See buying choices for this item to see if it's one of the millions that are eligible for Amazon Prime.

16 used & new from £0.01

Have one to sell? Sell yours here
 
   
The Hills of Tuscany: A New Home in an Old Land
 
See larger image
 

The Hills of Tuscany: A New Home in an Old Land (Paperback)

by Ferenc Mate (Author)
4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (28 customer reviews)

Available from these sellers.


1 new from £101.93 15 used from £0.01
Other Editions: RRP: Our Price: Other Offers:
Hardcover 16 used & new from £1.96
Paperback Order it used
Hardcover (Large Print) 3 used & new from £40.27

Customers Viewing This Page May Be Interested in These Sponsored Links

  (What is this?)
Luxury Tuscan Villas
   www.beautiful-places.com    Full service luxury villa rentals private chefs and staff available. 
Farmhouse Le Masse
   www.lemasse.it    A beautiful country house near Florence and Siena 
Award Winning Homes
   www.huntclub.com.au    Located Just 45 min From The CBD Choose From A Range Of Pkges 
  
 

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

A Small Place in Italy

A Small Place in Italy

by Eric Newby
4.7 out of 5 stars (3)  £5.99
Vanilla Beans and Brodo: Real Life in the Hills of Tuscany

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

by Isabella Dusi
4.2 out of 5 stars (25)  £5.99
Bella Tuscany: The Sweet Life in Italy

Bella Tuscany: The Sweet Life in Italy

by Frances Mayes
3.4 out of 5 stars (10)  £5.99
The Tuscan Year: Life And Food In An Italian Valley

The Tuscan Year: Life And Food In An Italian Valley

by Elizabeth Romer
5.0 out of 5 stars (2)  £5.99
A Thousand Days in Tuscany

A Thousand Days in Tuscany

by Marlena de Blasi
4.2 out of 5 stars (4)  £6.99
Explore similar items

Product details

  • Paperback: 256 pages
  • Publisher: Flamingo; New Ed edition (5 Jul 1999)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0006551920
  • ISBN-13: 978-0006551928
  • Product Dimensions: 19.2 x 12.8 x 1.8 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 173,760 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Product Description

Amazon.co.uk Review
A sensuous valentine to author Ferenc M´t&ecaute;'s adopted homeland, The Hills of Tuscany brims with lush descriptions of golden dales, scrumptious meals, rich wines, and friendly natives. After years of nomadic roaming from Central America to Canada, M´t&ecaute; (a writer) and his wife, Candace (a painter), visit Tuscany and impulsively decide that this is where they will settle down. A year later they return and begin the hunt for their dream house. As the likeable M´t&ecaute;s (they're funny and suitably grateful for the chance to live in one of the world's garden spots) troll the countryside with a series of colourful Tuscan middlemen, it's impossible not to become emotionally involved in their quest. And when they finally discover the perfect abode--La Marinaia, a tastefully renovated stone farmhouse set amid scenery that Ferenc describes as "like being in the middle of a painting"--you're thrilled right along with them. Subsequent chapters follow the M´t&ecaute;s' growing friendship with their neighbours, who not only help rototill the garden but also reveal where to find porcini mushrooms and truffles in the nearby woods. All in all, reading The Hills of Tuscany is the next best thing to quitting your job, climbing on a plane, and finding your own Tuscan dream house. --Rebecca Gleason

Synopsis
Ferenc Mate and his painter wife Candace arrived from New York in the late 1980s, knowing almost no Italian and with only four weeks to find themselves a new home. After many mishaps, they finally conclude the deal for their perfect house, an ancient farmhouse in the Tuscan hills, by drawing on the hood of a rusty tractor. Mate brings the real Tuscany to life, the neighbours, the countryside, country-life, the family farm down the road who virtually adopt them and teach them the Tuscan traditions of grape-picking, wine-making, mushroom hunting, woodcutting, the holidays and, of course, the almost never-ending, mouth-watering feasts.

See all Product Description

Tags Customers Associate with This Product

 (What's this?)
Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
Check the boxes next to the tags you consider relevant or enter your own tags in the field below

Your tags: Add your first tag
 

What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?


