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Under the Tuscan Sun: At Home in Italy Paperback – September 2, 1997
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“This beautifully written memoir about taking chances, living in Italy, loving a house and, always, the pleasures of food, would make a perfect gift for a loved one. But it’s so delicious, read it first yourself.”—USA Today
For more Frances Mayes, including a tour of her now iconic Cortona home, Bramasole, watch PBS’s Dream of Italy: Tuscan Sun Special!
More than twenty years ago, Frances Mayes—widely published poet, gourmet cook, and travel writer—introduced readers to a wondrous new world when she bought and restored an abandoned Tuscan villa called Bramasole. Under the Tuscan Sun inspired generations to embark on their own journeys—whether that be flying to a foreign country in search of themselves, savoring one of the book’s dozens of delicious seasonal recipes, or simply being transported by Mayes’s signature evocative, sensory language. Now with a new afterword from Frances Mayes, the twentieth-anniversary edition of Under the Tuscan Sun revisits the book’s most popular characters.
- Print length320 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherCrown
- Publication dateSeptember 2, 1997
- Dimensions5.14 x 0.81 x 7.95 inches
- ISBN-100767900383
- ISBN-13978-0767900386
Book recommendations, author interviews, editors' picks, and more. Read it now
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Price | $13.28$13.28 | $18.46$18.46 | $10.84$10.84 | $10.10$10.10 | $24.21$24.21 | $12.40$12.40 |
Under the Tuscan Sun made the world fall in love with Tuscany, invites readers back for a delightful new season of friendship, festivity, and food, there and throughout Italy. | A lavishly illustrated ode to the joys of Tuscany’s people, food, landscapes, and art. | With her beloved Tuscany as a home base, Mayes travels to Spain, Portugal, France, the British Isles, and to the Mediterranean world of Turkey, Greece, the South of Italy, and North Africa. | Frances Mayes opens the door to a wondrous new world when she buys and restores an abandoned villa in the spectacular Tuscan countryside. She brings the reader along as she discovers the beauty and simplicity of life in Italy. | This cuisine transports, comforts, entices, and speaks to the friendly, genuine, and improvisational spirit of Tuscan life. | The story of four American strangers who bond in Italy and change their lives over the course of an exceptional year. |
Editorial Reviews
Review
"This beautifully written memoir about taking chances, living in Italy. loving a house and, always, the pleasures of food, would make a perfect gift for a loved one. But it's so delicious, read it first yourself."
—USA Today
"Irresistible...a sensous book for a sensous countryside."
—Minneapolis Star-Tribune
“An intense celebration of what [Mayes] calls ‘the voluptuousness of Italian life’ . . . appealing and very vivid . . . [The] book seems like the kind of thing you’d tuck into a picnic basket on an August day . . . or better yet, keep handy on the bedside table in the depths of January.”
—New York Times Book Review
"Armchair travel at its most enticing."
—Booklist
“Mayes [has] perfect vision. . . . I do not doubt that centuries form now, whoever lives in Bramasole will one day uncover bits of pottery used at Mayes’ table. She has, by the sweat of her brow and the strength of her vision, become a layer in the history of this place.”
—Los Angeles Times
"After buying a rundown villa in rural Tuscany, the American author Frances Mayes moves to Cortona to renovate the property and learn more about the Italian dolce vita. Her bestselling memoir on her time there paints a vivid description of the town, the people and the lush surrounding countryside of rolling hills and vineyards. A poet and a gourmet cook, Mayes includes a number of chapters on food, replete with classic Italian recipes to further whet the appetite."
—Irish Times
From the Back Cover
Frances Mayes entered a wondrous new world when she began restoring an abandoned villa in the spectacular Tuscan countryside. There were unexpected treasures at every turn: faded frescos beneath the whitewash in her dining room, a vineyard under wildly overgrown brambles in the garden, and, in the nearby hill towns, vibrant markets and delightful people. In "Under the Tuscan Sun, she brings the lyrical voice of a poet, the eye of a seasoned traveler, and the discerning palate of a cook and food writer to invite readers to explore the pleasures of Italian life and to feast at her table.
About the Author
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
I am about to buy a house in a foreign country. A house with the beautiful name of Bramasole. It is tall, square, and apricot-colored with faded green shutters, ancient tile roof, and an iron balcony on the second level, where ladies might have sat with their fans to watch some spectacle below. But below, overgrown briars, tangles of roses, and knee-high weeds run rampant. The balcony faces southeast, looking into a deep valley, then into the Tuscan Apennines. When it rains or when the light changes, the facade of the house turns gold, sienna, ocher; a previous scarlet paint job seeps through in rosy spots like a box of crayons left to melt in the sun. In places where the stucco has fallen away, rugged stone shows what the exterior once was. The house rises above a strada bianca, a road white with pebbles, on a terraced slab of hillside covered with fruit and olive trees. Bramasole: from bramare, to yearn for, and sole, sun: something that yearns for the sun, and yes, I do.
