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Amazon.co.uk Review
Often the most fascinating memoirs are written by people who seem to be quite unaware that they are actually monsters. Frances Mayes' entertainingly egocentric Bella Tuscany, the sequel to her best-selling Under the Tuscan Sun, nudges into this category. Like its predecessor, a lyrical account of an American teacher of creative writing's insertion of herself into Tuscan life and the Tuscan landscape, Bella Tuscany (shouldn't that be Bella Toscana, or is something to be inferred about the intended readership?) is a sustained, ecstatic trill of cypresses, dusty, immemorial hillsides and tile-roofed hill towns. With hunky husband Ed, Frances restores her farmhouse, plants flowers and grows vegetables, cooks, travels and generally swans about Italy, in the process transforming it into a vehicle for her glowing sensibilities. Occasionally she speculates briefly about those she encounters on the way--about the old farmers who tend her olive trees, about the Nigerian prostitutes surreally stationed along a lonely rural road by the Russian mafia--but the beam of her attention barely flickers. There is a telling moment early on: she looks out of the window; the landscape reveals itself for her to love. It is as though the whole of Tuscany, no, the whole of Italy is laid out for her benefit, for those exquisite Martha Stewart moments. And people are so kind: they just can't resist bestowing gifts on her. The lady at the nursery rushes out with a plant. The shy owner of the perfumery shop in town turns out to have paid for her cappuccino. Anselmo who manages their vegetable garden presents them with his wine-press. "This gentle courtesy happens frequently." Far more than any possible reader, she is an enthralled spectator of the pageant of her gorgeous life, which she is generous enough to share. One doesn't begrudge it her one bit. One reads, fascinated, then makes one's holiday plans for somewhere else. --Robin Davidson
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
Book Description
The endearing author whose bestseller made the world fall in love with Tuscany invites us back for an enchanting new season of friendship, festivity and food there and throughout Italy.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This book is hard to define - it's an autobiographical account of an American couple who buy and restore a glorious villa in the Tuscan countryside. Part gardening manual, part travel diary, there are even recipes included, and its style is warm, enthusiastic and written by someone with a poet's love of words. I particularly liked the way Mayes shares her learning of Italian with the reader. One Italian idiom which made me laugh was 'acqua in bocca' which literally translates as 'water in the mouth, and means 'I won't tell anyone'.
Days are spent designing their garden, feasting with neighbours, and touring their new country, talking in copious amounts of food as well as culture.
However, the second half of the book lost me completely. There was less of the Italian experience and more of the writer's own childhood in America. Sorry, but I wasn't reading it to find out about her family or America! More of Italy please!
13 of 17 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I have just finished reading Bella Tuscany during our family holiday in the hills east of Florence. 2 years ago at the same old Tuscan farmhouse, I read and thoroughly enjoyed the first book Under The Tuscan Sun. This follow up started off reasonably well but by half way it began to loose its grip on me. Being in Italy I could relate to quite a few of the passages but bagan to wonder what the purpose of this book was. Jumping back and forth across the Atlantic, from present to past, by the end I realised that one third of the text should have been in the first and the rest was simple padding out. The recipes especially are a waste of pages particularly those from the deep south of the US. One passage that summed it all up for me was the section about tourists in Venice - the author appears to look down on those, like myself without realising that She too is just another tourist in Venice. Bramasole was an interesting conversion project but is still a holiday home.
The current book started whilst still under the Tuscan sun is a very different matter - Tim Parks' Italian Neighbours is a joy - a real ex-Pat living and working near Verona - this book captures the real Italy without the distractions contained in Bella Tuscany.
I have still to read the third book In Tuscany which I bought for the photographs - sorry Frances, if I wanted another recipe book I would have bought one. If Under The Umbrian Sun appears I don't think I'll bother.
12 of 16 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I've read Mrs Mayes' book on life in Tuscany whilst on holiday and I must say it is filled with amazement about springtime, gardening, ancient fresco's and the "italina way of life" Everything is wonderful, beautiful or amazing -or so it seems after reading the first 100 pages. The couple (mrs mayes and her husband hero Ed) take you on a trip through Italy, guided by tourist guide books (!) at an American speed. Husband Ed often complains about "not having seen everything" in Venice or Palermo or wherever. Also, any contemplation or deep thought nver last the page it is written on.It gets tiring to some extent.
What I missed most - but this is personal - is some self-irony, some critical looks at Italian life and often some research/background. The latter improves thoughout the book, although we end with moving house in California, a quick marriage or two, a quick move back to the US for tragic family reasons and back to lovely Italy.
On the whole its an easy accesible book, though nowhere near to benchmark 'One year in the Provence' in my view. The book reads like a lot of little stories spun around diary entries.
What annoyed me most, was the extent of rosyness and sometimes the 'over the top' comments. Also Mrs Hayes dispersal of Italian phrases can become a little weary. On the whole it is the speed at which things occur that was the most annoying in the end. It left me without knowing much about Italian life, but with the Californian perception of it fimrly established. Nice, though, but not something I would buy for my friends.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
An Italophile's memoir
Frances Mayes' sequel to "Under the Tuscan Sun," this book finds Mayes and partner Ed with a (mostly) restored villa and more time for exploring Tuscany and other parts of... Read more
Published on 29 Dec 2009 by Kittycat
great descriptive read
Bella Tuscany is a great read especially for those who have ever lived there and miss it as i do. Having bought an old house in the country in Tuscany and done it up, I could... Read more
Published on 3 July 2009 by Carol Hitchings
Makes you want to return to Italy
A return to the author's senses-filled life in Tuscany. As wonderfully evocative as its predecessor. Read more
Published on 20 Sep 2007 by John Hopper
It's all about gardening!
Having seen the film "Under The Tuscan Sun" and throughly enjoyed it and being an avid Tim Parks fan (Italian Neighbours and An Italian Education) I was expecting another colourful... Read more
Published on 13 Oct 2006 by Italianophile
Lovely Dreamscapes into the Heart of Italy
Who has not dreamt of escaping to a colorful villa in Europe, preferably Provence (France), Tuscany in Italy or some obscure litle hillside in Central Europe? Read more
Published on 23 Aug 2004 by Erika Borsos
pretentious, mannered and tedious
I found myself quite unable to read more than 50 pages of this book. The author is incredibly self important, condescending, utterly humourless, and has no real insight into the... Read more
Published on 27 Jan 2003
I really enjoyed reading this book.
I loved reading this book. I think that Frances Mayles has captured something very special about travel. Read more
Published on 15 May 2000
pretentious but occasionally thought-provoking
Overall, I found the book to be pretentious in its sensual praise of Tuscany. As we get chapters on Sicily, the Veneto and Umbria the title is also somewhat misleading. Read more
Published on 1 May 2000
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