Rating: 
Summary: Am I rereading ¿A Year in Provence¿?
Review: This is a well written book. So why the low rating? Unfortunately, it is a book which has already been written - and the ironic shame is that it was not written as well the first time. This book feels like a repeat performance of "A Year in Provence". If you haven't read that - read this and be done. This is a good escape from the winter blahs and is a mental vacation to a warm and aromatic climate - a nice piece of daydreaming. Being an avid reader of travel writers, however, I did not find this to be satisfying as it does not go beyond the surface. I am sure however that Frances Mayes has been able to pay for some of the restoration of her villa through the publication and sale of this book. I was disgusted by the way she contrasted living in Tuscany with her home in San Francisco - do I care to hear about her oppulent bathroom in San Fran? Let's just say I would rather have more depth provided telling of who became their friends in Tuscany. She sounds like an ugly american - the kind that I avoid when I travel. I am disappointed in the New York Times for giving it such a glowing review. Perhaps the reviewer covets Mayes San Francisco bathroom or anticipates an upcoming trip to Tuscany.
Rating: 
Summary: Good but uneven
Review: While the description of the auhtor's Tuscan life is interesting and enticing, she only touches the surface in describing the true local color. This is perhaps understandable because she only spents summer and christmas in the farmhouse, and didn't have enough of a submersion into the local way of life. Passages about her day trips to the surrounding areas are particulary weak and reads like a running description of what one can see from a speeding auto. Because of these weaker chapters, the book as a whole lacks coherency and development. In any case, if you want to know what it is like to own a farm house and _attempt_ at living like a Tuscan, this will be a good read. If you want a really good book on how to submerge in a foreigh culture, stick with Peter Mayle.
Rating:
Summary: Longing to have the freedom to enjoy summers in Tuscany.
Review: On the Sunday morning I realized that I yearned for the adventure of restoring a home in Italy, I found an advertisement for a summer of study in Tuscany for an unbelievably low price. I saw myself exploring street shops, savoring expresso at sidewalk cafes, and evenings on my patio sipping locally bottled wine. Alas, reality set in and the chains that bind those of us who do not have summers of freedom to explore, tightened their grip. I will appreciate the little bit of adventure that Ms. Mayes shared with me and many of the other readers. Thank you.
Rating:
Summary: One to Savor
Review: I've been rationing this book for a month now, reluctant to let it end. Mayes' voice pulls you into the landscape -- lets you feel the sun on your head, the cool stillness of the churches, helps you see the profusion of light and color. I'll admit, there were things in the book that seemed left unfinished; I, too, wanted to know more about Mayes' divorce and her relationship with Ed. But it is, after all, a memoir, and our lives are rarely so open and orderly as we might like them to be. I think the book's ultimate appeal is in the idea of going somewhere so far away that you are utterly removed from all the concerns and frustrations of life -- that somewhere there is a haven of rest. Most of us will never get there because of finances, careers, families...but in this book, for a little while, we can visit.
Rating:
Summary: A delightful sensory experience!
Review: Many thanks for a vicarious tour of Tuscany, complete with sun, warmth, and foods of the region. I love language, food, travel, and poetry; for me, this was the ultimate treat, especially considering January rainy days. I was moved to create new dishes in the kitchen as well as observing more clearly the beauty around me.
Rating: 
Summary: This just in: rich American discovers Tuscan olive oil
Review: This is one fey book, full of fanciful images of blades of grass and some shallow "apercus" the writer lays on us as though they were profound insights. People are reduced to caricatures throughout; there are noble savages aplenty, in the form of vegetable sellers and contractors. What's missing is any sense at all of real Tuscan people, perhaps because Mayes never met any except those she employed to fix up her house. If she's at home in Italy, as the subtitle declares, one can only assume "home" for her means "a place without friends." The only ones alluded to are other ex-pats and visitors from the U.S. This book is profoundly irritating because Mayes keeps patting herself on the back for lifting a few rocks and mopping the floors, yet it's clear throughout that the renovation is being done by others, while Mayes sits on the terrace sipping iced tea and waxing poetic about the trees she spies on the horizon. Her message, if there is one, is "to grow, to change, to take one's life in one's own hands." I wonder whether her contractor would be able to take that advice, lacking the hundreds of thousands that enabled his employer to come up with this brilliant insight. I guess what really bothers me about this book is the air of self-congratulation throughout, as though buying this house was somehow a moral/personal achievement. In truth, it was merely a reflection of her wealth. By the way, having spent two summers in Cortona, I can tell you that the place is swarming with British ex-pats, many of whom share Ms. Mayes' oh-so-superior attitudes -- and were the objects of derision among natives.
Rating:
Summary: Bella Bella Italia
Review: What a lovely book! I was raised by a woman who dreamed of owning a villa in the Tuscany hills. We summered in various rented farm houses. Under the Tuscan Sun transported me to those dreamy summers. Italy smells like no other place, and Mayes prose affected not only my emotions and intellect, but my olfactory apparatus. The descriptions of food and recipes drove my unculinary self to the kitchen. Rarely will a book so completely deliver me to it's destination.
Thank you Francies Mayes. Please fill the rest of your beautiful Italy notebook.
Rating:
Summary: Slow down. Savor this little travel gem.
Review: From the last lines of the Preface - "The Etruscan wall above the house dates from the eighth centruy. B.C. We can talk. We have time." - I was hooked. No, not hooked, in love. Frances Mayes spins a sumptious, languid, savory tale of the challenges and adventures in restoring an ancient Tuscan farmnouse while at the same time serving up a delightfully personal portrait of local real estate agents, bankers, neighbors, artisans, laborers, contractors, shopkeepeers and other townspeople of Cortona. She paints with poetry the sensuous Tuscan landscape, describing the tones of light and colors like a Rennaisance master. She makes you feel underfeet the cool terrace stones next to the shade of the grape arbor while escaping the swelter of noon time Tuscan sun. She's a glorious naturalist and gives us tidbits of lore and charming observation on the natural wonders around her. Her desciption of the Tuscan night sky made me cry. And the food. The food. If I didn't live on the 20th floor next to the subway I would want to have her over, ask her to cook up some of her Gold Garlic Soup, Polenta Parmigiana, Basil and Mint Sorbet, open a Brunello, and talk. Just talk. Better I come to Bramasole. Ms. Mayes, if you're listening, I have a valid passport.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful Adventure
Review: A wonderful adventure and beautifully written. I longed to sit under the row of olive trees at the long wooden table covered by a green and white cloth, looking over the terraces. Or, to actually get up early enough to watch the fog swirl and lift from the valley below. The author seems to easily transport the readers to her little bit of heaven, drawing pictures in the air. Bramasole. Somehow the name of her house just seems to radiate warmth. I was fascinated throughout by her descriptions of the trevails of remodeling it. (Who would know.) Walls sagging, steaming toilets, strange work habits and international crews. And her transformation through it all. Towards the end, she is very happy with Primo, head of the final work team. She doesn't want him to go. Then, she has another thought. It's been 21 days, he said 5. Yes, she is ready for him to go. While I loved the book, and enjoyed the wonderful descriptions of the food and place, I was left with big, important questions. Where did 2 college professors get the money to do all of this? Two, would they welcome visitors?
Rating:
Summary: The Ugly Americans Do Tuscany
Review: For all of F.M.'s knowledge of Italian (restaurant-menu level) and friendships with locals (limited to expats and Polish workmen under her employ), she may as well as saved herself some commute time and bought a farmhouse in Napa.
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