Rating: 
Summary: Beautiful images
Review: I loved reading this book -- such beautiful images that you can almost see in your mind's eye. But I loved hearing Mayes read the book to me even more. There is just something special about hearing a book read by the author. You get an insight into how the author intended the words be read -- what to emphasize, what to stress. People who think this is a book about fixing up a house have missed the point. It's a book about how different the cultures are -- U.S. and Itlay. We can take note of those differences by a comparing something many of know -- hiring contractors, doing renovations -- to the same experience in Italy. The renovations are really just a medium through which to describe the differences.
Rating: 
Summary: feckless in Italy
Review: Well...
Detailed description is nice. And, Tuscany certainly sounds like a beautiful and interesting place. But...are we really interested in a recount of every mundane detail of the author's experience while living in Tuscany? I mean, how about if I wrote a book detailing, with vivid description, every last detail of my life. "I awoke today to azure sky, with a waft of breeze tickling my nose..." and the like. That's what this author does. Hey, good use of descriptive language can give us a sense of the author's experience, and as I said, Tuscany does appear to have charm, but do we really want this sort of thing? I don't get it. Hearing in minute detail the author's experience in re-modeling a house in Tuscany was plenty boring, and I got little insight from it. The occasional Italian recipe mentioned by the author was mildly interesting. But for the rest...I just don't get it. Oh, [I listened to the full audio edition], the experience was not helped by the voice of the reader [not the author] who seemed to warble on throughout the endless detail on every event in the author's life while in Tuscany. Pass on this book, and especially the audio version. Perhaps simply visit Tuscany instead.
Rating: 
Summary: How could Italy be boring? Ask Frances Mayes....
Review: This was such an incredibly self-absorbed, boring read. When I buy a book to be taken away to another place - I don't expect to have to skip chapters because I just can't make it through. And remember - she's talking about ITALY! Peter Mayle is a much more enlightened and talented writer - although he writes of France and not Italy - his books are so far beyond Frances Mayes that he is in another league! Read Peter! Trust me!
Rating:
Summary: Self-Absorbed under the Tuscan Sun
Review: After I read and enjoyed Peter Mayle's books, my wife recommended this book and its sequel. I was terribly disappointed.Frances Mayes writes with none of the liveliness of Peter Mayle. Her writing is ponderous and clipped. I found myself laboring through the book, and was reminded of a movie in which I've looked at my watch to see how much longer until the credits. Rather than describe colorful characters and their interactions, she describes her renovated house and her reaction to it - both more precious than I could stand. No one seems to have edited this book. I found numerous cases of repeated facts and statements from one chapter to the next. I wondered if these had first appeared in a serialized version. Overall, none of the joy and magic of Peter Mayle's work.
Rating:
Summary: Prepare to move to Italy!
Review: I purchased this book at the airport in Milwaukee about two months after returning from my honeymoon in Europe. This book brought me back to the glorious state of mind I enjoyed while there in person. Between the great characters involved in this project they embarked on and the continuous mouth watering talk of great local foods I could barley keep myself from searching for properties for sale in Tuscany...
Rating:
Summary: Dolce Vita - Why Americans Need To Slow Down
Review: I tried to read this book without experiencing Italy. It was exasperatingly painful by American standards of 24/7 work. After two weeks in Italy, I think I know understand the joys of Dolce Vita and the joys that Frances Mayes' wrote about. For me, it was justification alone of why travel is so important to life. It alters our perspective. Frances Mayes writes of the incredible food and the Italian joy of eating. She writes of the luxorious sense of time in a country where two millenia are on display as ruins and buildings virtually in every city. He love of the Italian people is evident in the stories of house renovation and expectation. Buying and renovating an old stone house is part of the story. Her personal growth through the experience added a golden glow to activities which we should all aspire too: treating our fellow humans with respect and enjoying each other. Like "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Madness", this is a book, not about Tuscany (Motorcycles) but about growth in life.
Rating:
Summary: Bella, Frances
Review: What a joy to savor Frances and Ed Mayes' experience of making a new home and life changes dedicated to good food, new friends, and time to enjoy daily life. Mayes allows the reader to join the anxiety, the work and the joy of taking a risk to make life changes. The task and the outcomes are personified in rebuilding Bramasol, the house. The book, dog-earred with favorite passages, has been my good companion for over a year. The mouth watering receipes are bookmarked. Mayes'chronicled experiences come from Corona , Italy, and the surrounding Italian countryside. I adopted some of the lessons without leaving home.
Rating: 
Summary: Superb Tuscany, grating southern accent
Review: I am currently slogging my way through this audio CD every morning and evening on the way to and from work, and I'm really trying to enjoy it. But her accent is so monotone and gratingly southern, it makes it difficult to imagine the lovely Tuscan countryside her house sits upon. My husband and I also have a villa in Tuscany, and Frances does a nice job describing what she sees. I am enjoying her parties, the culinary descriptions, and the olive picking. My only wish is to have someone else reading it to me, perhaps with some music to accompany the words.
Rating: 
Summary: Too short...
Review: I really enjoyed this book on tape. Other's complain they couldn't get past Mayes' accent, but it didn't bother me. The imagery was grand. I'm dying to get to this part of Italy to see for myself. Since the book is written conversation style, it makes an even better book on tape. I was sad when the tapes came to an end, but luckily I had Bella Tuscany waiting to be placed in the tape player. My only complaint: I HATE abridged books, whether or not the author aproves them, but I had no choice here....
Rating:
Summary: Beautiful
Review: Frances Mayes writes about her experiences in a way that makes everything, even the simplest pleasure, special and beautiful -- almost holy. If we could only find these pleasures in our everyday lives. I cannot believe the negative review that says she's spoiled and wants everything just so. She is a profound thinker and a beautiful writer.
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