 

Customer Reviews

28 Reviews
5 star:
 (19)
4 star:
 (4)
3 star:
 (3)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:
 (2)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.4 out of 5 stars (28 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A TUSCANY BOTH SERENE AND SEDUCTIVE, 22 Jan 2006
By Gail Cooke (TX, USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   
Reading "The Hills of Tuscany", Ferenc Mate's exuberant, joyful ode to his adopted country, makes one eager to join that expatriate band. After occupying a series of dwellings a "houseboat, sailboat, mountain cabin, that garage in Laguna Beach, the attic in Paris, the cubbyhole in New York, and a whatsit in the Bahamas," the Hungarian-born Mate and his artist wife, Candace, deemed it time for a permanent home.

Central Italy's countryside, where "Everything was small to the measure of man," beguiled them; there "reigned the gentle Tuscan light, and silence, and a calm." They became contentedly sated by "pranzo," the four-course daily meal that resembles in quantity "our average Thanksgiving dinner," and decided to buy a farmhouse, to put down roots in the idyllic Tuscan hills.

Their enchanting dream was a challenging task. Mate spoke no Italian and was woefully ignorant of the vagaries of an agrarian existence. Nonetheless, he set about his search for their perfect home with a Quixote-like zeal, undaunted by a real estate agent cum undertaker who stored his listings with names of the recently departed in a shoe box. A parade of touted homesteads in abject disrepair didn't discourage him. Collapsed fireplaces and gaping roof holes were the norm. Mate zigzagged his way across unfamiliar terrain, following unmapped rutted paths, bouncing over rocky roads until he found his utopia, "a structure with perfect rhythm." La Marinaia The Sailor's Wife. Once that purchase was accomplished, attempts to have utilities turned on introduced him to an implacable, inscrutable Italian bureaucracy. It was explained that there are an almost infinite number of regulations in Italy, " . . . many dating from Roman times, some contradictory, some incomprehensible."

Settling in also meant becoming a part of the nearest town, Montepulciano, "built for humans not for cars, so the main street was just wide enough for conducting daily affairs, evening promenades, and small festive processions." The couple delighted in exploring closet-size shops run by often absent, usually amiable owners. Their nearest neighbor welcomed them with fresh goat cheese covered by a large fig leaf, and they attempted to improve their Italian by watching Telegiornale, the local televised news an "Italian version of reality, a flexible amalgam of fresh headlines, old footage, and clips from Steve McQueen movies."

More than an enthusiastic tribute to the ever astounding beauties of the Italian countryside, "The Hills Of Tuscany" is a paean to the pleasures of the palate as Mate describes in rapturous detail ravioli stuffed with ricotta and wild mushrooms, crostini spread with tuna and capers, rabbit ragu "spicy with tomatoes" plus a legion of dishes bathed, basted, stir-fried, swathed in or caressed by olive oil. He is also unreservedly passionate about the local wine, "wine as robust as the clay," "wine with a deep complexity that tingled all the taste buds."

Today, Mate lives with his wife and young son at La Marinaia, tending his olives and vineyard. It is there, he writes, that "we learned to live and enjoy life as the Tuscans do piano, piano, con calma." Slowly, slowly, with calm. The author's enthusiastic prose is infectious. His word pictures are captivating, as he unveils a Tuscany that is both serene and seductive. "The Hills Of Tuscany" is an invitation to follow your dream . . . especially if it leads to Italy.

- Gail Cooke

Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
12 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars A charming Winter's Tale, 27 Feb 2002
By A Customer
I thoroughly enjoyed this book and would recommend you read it and form your own opinions!!
I have read numerous such books about Italy and feel this one is just as worthy as most. True it does not have the style of Frances Mayes but she is a poet so her prose is glorious. It does not give you the marvellous history of Isabella Dusi's Vanilla Beans and Brodo but it is still a charming book and provides an excellent insight into moving to Italy but this time from a young couple's point of view.

I read it when confined to bed in the depth of a British Winter and was immediately transported to Montepulciano and in particular to the stunning scenery of the Val d'Orcia. What better way to help the grey days disappear ?

Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars A boring string of cliches., 21 Jun 1999
By A Customer
This is really a tiresome, banal litany of predictable cliches about living a life of luxury in Tuscany. The first half of the book is about how he and his wife look for a house, while the second half is mostly about food. Everything, of course, is absolutely perfect--the tuscan light, the tuscan hills, the tuscan food. This book is kind of an unintentional parody of the genre.

