the uplifting stories of personal u-turns shared by women who have come to her retreats. Debbie's "commandments" will inspire women (and men) who have lost track of who they are or what they want to be; who are going through the motions of a career that doesn't satisfy them anymore; who are wondering what to do with themselves now that their kids are gone or their marriage is over. On every page, Debbie shares the tools that helped her transform her life. Her common-sense advice, often delivered with her trademark humour, will help motivate anyone who finds themselves standing at a crossroads wondering "What's next for me?"