Every Day in Tuscany: Seasons of an Italian Life

Loved this book! Loved the snippets of Italian language, the colorful descriptions of landscape and people, and the yummy-looking recipes sprinkled throughout. I've read most of it in one sitting--only had to stop to make dinner: fettuccini and pecorino. Thank you, Frances, for sharing your love, your life and your wonderful gift of writing and taking me back to Italy today.

Frances Mayes chose a daring, imaginative lifestyle and, with grace and wisdom, she shares the wonder of it with her readers. Every Day in Tuscany: Seasons of an Italian Life opens a world of possibility and escape from ordinary, mundane existence; just reading the book is its own vacation.
I was visiting Tuscany for the first time when I began reading the book a few weeks ago. I was astounded at how Mayes described so precisely and effortlessly the exquisite beauty which surrounded me and how she explained the wondrous feelings I encountered breathing the intoxicating air of this sublime area of Italy. I came home (to Tennessee) and began to build my own version of Tuscany, searching for salmon-colored geraniums, cooking with fresh tomatoes and herbs, inviting friends over to sample her many delicious recipes. Her experience is contagious and that she shares it with strangers through her excellent writing is marvelous.
Sometimes it is difficult to write about what we love the most, but Mayes does a masterful job of delivering an easy prose with a soft practicality that is so becoming to Tuscany. She places her reader there in the fragrant gardens, thriving piazzas, and relic-filled churches with a gentleness that is to be admired. Frances Mayes captures the essence of hospitality in a country that has become hers by invitation and an investment of the heart. Thank you. I needed it.

It's been years since I visited Tuscany and unfortunately, my travel taste buds were not stimulated much by Every Day in Tuscany: Seasons of an Italian Life. Perhaps it is the season of my own life that taints my perspective, but Mayes' love affair with Tuscany has left me wanting. Although the highlight for me was the recipes, it's far from the top of my culinary list. As it was rather rambling in format, perhaps the book would be appealing to blog followers.

Once again Frances Mayes has opened the door to her life in Italy, beautifully bringing us along with her moment by sensual moment. Life is not all sunflowers for the Bard of Tuscany, and I sympathize with her as she endures a frightening threat--a grenade left in her Bramasole driveway. For me, that threat brought the whole rest of the book into a more intense, delicate focus, than her two previous Tuscany memoirs. I just finished it, not wanting the story to end, feeling wonderfully embraced by the whole true picture of her life there--loving always how she revels in the changing seasons, flavors, and gardens of her adopted home. Grazie, Frances!

I finally finished reading this book after it spent a long time on my "to be read" pile and even at that I have to admit I skimmed some sections. I may not be the best reviewer for it since I have not read any of the other Frances Mayes books and have never visited Tuscany or for that matter Italy though I dream of doing so someday. At any rate I found this book to be full of more filler and opinion than fact or helpful advice to potential travelers and I had the rather ungenerous thought that Ms. Mayes may have used up her best material in her first two volumes of her life in Tuscany UNDER THE TUSCAN SUN and BELLA TUSCANY.

Tsk, Tsk, Tsk! In Frances Mayes new book, "Every Day in Tuscany", she has become the quintessential "Ugly American". Her foot-stamping, petition-signing tantrum over the building of a swimming pool for the locals within sight of her view from the terrace of Bramasole left me with a feeling of deep embarassment. She is the sort of American I shy away from when I go to Europe. She has become a self-absorbed ex-pat and I fear the Tuscan sun has set on her novels for me forever. I'm so glad I read "Every Day in Tuscany" in the book store and did not spend my good American dollars on a book that was such a huge disappointment. I relished every word of "Under the Tuscan Sun" but Frances needs to move on. I have.

Disclaimer: I did not finish this book but what I read was perhaps some of the best parts. It starts out very nice and who can beat a Tuscany setting? My husband pointed out the obvious, that the book is supposed to be nice and relaxing but perhaps I was looking for more of an adventure.....No matter, from the first 50 page review, I would not recommend this book in particular. I was not attracted to the weak plot but I did enjoy some of the descriptions and the affinity the author had for their Italian lodging!