The family wisdom runs strongly against this decision. My mother has said ‘‘Ridiculous,’’ with her certain and forceful stress on the second syllable, ‘‘RiDICulous,’’ and my sisters, although excited, fear I am eighteen, about to run off with a sailor in the family car. I quietly have my own doubts. The upright seats in the notaio’s outer office don’t help. Through my thin white linen dress, spiky horsehairs pierce me every time I shift, which is often in the hundred-degree waiting room. I look over to see what Ed is writing on the back of a receipt: Parmesan, salami, coffee, bread. How can he? Finally, the signora opens her door and her torrential Italian flows over us.
The notaio is nothing like a notary; she’s the legal person who conducts real-estate transactions in Italy. Ours, Signora Mantucci, is a small, fierce Sicilian woman with thick tinted glasses that enlarge her green eyes. She talks faster than any human I have ever heard. She reads long laws aloud. I thought all Italian was mellifluous; she makes it sound like rocks crashing down a chute. Ed looks at her raptly; I know he’s in thrall to the sound of her voice. The owner, Dr. Carta, suddenly thinks he has asked too little; he must have, since we have agreed to buy it. We think his price is exorbitant. We know his price is exorbitant. The Sicilian doesn’t pause; she will not be interrupted by anyone except by Giuseppe from the bar downstairs, who suddenly swings open the dark doors, tray aloft, and seems surprised to see his Americani customers sitting there almost cross-eyed in confusion. He brings the signora her midmorning thimble of espresso, which she downs in a gulp, hardly pausing. The owner expects to claim that the house cost one amount while it really cost much more. ‘‘That is just the way it’s done,’’ he insists. ‘‘No one is fool enough to declare the real value.’’ He proposes we bring one check to the notaio’s office, then pass him ten smaller checks literally under the table.
Anselmo Martini, our agent, shrugs.
Ian, the English estate agent we hired to help with translation, shrugs also.
Dr. Carta concludes, ‘‘You Americans! You take things so seriously. And, per favore, date the checks at one-week intervals so the bank isn’t alerted to large sums.’’
Was that the same bank I know, whose sloe-eyed teller languidly conducts a transaction every fifteen minutes, between smokes and telephone calls? The signora comes to an abrupt halt, scrambles the papers into a folder and stands up. We are to come back when the money and papers are ready.
Product details
- Publisher : Crown; Reprint edition (September 2, 1997)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 320 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0767900383
- ISBN-13 : 978-0767900386
- Item Weight : 9.6 ounces
- Dimensions : 5.14 x 0.81 x 7.95 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #21,550 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #20 in general Italy Travel Guides
- #32 in Travelogues & Travel Essays
- #619 in Memoirs (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author
Frances Mayes's new novel A GREAT MARRIAGE (2024) tells the story of spirited Dara Willcox, a runaway bride, and of Austin Clarke, whose life must be reinvented after a shattering event. The aftershocks rattle the lives of three generations of women and men, causing an examination of the great mystery ride that is marriage and what it means when it's great, good, or time for the end.
(2023) PASTA VELOCE, 100 fast pasta recipes, was published, following (2020) ALWAYS ITALY, an intensive guide to the twenty regions of Italy. This won the SATWF Lowell Thomas Gold Medal Award, the Best Travel Book from NA Travel Journalists' Association, and for the German edition, The ITB Berlin Book Award.
Always attuned to the lure of travel and the equal pull of home, Frances explores both interests in A PLACE IN THE WORLD: FINDING THE MEANING OF HOME (2022). While A GREAT MARRIAGE explores "the unguessable country of marriage," (Angela Carter), A PLACE IN THE WORLD explores the equally unguessable meaning of home.
The novel WOMEN IN SUNLIGHT (2018) delves into possibilities and perceived impossibilities women face as they grow older. Three southern women become friends and decide to leap out of what is forecast for them and take on life in Italy. They've all had their share of loss but this is their year. Frances wrote the novel as a tribute to all the women she has met who have traveled to a foreign country in quest of enlightenment. The novel is in preproduction as a film by Water's End.
