Book Review: Under the Tuscan Sun by Frances Mayes

I enjoyed this book; it was like a vicarious vacation to Italy.  Yet, Frances Mayes wasn't vacationing in Italy, she was living there.  It started out as a vacation…several vacations to Italy…eventually she decided that she loved it so much that she bought a house there.  She worked as college professor and was free to live in Italy all summer.  So she took the plunge and bought a dilapidated old stone home in Tuscany.  This book is the story of renovating the house, living in Italy, eating, drinking, gardening, sight-seeing, and life.

I loved the description of the Italian way of life; the food she ate and cooked; and the garden she planted.  She even includes some recipes in the book. 

Here are a few of my favorite quotes from the book:

“Tuscans are of this time; they simply have had the good instinct to bring the past along with them.  If our culture says burn your bridges behind you - and it does – theirs says cross and recross.”

“What we never knewis the tremendous resurgent power in nature.  The land is implausibly regenerative.  My experience with gardening led me to think plants must be coaxed along.  Ivy, fig, sumac, acacia, blackberry can’t be stopped.  A vine we call ‘evil weed’ twines and chokes.  It must be dug out down to its carrot-sized root; so must nettles.  It’s a wonder nettles have not taken over the world.”