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Too Much Tuscan Sun: Confessions of a Chianti Tour Guide

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Too Much Tuscan Sun: Confessions of a Chianti Tour Guide (Paperback)

by Dario Castagno (Author), Robert Rodi (Author)

3.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)

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Product details

Paperback: 288 pages
Publisher: Falcon Guides; 1st Printing edition (April 2005)
Language English
ISBN-10: 0762736704
ISBN-13: 978-1863255073
Product Dimensions: 19.8 x 13.5 x 2.3 cm

Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)

Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 433,729 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

Synopsis

Over the past several years, "the American in Tuscany," has become a literary sub genre. Launched by the phenomenal success of Frances Mayes's Under the Tuscan Sun, bookstores now burgeon with nimble, witty accounts of this clash in cultures - Americans trying to do American things in Italy and bumping against a brick wall of tradition. Before this sub genre exhausts itself, it's only fair that we hear the other side of the story - that of a native Tuscan and of dozens of Americans who have stormed through his life and homeland, determined to find in it whatever they are looking for, whether quaintness or wisdom, submission or direction. There is no one better to provide this view than Dario Castagno. A Tuscan guide whose client base is predominantly American, Dario has spent more than a decade taking individuals and small groups on customized tours through the Chianti region of Tuscany. Reared in Britain through early childhood, he speake English fluently and is therefore capable of fully engaging his American clients and getting to know them.

Too Much Tuscan Sun is Dario's account of some of his more remarkable customers, from the obsessive and the oblivious to the downright lunatic. It is also a primer on Tuscany - its charms and its culture. Structured around a typical Tuscan year, Dario takes us through the sights, smells, and sounds of Chianti during each of the twelve months, including the festivities and pageantry that accord with the season, most notable the Palio - the bareback horse race that consumes the social energies of the people of Siena for all of July and August. Dario also intersperses an account of his own life and times - that of a transplanted British "little lord" who learns to love the wilds of Chianti; of his discovery and adoption of abandoned peasant farmhouses; of his apprenticeship in the wine industry; and of his arduous transformation from bohemian layabout to thriving Tuscan guide. - A new twist on the theme of Americans in Tuscany, tourists through the eyes of the Tuscans as told by a tour guide. - Self-published in Europe, the author has sold 10,000 copies

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Customer Reviews

3 Reviews

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3.3 out of 5 stars (3 customer reviews)

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23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Get me a ticket to Tuscany!, 11 Oct 2004

By	Graham Rigby (Epsom) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Having already spent a great holiday doing the culture vulture bit in Venice I thought I might like to keep my feet dry next time and see what Florence had to offer. A search in Amazon for Tuscan Travel threw up the ususal plethora of Lonely Planet and Rough Guide type publications but I thought I'd go for something a bit more personal and intimate. As Bill Bryson didn't seem to have written one, enter "Too Much Tuscan Sun".

I discovered a little gem in this book. Most travel guides are written by professional authors who don't normally live in the area they're describing. Dario Castagno is a professional guide who has an intimate knowledge of Tuscany in general and Chianti in particular, with a love for the region that shines from the pages. I thought his narrative drew wonderfully evocative pictures of the region. Dario's beautifully written and detailed description of the fierce local competition and raging emotions of Sienna's "Pallio" - a bareback horse race held every year in July and August - is a case in point.

As if being informative isn't enough, the book's also highly entertaining. In between the lush descriptions of towns and countryside there are autobiographical anecdotes and stories involving the American tourists he's guided around the place. Being a Brit I found myself alternately amused or bemused at their antics, most of whom seemed to express a total disregard and unwillingness to learn about the country they were in and the assumption that the whole world is like the USA.

Then I remembered how many of my own countrymen behave abroad!

It's not often I'm moved to write a review but this is one of those occasions. If I wanted to be picky I could say that some illustrative photos wouldn't have gone amiss but it's only a minor detraction.

If you want a travel guide that not only informs at a very high level but can also be read purely for pleasure then this is the book for you.

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not the best author in the world...but funny, 9 Oct 2008

By	Leanne "Leanne" (Italy) - See all my reviews

After reading Under the Tuscan Sun this book came as a nice surprise. I work in Italy in the tourism industry and so many of the customers he depicts are true...some tourists really are ridiculous.
The book is rather simply written - but it is a funny book.

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1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Irritating, 20 Nov 2007

By	Jen Z (NL) - See all my reviews

I think the author had two purposes in writing this book: to vent his frustrations by slagging off American touists, and to advertise his tours. How he thinks he can reconcile the two, I really don't know. It just doesn't work.

Sure, he's met some extremely arrogant/ridiculous/moronic characters in his time, but it's bad enough being irritated by tourists (and irritating tourists are not only from the US, I'm afraid) in person - do I really have to read about them, too?

I had hoped for an insider's insight to the area but, aside from some flowery descriptions that didn't really fit the annoyed-and-exasperated tone of the rest of the book, there wasn't much of that. The only "quirky" cultural tidbit I gleaned from the whole book is that it's apparently acceptable for Tuscan tour guides to drink and drive!

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