As is obvious from the above, Frances has a passionate interest in travel and houses. When she saw Bramasole, a neglected, 250-year-old Tuscan villa nestled in terraced olive groves, it was fate. Out of that instant infatuation came several international bestsellers: UNDER THE TUSCAN SUN, which remained on the New York Times bestseller list for 2 1/2 years. In succession came other memoirs: BELLA TUSCANY, EVERY DAY IN TUSCANY, and then three collaborations with her husband, poet Edward Mayes: IN TUSCANY, BRINGING TUSCANY HOME, and THE TUSCAN SUN COOKBOOK, "one of the best Italian cookbooks of all time." (Forbes) All are about taking chances, living in Italy, loving and renovating an old Italian villa, and the "voluptuousness of Italian life." The film UNDER THE TUSCAN SUN, starring Diane Lane as Frances, was released in 2003 and still enjoys world-wide popularity.
Frances finds that writing about travel doubles the pleasures of each. Her SEE YOU IN THE PIAZZA, travels to little-known places in Italy, and the travel memoir A YEAR IN THE WORLD: JOURNEYS OF A PASSIONATE TRAVELER examine the possibilities of feeling at home in a foreign country. Working with photographer Steven Rothfeld, she published SHRINES: IMAGES OF ITALIAN WORSHIP.
Coming from deep southern roots, Frances based her first novel, SWAN, a family saga, in her hometown, Fitzgerald, Georgia. UNDER MAGNOLIA, a memoir of her first twenty years, unwittingly caused the revelation of family secrets, one of which inspired THE GREAT MARRIAGE.
These books have been translated into over fifty foreign editions. Honorary citizen of Cortona and Arezzo, Frances has been awarded the Marco d'Oro prize, and the Premio Casato Prime Donne for a major contribution in the field of letters. She is a NEA Fellowship and a member of the Georgia Writers Hall of Fame.
Formerly a professor of creative writing at San Francisco State University, she directed The Poetry Center and chaired the Department of Creative Writing. Frances's first love is poetry. Prior to turning to prose, she was a widely published poet. Her books include: SUNDAY IN ANOTHER COUNTRY, AFTER SUCH PLEASURES, THE ARTS OF FIRE, HOURS, THE BOOK OF SUMMER and EX VOTO. From her teaching came THE DISCOVERY OF POETRY: A FIELD GUIDE TO READING AND WRITING POEMS.
Frances devotes herself to writing, traveling, and various restoration projects. She and her husband live in North Carolina and Cortona, Italy.
"Tuscany may have found its own bard in Frances Mayes."
-- The New York Times
Customer reviews
Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.
To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness.
Learn more how customers reviews work on AmazonCustomers say
Customers find the book engaging and enjoyable. They appreciate the beautiful writing style that creates vivid images. The story is described as lovely and charming, providing an educational journey through Tuscany. Readers enjoy the recipes and cooking descriptions. Overall, the book transports them to the wonderful world of Tuscan Italy, describing it as a great read to learn more about the country.
AI-generated from the text of customer reviews
Customers enjoy the book. They find it interesting and enjoyable, especially the first half. Some find it gratifying and perfect for a tour guide.
"...The movie is a tale with beginning, middle and end. This book is lovely, and one feels a sense of attachment to a place you never have..." Read more
"...not believe this book needs my review to help it sell... It is a wonderful read and I have really been enjoying it as a summer book...." Read more
"...Having written the above, I would like it clear that I did like the book and I found her description of living in Italy amusing and right on target...." Read more
"...It was a great movie. It is a lousy book. I gave it one star because that is the bottom of the scale...." Read more
Customers enjoy the writing quality. They find the descriptions lyrical and poetic, creating wonderful visuals. The book is written in a conversational style that allows them to visualize the words on the page.
"...What a beautiful book. I almost didn't bother to read this book because I thought it followed the same storyline as the movie that bears it's name...." Read more
"...Mayes' writing is lyrical, poetic, beautifully describes the Tuscan scenery and the details of purchasing and refinishing an old stone home, along..." Read more
"...I want to take off for a month and travel Italy seeing the beautiful sights and eating the wonderful food." Read more
"...you'll feel as if you've been there because of the wonderful visuals the words create. In either case, you'll want to go back to Tuscany for sure!" Read more
Customers enjoy the story's quality. They find it charming, a wonderful journey into Tuscany and its history. The descriptions of renovating an old Italian home are enjoyable, as are the surprises and trials of remodeling a home. The book starts out engaging readers and doesn't want to put it down.