It's also poorly written. Mate has almost no descriptive powers per se. He just tells us how sumptuous everything is. He also uses hyperbole so consistently that his observations become pointless. I thought a book like this would be interesting, but it's just self-indulgent and dull.

Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)


Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
 
 
 
Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Heaven inthe hills of Tuscany
I loved this book,having always been an avid fan of all things italian especially Tuscany,I just could not put this book down. Read more
Published 8 months ago by Crystal

5.0 out of 5 stars Thanks Heavens for Ferenc and Candace!
I looked for and bought my own bit of Tuscan paradise after I read Frances Mayes' Under the Tuscan Sun. I thought that it could not be bettered. Read more
Published 12 months ago by Montagnano

3.0 out of 5 stars Not a bad effort!
Having read other books on Italy by Mayes, Dusi, Parks and Hawes I was looking for something else to read. Read more
Published 18 months ago by J. Heath

5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Read
This book is fantastic. I loved it. It was hard to put down. I wish there was a sequal.
Published on 24 Jun 2007 by Andreaya

5.0 out of 5 stars Bravo, Ferenc!
I bought the book to give to a friend for Christmas. I took a peek and nibbled through the delicious pages. Had a craving for more so I dined on a few chapters. Read more
Published on 5 Dec 1999

1.0 out of 5 stars A self-indulgent embarrasment
Ferenc Mate and his wonderful wife Candace risk all to find a new life in Tuscany. Or so they would have us believe. Read more
Published on 16 Oct 1999 by David P

3.0 out of 5 stars Overall this is a good report of life in Italy.
I, too feel that the book is poorly written. I had to go back several times to clarify what was being discussed and who the author was speaking about. Read more
Published on 22 Aug 1999

5.0 out of 5 stars The last few hours I spent on this book made me happy!
The Hills of Tuscany was a precious, delightful read. I enjoyed each and every moment and it made me love the land, people, food, animals, small towns, cities, sky, fields, and... Read more
Published on 2 Aug 1999

5.0 out of 5 stars A refreshing twist on foreign residency
As a second-generation Italian-American, I'm getting tired of the subtle patronizing attitudes that some prosperous expatriates to Italy emit via their memoirs. Read more
Published on 4 Jul 1999

5.0 out of 5 stars I want to go to Tuscany........
God I loved this book...It made me laugh(out loud at times) cry a lot as well.Happy tears.. Ferenc is a wonderful writer and we had the priviliedge to go to Tuscany with he and... Read more
Published on 15 Feb 1999

Only search this product's reviews



Customer Discussions

 Beta (What's this?)
This product's forum (0 discussions)
  Discussion Replies Latest Post
  No discussions yet

Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
  [Cancel]


   
Related forums


Listmania!


Look for similar items by category


Feedback


Health & Beauty at Amazon.co.uk

Elemis Resurface and Renew Skin Care Gift Set of 4 Products
From soap to shavers, massagers to mascara, stock up on your daily essentials or truly pamper yourself.

Discover Health & Beauty

 

More From Ferenc Mate?

From a Bare...

From a Bare Hull by F Mate

"...a book packed with solid facts and to-the-point guidance... Read more

 

Train Hard...Play Hard

Nike, Gola, Converse, and more
Gear up with up to 60% off athletic and outdoor shoes.

Shop now

 

Treat Someone

Amazon.co.uk Gift Certificates--available in any amount from £5 to £500 With an Amazon.co.uk Gift Certificate, you can get them what they want (even if you don't know what that is).

Learn more about Gift Certificates

 
Ad

Where's My Stuff?

Delivery and Returns

Need Help?

Your Recent History

  (What's this?)
You have no recently viewed items or searches.

After viewing product detail pages or search results, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in.

Look to the right column to find helpful suggestions for your shopping session.

Continue Shopping: Top Sellers

amazon.co.uk Amazon Home
International Sites:  United States  |  Germany  |  France  |  Japan  |  Canada  |  China
Business Programs: Sell on Amazon  |  Fulfilment by Amazon  |  Join Associates  |  Join Advantage
Customer Service  |  Help  |  View Basket  |  Your Account
About Amazon.co.uk  |  Careers at Amazon
Conditions of Use & Sale |  Privacy Notice  © 1996-2009, Amazon.com, Inc. and its affiliates