Product Description
Word count: 2462. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

A Painful Read
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 dollarbegan its downward spiral.

Perfetto Frances!!You brought me home!
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 loud 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!

Absolute Escape
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.

Romantic traveler
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 sheembraces her Italian home. One need not necessarily be a Tuscan scholar, ora Tuscan devotee, or even a Tuscan traveler to enjoy the colorful andappetizing narrative centered around the author's purchase and initialrehabilitation (in Under The Tuscan Sun) of a once-graceful long-abandonedfarmhouse in the Tuscan hills.The plans and projects she and her husbandmake for resurrection of the once-lovely old building on ancient footingsin forgotten gardens strike yearning chords in every fantasy spinner'sheart. The project unfolds in some successes and some failures as we alsosee the author's resurrection of buried dreams in her own life similarlyunfold.The metamorphosis becomes much more concrete, much more focusedand visible, like the author's struggle to learn Italian, in the secondbook of the set, Bella Tuscany, in which she includes more of her innerlife and more interaction with her Italian neighbors, even tucking somefavorite 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 beatentrack, and a way of life which seems to open the heart and coax the spiritforth. These two passionate journals resonate in those places where each ofus still muses about finding our dream - or dreamhouse - someday, whetheran Italophile or not. The books lack much hard economic analysis or anyreal social or political feeling for Tuscany; they document a continuingpersonal journey. Great reading to encourage the reader to reach for theadventure and find herself. ... Read more

Product Description
Steven Rothfeld, the photographer for Frances Mayes’s bestseller Bringing Tuscany Home, has traveled the world collecting images of beauty, culture, and passion with his camera. He now focuses on an unusual and stirring art form in this stunning album of handcrafted shrines found throughout the Italian countryside.

Rothfeld turns his lens on a fascinating aspect of Italian culture, the age-old, popular art of building shrines in honor of the Virgin Mary and other saints. Created by average people as an expression of religious devotion, the shrines appear along ordinary roads in villages and cities, in the fields of farmers, and in the yards of simple cottages and homes. In Shrines, the full-color photographs of these ubiquitous, delicately crafted structures form a spiritual journey, bringing to life an ancient religious tradition that continues to thrive today. With a charming introduction and text by Frances Mayes, this visual tour of the surprising and graceful ways the divine touches and enriches everyday lives is perfect for admirers of sacred art, history buffs, those millions of Americans who travel to Italy, and everyone who dreams of going there. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Heart of Italy
This book really shows the heart of the Italian countryside.The passion that people had to create such beautiful shrines in unlikely places really shows the role that religion plays in the daily lives of the Italians.

Remembering Mary in everyday life
With only a few pages of introductory text and a handful of short musings inserted here and there, this book is really about the pictures.And what wonderful pictures they are, too.They remind me first of the year I spent in Florence right after college.But they also remind me, in a deeper, non-verbal way, of some longing to remember the Divine Feminine -- and especially to remember Mary, the Blessed Mother -- in the simple everyday moments of my life.Looking through the photos in this book becomes for me like a meditation -- every time I pick up the book.The photographic quality is excellent and the variety of artistic style in the different shrines is wide-ranging.But they all share some common element of devotion that is at once soothing sweet and deeply compelling.

Gorgeous
A beautiful book, ideal for the cofeetable. It nicely documents private devotion in Italy. The photos are outstanding. ... Read more

Product Description
From the back cover: "Popular poet and author Frances Mayes transports you to the sundrenched heart of Italy with this lyrical best-seller. Packed with the tastes and pleasures of Italian life, her extraordinary memoirs celebrate the fascinating lifestyle she discovered in the spectacular Tuscany countryside. When she first sees the abandoned villa on the hillside, Frances Mayes knows she must make it her own. Each day with her Italian property brings fresh challenges and delightful surprises. When layers of paint are removed in her dining room, an ancient, faded fresco appears--only to be marred with a workman's note to himself in black marker. Struggling to clear dense weeds, she uncovers both a long lost vineyard and a crumbling Etruscan stone wall. A feast for the senses, Under the Tuscan Sun explores the fascinating people, landscape, and history of Italy--all liberally seasoned with hearty recipes. As Barbara Caruso dramatically narrates, centuries-old hill towns and salt-of-the-earth characters burst colorfully from the pages." From the NYT Book Review: "...an intense celebration of what she [Frances Mayes] calls 'the voluptuousness of Italian life.'" ... Read more

Product Description
Experience la dolce vita of the Italian countryside with quotations and recipes from Frances Mayes, drawn from her best-selling book, Under the Tuscan Sun. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

My favorite engagement calendar
I have purchased this same engagement calendar for several years. It is always the one I go back to. It has a perfect combination of easy to use format, gorgeous pictures and enlightening text.The photography simply cannot be beat.Frances Mayes' words always remind me of why I became a fan of hers in the first place.

Love These!
I have ordered this calendar for several years now.The pictures are beautiful and last year I tried one of the recipes, which was good.Theformat is nice because it has a Monday-Sunday week, so if you use your calendars to write appointments and events, the full weekend is available in one view.

Under the Tuscan Sun calendar
This is the second year for the same calendar.Great photos though
I did last years issue a bit better.

Sunshine every day
Full of wonderful photos of Cortona, Italy You will want to be there everyday too. ... Read more