"...is deeply thoughtful and emotional.... it draws you in with a beautiful story and keeps you there by transporting you into a lovely place full of..." Read more
"...the Tuscan scenery and the details of purchasing and refinishing an old stone home, along with the gardens, olive grove, and vineyard adjacent to..." Read more
"...And, by the way, it is not a cookbook with a background story; it is a story with a few recipes that the reader can easily skip over." Read more
"...But again, the fab writers of the film turned it into a beautiful story with a beginning, middle and end...." Read more
Customers enjoy the book's educational value. They find the writing insightful and interesting, with detailed descriptions of the local area and lifestyle. The book draws them in with a great love story and provides insights into gardening techniques.
"...But the BOOK! The book is completely different! The book is deeply thoughtful and emotional.... it draws you in with a beautiful story and keeps you..." Read more
"...renovating their home, about the food, the wine, the people, the history, the art, architecture, culture and spirit of Italy...." Read more
"...The author writes well and has ample descriptions of everything that bring your minds eye multiple visions. But it’s just not my cup of tea...." Read more
"...The book is actually more interesting, because it is a true story...." Read more
Customers enjoy the recipes in the book. They find the food and cooking descriptions tantalizing. The book includes seasonal recipes and simple Tuscan cooking techniques like pancetta sauce. It makes a good cookbook and travel guide, though some readers feel it lacks much narrative.
"...Part travelogue, part cookbook (she does seem to spend a LOT of time eating)!..." Read more
"...It even includes her seasonal recipe ideas. It's a great addition to anyone's library, whether you've been to Italy or not...." Read more
"...with the bright yellow table she had painted, loaded with fresh and simple but delicious food, looking out on the olive trees and flowers and..." Read more
"...The recipes included were pretty authentic and when they varied from the traditional she pointed this out...." Read more
Customers enjoy the book's descriptions of living in Italy. They find the author's descriptions amusing and accurate. The book recreates the Italian ambiance and makes them want to travel to Tuscany.
"...It is a love letter to this area of Tuscany. Bits and pieces of the story make their way on screen, but the continuity is different...." Read more
"...If you can free your mind from these expectations, you will find a rich and loving narrative that easily draws you in and keeps you riveted long..." Read more
"...the Tuscan Sun's" popularity rides solely on its ability to recreate the Italian ambiance...." Read more
"...like it clear that I did like the book and I found her description of living in Italy amusing and right on target...." Read more
Customers enjoy the book. They find it engaging, with an enjoyable fantasy element and fantastic scenery. The book is described as a delightful summer read with poetic words.
"...it sell... It is a wonderful read and I have really been enjoying it as a summer book...." Read more
"...There's an enjoyable element of wish fulfillment fantasy...very very few people will ever get to live the kind of dreamy life she shows us..." Read more
"...; -- as I progressed through the book, I felt myself relaxing and enjoying it, almost savoring it...." Read more
"As a fan of remodels and make-overs, I enjoyed Under the Tuscan Sun...." Read more
Customers enjoy the realistic characters and find them delightful. They describe the book as an interesting read about the people and customs of the Tuscany region.
"...story about renovating their home, about the food, the wine, the people, the history, the art, architecture, culture and spirit of Italy...." Read more
"...Poor farmers? Only by our standards, but happy, helpful people, real people!." Read more
"...It's full of beautiful descriptions and recipes. I like the characters better, too." Read more
"...It is a completly different creature from the film...." Read more
Reviews with images
Italian get-away
Top reviews from the United States
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- Reviewed in the United States on July 27, 2018What a beautiful, inspiring book! I felt like I was in Cortona, Italy WITH the author. She writes in such a way that I could see the soft nuances of colors on the Italian hillsides, and I could hear the Italian voices and laughter in the marketplace. I could feel the warm sun and hear the crack of the thunderstorm. I could smell the rain in the air. This book really transported me to the little village in Italy, with her. I loved experiencing the renovation of a very old and very beautiful home. I loved the sights and smells of the region's food and recipes they cooked up. What a beautiful book. I almost didn't bother to read this book because I thought it followed the same storyline as the movie that bears it's name. Thank goodness it does not. I found the movie to be tiresome and predictable. The movie completely destroyed the story of this book. It took a beautiful, genuine story and went "Hollywood" with it, thereby ruining it. But the BOOK! The book is completely different! The book is deeply thoughtful and emotional.... it draws you in with a beautiful story and keeps you there by transporting you into a lovely place full of authentic and warm people. I loved it!! Thank you Frances Mayes! 💗
- Reviewed in the United States on March 30, 2014Wanted to rate this about 3.75 but rounded up to 4 stars. The book is really NOTHING like the movie. Okay, that's not the book's "fault". The screenwriters took some liberties in creating a PLOT, some DRAMA, and some CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT. The book is lacking in all of these items. However, the book is a memoir, not a novel. Mayes' writing is lyrical, poetic, beautifully describes the Tuscan scenery and the details of purchasing and refinishing an old stone home, along with the gardens, olive grove, and vineyard adjacent to the home. Part travelogue, part cookbook (she does seem to spend a LOT of time eating)! There was really only one chapter that was torture, and I could not WAIT to finish the book - the chapter describing various Catholic saints and their sufferings, which also somehow tried to tie observations about life in Tuscany with the author's childhood in Georgia. I was lost, bored, wanted to shoot myself instead of reading these disjointed ramblings. But I will wrap up with one of many, many beautiful, descriptive passages I highlighted in this book: "Coming down from Spello, we see the early moon hoisting itself over the hills. We keep losing it as we turn then face it again, the largest, whitest, spookiest moon I've ever seen. All the way to Montefalco, home of the Sagrantino, we dodge the moon. Two or three times we see it rise again, over a different hill." Recommended read taken at a slow pace, savoring the language.
