Rating: 
Summary: A perfect marriage of food and memories
Review: I saw the film before reading the book, and must say that, although entertaining, the film bears little resemblance to the actual wonder of "Under The Tuscan Sun." Travel writer Frances Mayes vividly captures the trials and tribulations of restoring a Tuscan villa in Cortona (where the movie was filmed), complete with sharing her house with scorpions and spiders, crumbling walls, sandblasting, well digging and more. The first half of the book is more or less the continual struggle to update the villa and maintain the lands while Mayes and her significant other Ed (Mayes was divorced shortly before settling in Italy) jet between teaching in San Francisco and Italy in the summers.The novel is ripe with descriptions of village life that brought to mind my four months in Spain: the after-dinner strolls and coffees, children playing in the plazas and splashing in fountains, the wonder of touring ruins (in Mayes' case, Etruscan, in my case Roman and Visigoth), the twisting, precarious village streets and rabbit warren of medieval buildings, the colourful spectacle of village markets and specialty shops, and the fresh, simple, yet delicious regional cuisine. The sun permeates the novel: Mayes basks in its rays, somehow intensified and made more magical in Tuscany. Mayes frequently queues to parallels of her growing up in the South, of the memories of food and comfort that shaped her. Neglected olive trees and fruit trees thrive under her care. The garden is slowly reclaimed, and the house at long last becomes a home. The run-down Bramasole ("yearning for the sun") villa begins a new life as Frances and Ed reclaim it, invite family and friends to stay, and even host a wedding. Most outstanding of all are Mayes' descriptions of the luscious foods: fresh fruits so ripe that they have spoiled by the next day, the delicate pairing of prosciutto and fig, the profusion of excellent table and dessert wines from nearby towns, the simple peasant dishes that have become a mainstay of Tuscan cooking. Besides the delicious sets of seasonal recipes, Mayes is at times poetic and introspective about our origins: who were the mysterious and little-known Etruscans really? How much can we tell from stone tableaus that only capture a moment in time and tell only a little of the spirit of the civilization that created them? What is our place in the grand scheme of things? Although I enjoyed her delves into the past, they frequently jarred me out of the dreamlike state that her descriptive prose had put me in. I especially found that the end of the novel really seemed out of place for me, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. If you've seen the movie but haven't read the book, bear in mind that the movie is a Hollywood concoction, a fairy tale of an idealistic life in Tuscany, and although the protagonist (a luminous Diane Lane) may share the same name as the author, the book is a much more accurate portrait of Frances Mayes, although the movie is beautiful (filmed on location in Cortona and Positano) and has its own merits. If you're a fan of travel writing, good food and wine, and adventure abroad, then "Under the Tuscan Sun" is for you.
Rating: 
Summary: Burt Wolf-esque, Bob Villa-ee, Martha Stewart-does-Tuscany
Review: I wanted to travel, but with neither the time nor the money, I instead ordered Under the Tuscan Sun from Amazon. Transported by the pages of this book to Tuscany, I peered over the shoulder of an insightful English prof as she tackles the tedium of a major renovation project i.e. turn one ancient stone farmhouse into a cozy vacation home. Mayes sprinkles Italian words, phrases, recipes, history, and architectuere into this narrative like so many almonds in biscotti. She renovates and (I guess simultaneously) writes of her adventure with a Martha Stewart-ish enthusiasm for a Bob Villa-scale project that even Burt Wolf would enjoy visiting. This book was fun to read. But I couldn't resist adding a modicum of humor to the customer comments at the Amazon site after so much syrup had been spilt. I'm sure Martha would rinse a clean towel in warm water and clean up the mess. Me? I just add jokes on top.
Rating: 
Summary: American living in Italy
Review: I felt that UNDER THE TUSCAN SUN summed up what it is exactly like living in Italy. I read this book about 2 months after we got here. Frances Mayes hit the nail on the head in every aspect. The way she describes the details of the ways of life, scenery and people are so true. I thank her for putting her story out there to us. It made me feel as if I wasn't alone in this big adventure that I was on. You can't appreciate it fully until you have lived it. Thank you Frances Mayes.
Rating:
Summary: A really absorbing book
Review: I loved the gentle, meandering style of this book. It is SO much better than the movie. If I were Frances Mayes, I would have some fairly vehement issues about what the screenwriter did with the story. By the end of the book (written in a very chatty and informal style) you feel like you know Frances and Ed and all their neighbors. In fact, you feel like she's been telling you this whole story over a glass of wine or two or three while sitting with your feet up all afternoon in the shady part of the piazza.
