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Summary: Heard It All Before
Review: A disappointment. Almost everything in here has already been said in so many other books written about Tuscany. The only difference is that Mate and his wife have even fewer adventures than the other people who have written about the region. Hard to believe how many rave reviews are posted here. Did everyone read the same book? There must be a dozen better books with the same premise.
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Summary: Take this with you on vacation!
Review: A well written and very humorous account of how he and his wife became 'locals' in Tuscany. Ferenc manages to quickly bring alive the essentials of Tuscany - the countryside and the small town feel. Having grown up in a small farming community in New England, not known for its prosperous farming, I immediately recognized aspects of my own childhood echoed in Italy!A very worthwhile purchase - I laughed and laughed on the airplane and I'm sure managed to annoy my fellow travelers.
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Summary: Absolutely Fantastic!
Review: A wonderful tale of Mate and his wife deciding to settle down in Tuscany. The ups and downs of the language barrier, the dream houses which have been torn down to a knee high wall for a new barn, smokey 'real estate' brokers, and the older bachelor's 'funghi' flirtation with his wife. After finding the ultimate house, there was the addition of the well flavored family next door that kept things interesting. There was always something quirky going on, which I could picture it happening to me. Great read!
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Summary: Wonderful - finally what I have been looking for!
Review: After delving into "Under a Tuscan Sun" and other sequel, I was thrilled to come across this book. Instead of the dreamy "only the wealthy who can afford 10 contractors and gardners can enjoy this land" books about Tuscany here is a book with grit and truth. This is an every man book - with wonderful humor and feeling. You can really put your self in Mr. Mate's shoes and enjoy the story of his leap into Italy. Its realism and wonderful descriptions make me want to read it again and again. Where is the sequel - the next 10 years? I for one am waiting with baited breath.
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Summary: Loved It!
Review: After reading Frances Mayes' "A Tuscan Life," I wanted to read more about living in Tuscany. This book was much more down to earth than Mayes' book, being heartwarming, funny at times (the endless search for the "perfect" farmhouse), and poignant. The Mates' worked hard to become one with the local people (which is the difference between the Mates' and Mayes). This book makes me long to move to Tuscany!
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Summary: Mate Paints Enduring Picture
Review: After reading Frances Mayes' books on Tuscany I didn't think I would find another that could paint any more vivid a picture of this magical part of Italy. I was wrong. Mate's light style and discriptive passages of the search for the perfect Tuscan house rekindled my own personal desires. Mate doesn't dwell as much on the restoration of the dwelling itself where Mayes goes into great detail, but rather concentrates on developing more human contacts and connections. That may be more due to the fact that he and his wife are permanent residents and not just summer and holiday transplants. That gives this book a more personal touch and I think gives the reader a clearer sense of the wonderful Tuscan people than in Mayes' efforts. Mate also lets us know how strong his love is for his wife, and that so much of the joy of living in this part of the world is that he gets to share it with her. One has to admire their resolve in moving to a counrty where neither speaks a single word of the language, but for someone else who has strugggled to communicate in a foreign land, I could relate to their difficulties and take joy in their triumphs. A very enjoyable memoir. I look forward to the ineviatable sequel.
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Summary: repetitive
Review: Although I am a fan of this book genre I must admit this was a disappointing read. There is a lack of interesting characters, dialog, and situations. Other than a repetitive string of descriptions where everything is just absolutely super perfect, there is not much there.
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Summary: A refreshing twist on foreign residency
Review: As a second-generation Italian-American, I'm getting tired of the subtle patronizing attitudes that some prosperous expatriates to Italy emit via their memoirs. Reading this book, I felt that Ferenc Mate truly felt a genuine empathy with Italians. His ability to laugh at himself, and with his Italian neighbors -- not at them -- was a superb aspect of this work. He seemed to understand that being at home in Italy requires more than merely hobnobbing with other expatriates, and absorbing their prejudices. As a writer, I appreciated the book's style as well as substance. My hope is Mr. Mate will soon write a sequel.
