Customer Reviews

Bella Tuscany: The Sweet Life in Italy

5 star:		(32)
4 star:		(21)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(15)
1 star:		(43)

 

 

If you can't get to Italy anytime soon, this novel will take you there!
The graphic detail of all the history, charm of the country side and fabulous food and wine give you a true depiction of what it is really like.
Frances Mayes will introduce you to the people she meets, their quirky ways and warm traditions.
It's a light and easy read that leaves you smiling page after page.

Mayes is a treat. I loved this book as much as her previous Italy book; can't understand the attacks herein, but it doesn't matter. I love all of the Italian references. The imagery is so powerful that it almost felt as though I were in Italy. It enriched my reading experience by teaching me the finer parts of Mediterranean culture -- and Mayes has done the same in a unique and memorable way. This is a wonderful book and I highly recommend it to anyone without an ax slung over their shoulder.

This is a great book! It actually take you to a portal of Italy. Well written of Italian culture, Frances Mayes capture the bella of Italy. I love this book very much, I visited Italy before and I miss it so much. When I read this book, I feel that I am there again. I love the detail of it, I actually love when she talked about food, the market and the italian word with english beside it. I learned from the book.
If you love Italy, this is a must read.
One thing I agree with the other reader that if there's pictures and map included would make this book a plus. I really wants to see the pictures she mentioned and the map for my quick reference. I love the part she talked about mushroom and market with fresh food.

OK--Many of the customers who wrote previous reviews about Bella Tuscany have some valid complaints. It is several chapters too long and we do get tired of Mayes' whining. We have little pity for her trying to restore two houses at once and we don't need to hear about every meal and shopping excursion. It certainly does not surpass her first effort, "Under the Tuscan Sun." Still, as someone who has never been to Tuscany (or Italy for that matter), many of the descriptions in "Bella Tuscany" are little treasures. Who wouldn't want to live where you can go to one local farm for ricotta, another for pecorino romano and a third for wine? Or where Roman and Etruscan ruins are to be found in so many unsuspecting places? Or where fabulous meals can be made with only the simple ingredients you grow in your garden? Or where every small local church has a major work or art or two? I do have two recommendations that would have made this book more enjoyable; a map of Tuscany and Italy would have been helpful in identifying the many places Mayes visited. Also, I would have enjoyed more photographs other than those on the dust jacket. Maybe the few "teaser" pictures are to whet our appetite for her 3rd book, "In Tuscany." In any case, while this book has some character flaws, I think potential readers need to try to overlook these and to dig deeper for the jewel within.

The Mother of the Tuscany books! The second in her series, about her home in Tuscany, not as good as the first but very good.

SHE WRITES A GREAT BOOK ABOUT ITALY.
HAVING BEEN THERE I FEEL I AM GOING BACK AGAIN.
GREAT.

Just as good as the first book, this time the author focuses more on daily living in Tuscany, rather than the restoration of the house. I love the descriptions of her garden and her fascination with making it a lovely place. If you enjoyed the first book, you'll love this one too.

The magic of Tuscany fades with this novel, where Mayes looses her objective and foreign voice, and trades it in for a more settled and self-centered opinion.

Understanding that it is the journal of the love of a house and a country, i finished the book. Yet, i couldn't help but feel, that this novel was more of a documentary of her lame trials: juggling a great career with finding the "right" home in California, dealing with her personal relationship, and getting tired of friends wanting visit her in Tuscany (who could blame them!). Rather than be the continuing saga of a great house in an amazing region, with some of the strongest cultural roots on the planet, Bella Tuscany folds itself into the day in-day out of a privedge and educated woman.

The first novel was fresh and new, maybe because Tuscany wasn't as "discovered" by the time the second one hit the shelves. All in all, I simply feel that Mayes' voice of discovery has abandonded her, with Bella Tuscany.

the one you show is for 2001,, we are now at the end of 2002 and going into 2003 do you think you can update the site?

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 began 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 I am reading, started whilst we were 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 (coffee table top book!!) - sorry Frances, if I wanted recipe book I would have bought another one to match those in the cupboard. If Under The Umbrian Sun appears on the book shelves, I don't think I'll bother.