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Direct Travel Insurance Under The Tuscan Sun Author: Frances Mayes Trade Paperback Usually ships in 24 hours Delivery is subject to warehouse availability. Shipping delays may occur if we receive more orders than stock. Our Price: $22.95 You could save $2.30 (10%) with our iREWARDS Program Ordering is 100% secure . Spend $39 or more at chapters.indigo.ca and your order ships free!. ( Details ) Edition Details : Reprint | Dimensions: 304 Pages, 8.25 x 5.5 in | ISBN: 0767900383 Published: September 1997 | Published by Broadway Books Our customers who bought this item also bought: Bella Tuscany: The Sweet Life in Italy (2000) Book ~ Frances Mayes Mercy Among the Children (2001) Book ~ David Adams Richards Eyewitness Travel Guides: Italy (1996) Book ~ Deni Bown Personal History (1998) Book ~ Katharine Graham The Red Tent (1998) Book ~ Anita Diamant chapters.indigo Review Armchair travelers will delight in this mesmerizing account of restoring an old farmhouse in the idyllic Tuscan countryside. In Under the Tuscan Sun: At Home in Italy , Frances Mayes brings a poets voice, the eye of a seasoned traveler and the discerning palate of a cook and food writer together to create an enchanting and lyrical book about the life, traditions and cuisine of this stunning region of Italy. With its mouth-watering recipes, evocative descriptions and insight into the Italian spirit, you won't want to miss Under the Tuscan Sun From the Publisher Now in paperback, the #1 San Francisco Chronicle bestseller that is an enchanting and lyrical look at the life, the traditions, and the cuisine of Tuscany, in the spirit of Peter Mayle’s A Year in Provence. Frances Mayes entered a wondrous new world when she began restoring an abandoned villa in the spectacular Tuscan countryside. There were unexpected treasures at every turn: faded frescos beneath the whitewash in her dining room, a vineyard under wildly overgrown brambles in the garden, and, in the nearby hill towns, vibrant markets and delightful people. In Under the Tuscan Sun, she brings the lyrical voice of a poet, the eye of a seasoned traveler, and the discerning palate of a cook and food writer to invite readers to explore the pleasures of Italian life and to feast at her table. About the Author Frances Mayes lives in Cortona, Italy and San Francisco, where she teaches creative writing at San Francisco State University. A widely published poet as well as a prolific food and travel writer, she has written for the New York Times, House Beautiful, and Food and Wine. Tips for your Reading Group Now in paperback, the #1 San Francisco Chronicle bestseller that is an enchanting and lyrical look at the life, the traditions, and the cuisine of Tuscany, in the spirit of Peter Mayle’s A Year in Provence. Frances Mayes entered a wondrous new world when she began restoring an abandoned villa in the spectacular Tuscan countryside. There were unexpected treasures at every turn: faded frescos beneath the whitewash in her dining room, a vineyard under wildly overgrown brambles in the garden, and, in the nearby hill towns, vibrant markets and delightful people. In Under the Tuscan Sun, she brings the lyrical voice of a poet, the eye of a seasoned traveler, and the discerning palate of a cook and food writer to invite readers to explore the pleasures of Italian life and to feast at her table. 1. "What are you growing here?" is the first line of Under the Tuscan Sun. In what ways does that question symbolize how the book came about? What does it say about Frances Mayes’s life in Italy, and about her life in general? 2. Mayes writes of the traumatic experience of selling one house and purchasing another on various occasions in the United States. Why is the purchase of her house in Italy so qualitatively different from her other experiences with home ownership? 3. "The house is a metaphor for the self," Frances Mayes writes. Discuss some examples of this, both in her life and in your own. 4. What makes Mayes’s writing style effective? How does her particular voice make her descriptions come alive? What images did you find to be particularly striking? 5. What are some of the qualities of Italian life that contrast most sharply with American culture? Which aspects of Italian life did Frances and Ed find it important to incorporate into their own lives? Which aspects would you have been drawn to? 6. How does the experience of purchasing and renovating Bramasole impact Frances and Ed’s relationship, and how does their interaction affect their shared experience of buying, owning, and living in Bramasole? 