Skip to main content
PBS logo
 
 

Search - Bella Tuscany: The Sweet Life in Italy

Bella Tuscany: The Sweet Life in Italy
Bella Tuscany The Sweet Life in Italy
Author: Frances Mayes
Frances Mayes, whose enchanting #1 New York Times bestseller Under the Tuscan Sun made the world fall in love with Tuscany, invites us back for a delightful new season of friendship, festivity, and food there and throughout Italy. — Having spent her summers in Tuscany for the past several years, Frances Mayes relished the opportunit...  more »
Info icon
ISBN-13: 9780767902830
ISBN-10: 0767902831
Publication Date: 4/6/1999
Pages: 286
Rating:
  • Currently 3.3/5 Stars.
 36

3.3 stars, based on 36 ratings
Publisher: Broadway Books
Book Type: Hardcover
Other Versions: Paperback
Reviews: Member | Amazon | Write a Review

Top Member Book Reviews

reviewed Bella Tuscany: The Sweet Life in Italy on + 14 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 4
The story was not as interesting as Under the Tuscan Sun. Story was slow and like a true sequel.
jamiesue avatar reviewed Bella Tuscany: The Sweet Life in Italy on + 6 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 2
Work's still not completely finished on Bramasole, the Tuscan house that California-based poet and bestselling author Frances Mayes bought a decade ago and has been fixing up every summer since. Nevertheless, in Bella Tuscany, she goes out--in search of Italy and Italian life. The sequel to Under the Tuscan Sun is awash with sensual discovery, from Sicilian markets with "rainbows of shining fish on ice" to the aqueous dream of Venice "shimmering in the diluted sunlight." Wherever she is, Mayes celebrates everyday rituals, such as picking wild asparagus, "dark spears poking out of the dirt ... stalks as thin as yarn" and driving through country rains, as "the green landscape smears across the windshield" for buffalo mozzarella and demijohns of sfuso--bulk wine kept fresh with a slick of olive oil on top. Mayes also ventures into the world of the locals, some "bent as a comma" and others throwing six-hour communion feasts where half a dozen cooks in a barn continually send out heaping platters of pasta with wild boar sauce, roasted lamb, and even the thigh of a giant cow--wrapping up the festivities with honeyed vin santo, grappa, and dancing to the accordion. Capturing the details that enrich the commonplace, in Bella Tuscany Mayes appears less like a visitor and more like someone discovering in Tuscany a real home and a real life
Page5 avatar reviewed Bella Tuscany: The Sweet Life in Italy on
Helpful Score: 1
Italy is a beautiful country with a rich history.

This story is largely frivolous. The description of a sunset as "old underwear pink" landed this book firmly in the giveaway pile.

If you want to read a book that glorifies everything Italian (deservedly or not) then you will probably like this book. If glorifying everything because it is Italian may make you gag, skip this book.
reviewed Bella Tuscany: The Sweet Life in Italy on + 48 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
Mayes displays a gift for conveying everyday life through her writing...Perfect for those with the yen but not the means for a second home...Mayes presents a simpler, less frantic version of how to live ones's life.
reviewed Bella Tuscany: The Sweet Life in Italy on + 180 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
Frances Mayes writes a great novel that takes you to Tuscany in Italy with interesting characters, Italian food, and descriptions of wine, farmhouses and plants.
Read All 19 Book Reviews of "Bella Tuscany The Sweet Life in Italy"

Please Log in to Rate these Book Reviews

reviewed Bella Tuscany: The Sweet Life in Italy on + 3 more book reviews
This bestselling author wrote "Under the Tuscan Sun" and this book is an account of her continuing love affaid with Italy.
reviewed Bella Tuscany: The Sweet Life in Italy on + 15 more book reviews
Too much detail about food and flowers...did not hold my interest after a few chapters.
pendlebear avatar reviewed Bella Tuscany: The Sweet Life in Italy on + 4 more book reviews
I enjoyed this book, but it is more of a travelogue than a novel.
reviewed Bella Tuscany: The Sweet Life in Italy on + 10 more book reviews
if you've ever thought of living in Italy, if you want to be a 'visitor' in Italy, if you LOVE the idea of a villa - this is the book for you. Buona Fortuna
reviewed Bella Tuscany: The Sweet Life in Italy on + 404 more book reviews
"If I had to choose between her two books, Under the Tuscan Sun would be my favorite, but this one is close in character.

She has a way with descriptions of places and people that truly starts one to hungering for the sounds and tastes of country life.
A number of recipes are sprinkled throughout the book..." amazon
reviewed Bella Tuscany: The Sweet Life in Italy on + 55 more book reviews
If you love travel, this is a great book.


Genres:

TagsItaly