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Rating: 
Summary: Absolute Escape
Review: Being able to lose yourself in a book, is a completely unique experience that is usually reserved for fiction. Under the Tuscan Sun, a non-fiction book absolutely does this. It reads like a novel that you cannot possibly put down. At the same time it is real - you are there using every sense that you possess. As a guest in the author's house, you sweat, your muscles ache and you get dusty as the rennovations take shape. You want to soak in a long hot bath after reading several pages. You shop side by side with her at the market, smelling, hearing, touching and tasting all that Italy has to offer. At her table you do not feel compelled to go to the fridge for a snack, but feel completely stuffed, like you have really eaten the meals she has described. What a wonderful place to lose your self, but Under the Tuscan Sun.
Rating:
Summary: Absolute Escape
Review: Being able to lose yourself in a book, is a completely unique experience that is usually reserved for fiction. Under the Tuscan Sun, a non-fiction book absolutely does this. It reads like a novel that you cannot possibly put down. At the same time it is real - you are there using every sense that you possess. As a guest in the author's house, you sweat, your muscles ache and you get dusty as the rennovations take shape. You want to soak in a long hot bath after reading several pages. You shop side by side with her at the market, smelling, hearing, touching and tasting all that Italy has to offer. At her table you do not feel compelled to go to the fridge for a snack, but feel completely stuffed, like you have really eaten the meals she has described. What a wonderful place to lose your self, but Under the Tuscan Sun.
Rating:
Summary: Perfetto Frances!! You brought me home!
Review: Having lived in Italy myself for 4 years Frances Mayes brought me back to what I call my second home. I laughed and cried, but mostly my heart ached to be back in this wonderful country she so beautifully describes. Frances words make you hear, fell and smell everything she describes. You don't read her books you live inside them. I followed up Under The Tuscan Sun with Bella Tuscany - having taken them both on a ski trip. Read Under the Tuscan Sun on the way up out load to my husband(9 hours driving,- made him want to return to Italy also) and opted to pass on a day of skiing to read Bella Tuscany. Thank you for taking me home! Molti ringraziamenti per così tempo divertente Frances!
Rating:
Summary: Perfetto Frances!! You brought me home!
Review: Having lived in Italy myself for 4 years Frances Mayes brought me back to what I call my second home. I laughed and cried, but mostly my heart ached to be back in this wonderful country she so beautifully describes. Frances words make you hear, fell and smell everything she describes. You don't read her books you live inside them. I followed up Under The Tuscan Sun with Bella Tuscany - having taken them both on a ski trip. Read Under the Tuscan Sun on the way up out load to my husband(9 hours driving,- made him want to return to Italy also) and opted to pass on a day of skiing to read Bella Tuscany. Thank you for taking me home! Molti ringraziamenti per così tempo divertente Frances!
Rating: 
Summary: Romantic traveler
Review: The two books in this set can be read independently of one another, but read together provide a rich tapestry of the author's romance with Tuscany, and the author's major life change adventure embracing the future as she embraces her Italian home. One need not necessarily be a Tuscan scholar, or a Tuscan devotee, or even a Tuscan traveler to enjoy the colorful and appetizing narrative centered around the author's purchase and initial rehabilitation (in Under The Tuscan Sun) of a once-graceful long-abandoned farmhouse in the Tuscan hills. The plans and projects she and her husband make for resurrection of the once-lovely old building on ancient footings in forgotten gardens strike yearning chords in every fantasy spinner's heart. The project unfolds in some successes and some failures as we also see the author's resurrection of buried dreams in her own life similarly unfold. The metamorphosis becomes much more concrete, much more focused and visible, like the author's struggle to learn Italian, in the second book of the set, Bella Tuscany, in which she includes more of her inner life and more interaction with her Italian neighbors, even tucking some favorite recipes into various chapters as they become better acquainted. Her travels through Tuscany in search of fixtures, furnishings, towels, tiles and dishes become charming tours of Italy on and off the beaten track, and a way of life which seems to open the heart and coax the spirit forth. These two passionate journals resonate in those places where each of us still muses about finding our dream - or dreamhouse - someday, whether an Italophile or not. The books lack much hard economic analysis or any real social or political feeling for Tuscany; they document a continuing personal journey. Great reading to encourage the reader to reach for the adventure and find herself.
Rating: 
Summary: A Painful Read
Review: When I learned the first book had been a best seller and inspired a movie, I purchased this box set with both books. In addition, I also live in Italy so I was sure this would be a great set for me to read. Wow, I really called this one wrong.
Mayes is a good writer and she certainly writes with all five senses, but most of the content in these two books was just plain boring. After spending over twenty bucks on this set, I had to force myself to read both. Mayes rambled on and on. Her memoirs just simply are not that interesting in print. My daughter brought the movie home after I finished reading the first book, and I wasn't at all suprised to find that the movie was only loosly based on the book. They almost completely changed the whole thing, and it was pretty good.
The recipes certainly were the best part of the books, but they were written in paragraph form. It definately would have been much nicer if they were printed like a typical cookbook. Also, I wish some pictures would have been included in the books. Maybe some before and after shots during the renovation for example.
Well, at least my purchase helped Mayes pay for her endless remodeling projects on not one but two homes. I'm familiar with the prices for real estate in the San Francisco area, and they are impossible for most people. Furthermore, I hope Mayes was able to complete renovations on her Tuscany home before the dollar began its downward spiral.
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