7. How does the author change as the book progresses? How are her changes reflected in her tone and in her writing? 8. Mayes’s house is called "Bramasole," which literally means "yearning for the sun." However, soon after she purchases the house, Mayes dreams that its real name is "Centi Angeli," or "one hundred angels." Discuss the ways in which this proves to be a premonitory dream. What are some of the other discoveries made throughout Bramasole and its grounds that lend a magical feeling to the house? 9. What role does food play, both metaphorically and literally, in the sense of delight that deepens Mayes’s relationship to Tuscany and the house itself? 10. Mayes often portrays life in Cortona as timeless. How does she also convey that the timelessness is in many ways just an illusion? How does the "sense of endless time" affect her household? 11. What is Mayes’s philosophy about the friend who speaks disparagingly of contemporary Italy and says it’s "getting to be just like everywhere else--homogenized and Americanized" (p. 110)? How does Mayes’s response address globalization in general? 12. Mayes’s loving descriptions of food, her recipes, and her gardening tips add sensuality to the book, but what are some of their other functions in Under the Tuscan Sun? 13. What is Mayes’s advice to readers who have "the desire to surprise your own life" (p. 191)? How would you respond to this impulse? What are some of the benefits and drawbacks to the time of life Mayes chose for embarking on a major change? Discuss some of your own turning points and "forks in the road." 14. Although Under the Tuscan Sun isn’t a novel, would you say that in many ways it reads like one? If so, what is the spring, the inner tension, that propels the book forward and shapes its form? 15. Besides presenting us with wonderful descriptions of food, scenery, and people, what is the other major impetus of Under the Tuscan Sun? 16. As the book draws to a close, Mayes asks rhetorically, "Doesn’t everything reduce in the end to a poetic image--one that encapsulates an entire experience in one stroke?" (p. 256). In your opinion, which image or scene best "encapsulates the entire experience" of Mayes’s time in Italy? Review Quotes A New York Times Notable Book of 1997 "This beautifully written memoir about taking chances, living in Italy. loving a house and, always, the pleasures of food, would make a perfect gift for a loved one. But it’s so delicious, read it first yourself." --USA Today "Irresistible...a sensous book for a sensous countryside." --Minneapolis Star-Tribune "An intense celebration of what [Mayes] calls ’the voluptuousness of Italian life’." --The New York Times Book Review "Armchair travel at its most enticing." --Booklist "Mayes [has] perfect vision." --Los Angeles Times Reader Reviews Average Reader Review: Number of Reviews: 2 1. Tuscan Sunset? Reviewer: Nikki from Victoria, BC (water@bc1.com) Date: 2/2/2001 6:34:45 PM After being a huge Peter Mayle fan and feeling as though reading each passage transported me to Provence, I was so excited to see a book on Tuscany, a place I'd dreamed of going. For the most part, this was a good book and gave some insight into the day to day life of vacationing at a villa (or in this case stone farmhouse) in Tuscany. What I found very tiring about this book was the detail discussed on the home renovations. I even checked the bibliography for a consultation with Bob Vila or This Old House. While it is interesting to read about the transformations of a run down, dilapidated farmhous into a dream vacation home, having to read all the technical details about wiring, etc. is a bit monotonous. Anyways, I am looking forward to reading more about Tuscany and what to expect when I make my trip to the land of la dolce vita... 2. Under the Tuscan Sun Reviewer: Marilyn from Alberta Date: 9/20/1999 2:50:19 PM O for La Dolce Vita! Hot suns and cool stone buildings. Magnificent views of noble Tuscan hills, softened with olive groves and vineyards. Add to this the incomparable Tuscan cuisine. Experience all this through the pen of Frances Mayes. Relive her quest to buy and completely renovate a centuries-old villa. In this timeless land, Frances becomes intimately connected to past civilizations — the very trees of the olive groves can be a century old, the churches medieval, the roads and walking paths Roman and the foundations of the walls Etruscan, pre-dating the Roman period. However, it is through food that Frances achieves her affinity with all things Tuscan. Here, one's daily labours are bestowed with a dignity so foreign to our culture. Read this book and find the good life. 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