I agree with many of the reviewers that this book cannot touch Under The Tuscan Sun. Much of it is repetitive and extremely boring. The descriptions of visitng the Signorelli paintings are positively excruciating. I felt like I was slogging through the book to get to the end. However when I read on page 261 that her six year old grandson said "I can't see any more. If I see any more I will miss Rome too much." I was done with this book. What a bunch of b.s. She churned this one out without much thought at all. What a disappointment!!

Pat Murphy

I loved both of Ms. Mayes books about Tuscany, so I was happy to find the "Everyday in Tuscany" audiobook at the library (I commute into LA daily and listen for the trips). Sadly her reading is not her writing. Not a soothing voice one can enjoy for any length of time, really. Southern drawl cannot help but destroy Italian words. It just isn't good. Random House should know better, even if Ms. Mayes did not. Reading a book is like a performance...which is why actors and other people with wonderful voices do this work for a living. They have the voice and the skill to share a story. I'm going back to the library to find the written book.....

Anna

This book made you feel like you were in Tuscany. I enjoyed reading it and dream of the day I will actually be able to see and experience for myself what the book describes. Until that day though, I will flip through this paperback and keep saving my money!

This book made you feel like you were in Tuscany. I enjoyed reading it and dream of the day I will actually be able to see and experience for myself what the book describes. Until that day though, I will flip through this paperback and keep saving my money!

I really loved Mayes' first book, but this one just never seemed to get going. It bogged down with illustrative description and I gave up about half way through. If there was a storyline, I never came across it.

Unfortunately, I didn't love this book. I enjoyed the movie as well as the book it was based upon, but I simply couldn't get into this sequel. I far more enjoyed the Years In Provence books, and Eric Newby's books on life in rural Italy, such as A Small Place in Italy (Travel Literature) or Love & War in the Apennines (Travel Literature)

At her best when she employs her lyrical prose to describe life in Tuscany--the people, cooking, gardening, her family and friends, the dinners, dealing with wild boars, foraging with her grandson. She really puts us in the midst of it.

The worst parts are those tedious chapters in which she indulges her love of Renaissance art. She should write a book just on that subject for those who want to read it (not me). But I'm captivated by her descriptions of Italian life.

I loved Under the Tuscan Sun. I can still remember the delight I felt, how connected I felt reading the beautiful descriptions that transported me to Italy. Unfortunately, Frances Mayes's latest book does not have the same heart.

As other reviewers have noted, this book is one description after another of Mayes's frankly charmed life living in Italy with all the money and free time to spare to travel around the country, meet rich people, and eat delicious meals served by others to her and her family. In one chapter, for example, we read about how she goes to her second Italian home (close to her original home) complete with pool & outdoor pizza kitchen where yet another servant/friend comes to help make the pizzas while Mayes can host a party.

The writing in Every Day in Tuscany is often quite beautiful, and I loved when Mayes writes about observing the natural world, but I simply couldn't relate to the obvious wealth that surrounds Mayes, now. She is living a fairytale life in Italy. There is nothing in this book to ground it in ordinary life--no worries about bills, no worries about making a living, no hands-on anything being done by Mayes or anyone else in her family--and it ultimately felt empty. I didn't even finish the book, and I felt sad about that. I wish Mayes had more humility about her life and that the humility was more apparent in her writing.

I struggled through the first 100 pages and quit - too many other good things on my reading list. This would work well for a blog, not a book. I wouldn't call this a memoir either; more like "Dear Diary, this is what I did today in Italy" only dressed up with lots of adjectives. Don't spend the money, don't borrow it from the library.

I have read all of Frances Mayes books about Italy and in particular Cortona. This book just fell flat. She seemed to be rambling and had no focus except for the chapters about the Luca Signorella trail. The writing itself is not at all comparable to Under the Tuscan Sun. I would never had wanted to go to Italy if I had read this book. She knows a lot of people in Cortona, but we never find out anything really important about them. I did finish the book, but I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. I borrowed it from a friend.

I have read 'Under the Tuscan Sun', 'Bella Tuscany', and 'A Year in the World' and enjoyed each and every one of these books. 'Every Day in Tuscany' was a disappointment. Most of the reviews written by readers who afforded her latest book two or three stars said it all. If you really want to know more about Italy, read 'Travelers Tales ,Italy' collected by Ann Calcagno.