Frances Mayes

A chronicle of the author's first four years in Italy, describing her purchase and restoration of an abandoned villa in the Tuscan countryside, her transformation of the overgrown gardens, and her discovery of the many links between the food and culture of the region.

The Roman Forum, the Leaning Tower, the Piazza San Marco: these are the sights synonymous with Italy. But such landmarks only scratch the surface of this magical country's offerings. In [this book], Frances Mayes introduces us to the Italy only the locals know, as she and her husband, Ed, explore, eat, and drink their way through thirteen regions--from Friuli to Sicily. An invitation to the Italy most travelers never experience, [this book] showcases...

The author who captured the experience of starting a new life in Tuscany expands her horizons to immerse herself--and her readers--in the sights, aromas, and treasures of twelve new special places. This book is a celebration of the allure of travel, of serendipitous pleasures found in unlikely locales, of memory woven into the present, and of a joyous sense of quest. She rents houses among ordinary residents, shops at neighborhood markets, wanders...

Three American women, new friends, all older single women, have taken a lease on a stone manse in Tuscany. They are escaping, reinventing, and reevaluating the fates expected of them as aging women in America. They are novices in a foreign culture, figuring out the day to day, but what they share is a gusto for life and a sturdy if indefinite determination to thrive. Released from their former lives, encouraging each other, and finding a lot of 'why...

"A lyrical and evocative memoir from Frances Mayes, the Bard of Tuscany, about coming of age in the Deep South and the region's powerful influence on her life. The author of three beloved books about her life in Italy, including Under the Tuscan Sun and Every Day in Tuscany, Frances Mayes revisits the turning points that defined her early years in Fitzgerald, Georgia. With her signature style and grace, Mayes explores the power of landscape, the...