Rating: 
Summary: I'll try finishing it, but I'm dubious
Review: As a great fan of Peter Mayle and Susan Hermann Loomis, a friend bought me this book, and I tried reading through it, but got really sick of "this didnt happen, so I cried" so I've never finished it. Loomis does the same thing in En Rue Tatin (buy a house in a foreign country, remodel it, and chronicle the event), but she makes a positive spin on it, MUCH more pleasant to read. No fault with the recipes, tho I've not tried any of them.
Rating:
Summary: Toscana here I come!
Review: In preparation for a two-week visit to Tuscany, I made it a point to read "Under the Tuscan Sun." If you are planning on visiting Tuscany this is the book to read. A reading of her book provided a wonderful and most helpful underpinning to my visit to Tuscany. Frances Mayes descriptive approach to writing makes the Tuscan towns and countryside, churches, wine, restaurants and cuisine, and people virtually come to life. The book also provides an incredible account of her and her husband's love affair with the Italian culture and the restoration of house that eventually becomes their "home." She literally brings Tuscany alive in a very compelling and readable manner! Frances Mayes is a complete optimist. Her glass is literally always half full despite the numerous obstacles she encounters during her home renovation in Italy. While I share her love of Italy - I am of Italian descent and I've lived in Italy - I do not share in her ability to overlook many of the shortcomings of Italy. For example, I agree with Frances Mayes that the food is wonderful. But it is hard to overlook the seemingly ever-present flies hovering near it in a restaurant and the ability of the locals to overlook that. Not to berate, but the future reader will note that Frances Mayes has gone native. This is a book that I highly recommend. Just don't expect it to be like the movie.
Rating:
Summary: Fall in Love With Tuscany
Review: Frances Mayes has written a beautiful memoir about her home in Tuscany. Along with Mayes you experience all of the crazy unsettling ups and downs of purchasing a home abroad and attempting to renovate it on American time. Both humerous and faithful to Tuscan life this book inspires new life, new dreams and new hope even in the deadest of hearts. Mayes will leave you hungry physically and emotionally for a life well lived. She introduces characters who adapt to the whims of an American woman with no idea of how Tuscan life really works until she becomes absorbed in her new life and home. The book is FAR better than the movie and the recipes included will leave your taste buds in heaven. I recommend fresh air, a sip of Tuscan wine, good cheese, olive oil, and a dinner of sage and butter pasta and I believe you will melt into this book like I did.
Rating:
Summary: Unintentional Self Parody
Review: At least Frances Mayes had some ostensible reason for being in Italy -- she was using American dollars to buy an Italian house, thereby doing her part to drive up the cost of Italian real estate to the point that ordinary Italians can't afford to buy a house in their own country. So Frances Mayes is not a "tourist" or a "foreigner" she reminds us repeatedly -- she is now an Italian resident. Nevermind that she doesn't speak Italian beyond a few words and Berlitz-style phrases; Mayes carefully cultivates the perception among her readers that she does understand Italian. The fact is that if she'd had a real conversation in Italian, she would have recorded it. Instead she tries to analyze random Italians on the street based on their appearance and occasional gestures. Her social commentary on Italy is thereby reduced to conversations with fellow expats and her glimpses of Italians in public life, such as watching people in the street or purchasing things in the store. In the store, she goes so far as to request the price for a brother, not the price for a foreigner. She knowingly insinuates that the shopkeeper is going to charge her more, then pretends she deserves a discount because she has the means to buy a villa and spend half the year renovating it (rather than engaged in other meaningful employment). In fact, I own this book and open it at least once every two months. I love it. Naive American Goes Native in Tuscany. Frances Mayes could not have done a better parody of herself if she'd tried.
Rating:
Summary: no Peter Mayle
Review: I had the impression that Mayes wants to be Peter Mayle.
Rating:
Summary: better than the movie, but not good enough
Review: Anyone planning to visit Cortona would do better to read Amanda Craig's novel, Love in Idleness, which not only has the advantage of being funny but is infinitely better-written. Frances Mayes's autobiographical account of how she bought a decaying farmhouse in Tuscany is pleasant enough, and her affection for the landscape the the food described pretty well but there is no structure to her story, and the whole thing viewed through such rose-tinted spectacles I felt embarrassed.
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