Dolce Vita Diaries: The Recipes [Kindle Edition]

Hats off to the family for all they achieved in difficult circumstances but unfortunately this is without doubt one of the worst books I have ever read.

I suppose that the staggeringly un-original title should have warned me but I ploughed on looking for charm and insight into beautiful Marche and its wonderful people but found nothing but vacuous observations and................................ well nothing actually.

Have you ever wondered how much "research" goes into a television program? The answer lies in this book. Two media types decide to move to Italy to grow olives. Their level of research is so pathetically laughable (they don't seem to know that Marche gets cold in winter and they both HATE the cold) that if they spend this amount of time planning such a momentous move they would obviously spend about ten seconds researching a TV program.

A more self deprecating eye may well have brought some charm to the description of their adventure but Cathy was clearly not born to be an author. The first part of the book is written in a stream of consciousness email style (including such gems as "(?)") with so much disjointed jumping around an ADD specialist would have a field day. Thereafter there is no coherence or flow throughout the book. So disjointed that we go from finishing the second harvest to living in Earls Court in 10 pages with no substantial explanation but hey ho, that's Hollywood intilekt folks. (Personally I think that the reason was that the physical work was just tooo hard for the little diddums and being ssooooo far away from Starbucks CAN be a killer.)

However the thing that really gets me is how passionless and bland this book is. It is narrated with no empathy, no feeling and no real insight. The desperate search for anecdotes plumbs the depths of trivia from a man in a bar who didn't know how to make cappuccino to the footballers who were too tired to go out for a drink with Jason. Whereas Annie Hawes can turn a snippet about a barista fighting her request for more water in a coffee into a wry observation of cultural clashes, Cathy's anecdotes come across more like overcooked pasta; bland and pointless. Small wonder that the only angle they could work in the newspaper interviews was to slag off Marche and the people. I can only think that the above reviews are written by family and friends and I for one will be returning my book to get my money back.

On reflection, this book fails to disguise its true purpose; just another item to be ticked off the self promotion bandwagon. What's next? A reality show where contestants compete to pick the most olives and whoever slags off Marche the best wins? Or will Jordan be convinced to make an appearance quaffing olive oil?

If you want to read some decent writing on the moving to Italy vein not something churned out to sell a product, try Annie Hawes or Isabella Dusi or if you want something about the real Italy get the excellent Pietro's Book, The Story of a Tuscan Peasant and give this a pass.

Extra Virgin: Amongst the Olive Groves of Liguria

Pietro's Book: The Story of a Tuscan Peasant

Vanilla Beans and Brodo: Real Life in the Hills of Tuscany

If this couple had taken the time to read "Under the Tuscan Sun" by Frances Mayes - half of their problems would never have happened and their witty stories would not exist. I'm not saying that they plagiarised the Mayes book but they picked on the same stuff to write about (Priest strangler pasta anyone?) and frankly didn't do it as well. A poorly written book with little new to offer in the genre.Don't waste your money.

"Generally, we led a pretty charmed, if rather shallow life", wrote Cathy Rogers at the beginning of the book, describing a career spent between London and LA working in television production. 319 pages later, Jason and Cathy have given up their jobs, had baby Rosie, and moved to an olive farm in Le Marche. They have renovated and rebuilt their farmhouse and dreamt up an intriguing wheeze whereby "investors" can adopt an olive tree and receive divvies in the form of its oil. Between each chapter Jason has inserted a chunk of delicious-sounding recipes, and my copy already has several Post-its marking the ones I want to cook first (top of the list is the tagliata steak on page 138). Photos abound, both colour and black and white, and a quote from that great cook Rose Prince adorns the cover. This is a popular genre, but Jason and Cathy's book makes a refreshing change from the run-of-the-mill. If you know someone who likes Italy, good food, olive oil....then this is for them.