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Summary: ANOTHER TUSCAN CLASSIC
Review: Books on foreigners living in Italy seem to have become a genre unto themselves. In the past year I've read Francis Mayes' 'Under the Tuscan Sun' , Tim Parks' 'Italian Neighbours' and 'An Italian Education', and now Ferenc Mate's 'The Hills of Tuscany'. All are of interest to those of us who regard Italy as the finest country in the world to pursue the simple pleasures of life. The list of things that are better in Italy - food, wine, towns, landscape, people - is just too long and convincing to allow for any other point of view. Its virtues have been so often stated - as they certainly are in all of these books - that they seem like stale cliches, ripe for the assault of skeptics. The skeptics may have a field day with the early chapters of 'The Hills of Tuscany'. Mate lays it on a bit thick as in this passage about a meal on the Mediterranean coast: "The thing I lust for more than Tuscan food is Tuscan seafood. It is cooked simply with olive oil,salt and black pepper, sometimes parsley and garlic, perhaps a splash of wine, and rarely - on the heavier flavoured sardines or tuna -with capers or tomatoes or olives. My god, I'm like Pavlov's dog just thinking about them all." There's no getting around it - he gushes. Not cool. Paradoxically, this passage also illustrates his strength - the quick, deft descriptions of food, places and people that immediately ring true, i. e. that reflect some of my own experiences in Tuscany. The book is really in two parts - finding the perfect house in Tuscany and then living in it. The first part is a day by day narrative of the ultimately successful search. His writing about it is not so successful. The trouble is he either gushes or he plods. There are flashes of the glory to come in his sketches of the people and places but he never really makes it seem very interesting. I'm a little embarrassed by this criticism because Mate sent me a pre-publication copy. Basically, anybody who loves the historic hills of central Italy is Ok in my book. But not sui generis a good writer and I was beginning to despair of Mate. Then he finds the house just outside of Montepulciano, next to Cortona my favourite town in ye olde Tuscany, and he starts to cook, literately and literally. In the second part of the book he gets down to what he does best - well crafted descriptions of the place and the people. Mate's writing and his wife's diminutive sketches beautifully illustrate the myriad details that fascinate visitors to Tuscany. His sometimes treacly enthusiasm is soon overcome by his ability to sketch a scene with accuracy, brevity and effortless emotion. Here, for instance, he writes of a neighbour's kitchen: "In it, under the vast, clay-tile hood, are two small benches facing each other across the flames." His few words immediately evoke exactly the fireplace I saw in the rustic Banfi winery near Montalcino. Anyone who doesn't stop and marvel at the culture that created this primordial symbol of home should be banned from Italy for life. Tourists come to see the staggering amount of significant western art in the churches and museums. The inveterate Tuscan traveler comes to see what Mate illustrates - the world outside the churches and museums. His descriptions of his neighbours and their largely edible traditions are the high point of the book. He gets to know his neighbours, to share their labours and the fruits thereof. And what fruits - proscuito & pasta and fresh yellow chickens, wine from the vines growing in the garden, truffles in the forests surrounding his house. The earthly delights are endless and visceral. And he doesn't go to some snooty restaurant with waiters in too shiny shoes. No, he goes next door or just cooks it up a home. Not that I'm a food snob or know bugger all about wine. But I know good food when I eat it and I've eaten it in Tuscany, at almost any kind of place you can imagine from a 3 star restaurant to a supermarket takeout. But heaven in Tuscany is having your own kitchen and shopping in the countless vegetable shops, butchers, enotecas (wine stores), farmers cooperatives - even going to an organic farm, as we did, and following the proud farmer around while he plucked and pulled out of the ground inarguably fresh eggplant, carrots, potatoes, herbs and wine, Well, he didn't pull the wine out of the ground but he made it himself from the vines right in front of us and it was great. Nothing quite matches cooking in your own, if only for a couple of weeks, rustic kitchen and over indulging under the warm, starry sky. There are few more satisfying experiences in life outside of driving a Ferrari from Monte San Savino to Sienna on the twisty back road. Which I have never done so the food will have to do. Francis Mayes' instant classic "Under the Tuscan Sun" made me wonder why someone who had not been to this part of the world would buy it. It's a lovely book but I read it because I wanted to know more about a place that fascinates me. Does Tuscany have the power to fascinate even those who have never been there? The sales figures would suggest that it does. It must work like a chain letter - someone who has been there tells someone who hasn't about the book and the power of literate description does the rest. Now we have Mate's book. When I started it, I thought it was an attempt to capitalize on the popularity of Mayes. When I finished it, I realized that it was an entirely different perspective on a many faceted subject. Where Mayes is ethereal and reflective, Mate at his best is earthy and true. His neighbours sound like some of the people I've met in Tuscany. His descriptions of the towns and countryside take me back there. And the food. Good god almighty, his description of the food could put pounds on a supermodel. Mate's is not the kind of book to carry around with you in Tuscany. It's sparse on traveler's details, perhaps because he doesn't want even more tourists clogging up the landscape. It is meant to be read before or after your trip to savour the pleasures to come or to bask in the warm - I guarantee it - memories of your journey.
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Summary: A story of hope...that we may all find a place to call home.
Review: Ferenc and Candace love each other. They love their home. And by the time you've finished reading this story, you'll love them and their home as well. I don't normally like autobiographical works, but I've read this 3 times in the time I've owned the copy. It almost reads like a fairy tale...one that came true.
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