Rating: 
Summary: a diamond with some flaws
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: a good follow-up book
Review: 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.
Rating: 
Summary: Fresh voice is corrupted in Bella Tuscany
Review: 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.
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