- Reviewed in the United States on November 21, 2024This is such a beautifully written book. I felt like I was right there as they were remodeling the house and walking the streets of the various cities of Italy. I want to take off for a month and travel Italy seeing the beautiful sights and eating the wonderful food.
- Reviewed in the United States on June 11, 2018So....so....so...hmmm. What can I say about this book. Uh...I think they got the title wrong. It should be "Food in Tuscany and where to eat it and how to prepare it yourself." That is really ALL the authoress cared about was eating and food...and I'm down with that but still...this was supposed to be about buying a house in Tuscany and fixing it up wasn't it? She did dwell on some of that...but then there were pages upon pages of recipes too and I don't cook! They belonged in a cook book not THIS book! Although Frances is a good writer I'll give her that...I just do NOT get how Hollywood gave her money for the rights to this book when it was NOTHING like the movie. There may have been a name...or a small incident like Polania being engraved into the cement of the home..but it wasn't what the home was named in the book! The screenwriters of that movie were INCREDIBLE. One of the best most emotional movies I have ever seen and Diane Lane was superb. Remember the three Polish men who helped her rebuild. And the really shy one who you could tell had a crush on her? So sweet. And the darling polish boy who fell in love with the worker's daughter? Not there! Her daft blonde climbing in the fountain friend? Nope! NO ONE was there! I related so much being single myself and yearning for the happiness that a partner can bring NO MATTER if you are happy yourself. It still is better to have someone in your life...husband, wife, partner who is there for you. But Frances in real life was married! And had been for years and years! I liked in the movie that a single woman would dare to do this on her own. But the real Frances had a double income! No wonder they were able to do this! But for these writers to turn this skeleton of a book into that heartfelt lovely film...well my God. Why did they even have to pay her for the rights? For the title? Again...there was literally NOTHING in the book like the movie. And this time folks...the movie...was better. I almost stopped reading this book halfway through (boring!) but plunged through hoping it would get better...but nope! And of course where does it end? How can it end as it is just a slice of life. But again, the fab writers of the film turned it into a beautiful story with a beginning, middle and end. Again, if Frances took any money for the rights to this book...she needs to give it all back!!! I give her three stars for her writing but the book in whole was probably only two!
- Reviewed in the United States on September 27, 2024Bought a gift for a family member. She loved it. Great quality
Top reviews from other countries
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DeniseReviewed in Brazil on February 15, 2024
5.0 out of 5 stars Lendo bem devagarinho para aproveitar bem
Adorável
- CKFTorontoReviewed in Canada on August 8, 2022
5.0 out of 5 stars Tuscany Awaits
A beautifully written memoir. You’ll be transported to Tuscany. Nothing like the movie. A must read for anyone who dreams of La dolce vita.
- myttonReviewed in the United Kingdom on September 18, 2024
5.0 out of 5 stars Good read
Lovely reminder of Bella Toscana!
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SaMo8141Reviewed in Germany on September 12, 2022
5.0 out of 5 stars Alles prima.
Die Bücher die ich hier bestelle sind fast alle für einen Freund, ich lese sie zwar auch, aber es sind seine. Deswegen muss ich meistens mit der Bewertung warten, weil ich erst dann, wenn ich oder er die Bücher gelesen habe, bewerten kann.
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Giulia MarcelliReviewed in Italy on January 28, 2022
5.0 out of 5 stars Indescrivibile
Bellissimo libro acquistato dopo un viaggio in Toscana, a Cortona. Ne sono rimasta così affascinata che ho visto il film e comprato subito il libro.