A Somewhat Disastrous Quest for the Sweet Life - At Least You're in Tuscany

A charming, funny read. We met Jenny at Poliziano and it's clear why she and Italy are a match! Her observations are spot on and her love of all things Italian (perfect and imperfect) is evident. She's adopted Italian 'ways' and will help you do the same!

At Least You're in Tuscany…..it is an enchanting story about following a dream! A friend recommended this book because I love Tuscany - I have often thought it would be so glamorous to pack up and move to Italy but never really had the courage or a plan. Jennifer had the courage and worked on a plan – she packed up her belongings and her dog, left her job as a lawyer and moved to a new country to be a writer - a modern day pioneer. Learning a new language, finding a place to live, meeting new friends, and just fitting into life in a small town – is no easy task. It is a light hearted story of the first year in Italy and trying to become a citizen so she can get a job. I had a hard time putting the book down and wanted to read it non-stop. The only thing that was disappointing about the book was it ended too soon! I had the opportunity to meet Jennifer on a recent trip to Italy and I was so delighted to find out that she is working on a second book !!!!! I hope she continues to write about all her adventures in Italy now that she is an Italian citizen and living in Montepulciano a lovely hilltop town in Tuscany! Rumor has it she might be getting a car soon - she could write an entire book on driving in Italy, the signs, the round-abouts, and narrow streets! Best wishes for a wonderful future in Tuscany!!!

This book captures the true Tuscany flavors and depicts the struggles of living a dream.
We met Jennifer at the winery and her playful personality lives throughout this book.
This book is both delightful and entertaining.
Thank you Jennifer, I got to relive my Tuscany holiday

Jennifer writes with heart and honesty. She describes the details of Montepulciano with such feeling, you swear you can smell the aromas, taste the food and wine, and feel the hikes up the hills. Italy is lucky that Jennifer stuck out the bleak days and is now giving the world's best winery tours at Poliziano!

Read this after meeting Jennifer on a winery tour in Tuscany. It made this fun read even better to have just walked the streets and been in the shops she wrote about. Thanks, Jennifer, for a great book and a fabulous restaurant recommendation!

I loved Montepulciano, so the book's setting evokes memories. It's refreshing to hear the difficulties of settling into Italian life, struggling with the language, and easing into friendships. All the other expat stories I've read have been about people with too much money (that's relative, clearly) restoring a ruin and their difficulties with workers, governmental red tape/inefficiencies. The occasional incorporation of unfamiliar Italian words and phrases helps expand my limited use of la lingua italiana.

I am an American living in Montepulciano. The descriptions of food, wine, culture and vistas are right on. Jen Criswell has given us a delightful perspective of Tuscany even through her tough times. A humorous and lovely read.

Realy enjoyed this book. The writer is a second generation Italian who wants to find her roots in Tuscany. She is a querky full of personality and grit girl who takes off half way round the world to live and love in Tuscany. We share with her the trials and tribulations of her experience and the friends she made. You have to admire her for her bravery as she paints the Tuscan hill village and and the vinevards all around her lovenly.

Wonderful expressions about the trials and tribulations of living abroad. A very down to earth and honest view of living in a brand new country and accepting local customs with humour and honesty. Loved it!

A friend and I were traveling through Tuscany and actually met Jenny at a wine tasting in Montelpulciano. Her story was so inspiring I had to order her book to read more about her experience. What I love about this book is the journey she takes you on from start to finish on going after your dreams. At times you can almost feel some of the stress she endured but remember to celebrate the small victories as well. It serves as a constant reminder that's it's never too late to follow your dreams. Thank you Jenny for sharing your story. Best of luck to you!

This book is especially great for a single woman. She is in her late 30's and starting a new life. I is funny, heartwarming and makes you feel like you can do whatever you want with your life. It gives you strength in your own life.

Loved this book! I have visited this Tuscan hill town twice, so while reading the book I was able to "revisit" Montepulciano. Ms. Criswell is living my dream and she told her story in a way that made me feel as if I were right there with her experiencing her ups and downs of adjusting to a new lifestyle. If you love Tuscany or have ever thought about living in another country, then this is a must read. Thank you Jennifer for taking me along on this adventure!

Jennifer Criswell renounces her life in New York and seeks work and citizenship in Montepulciano. She captures small Tuscan living and that makes the book enjoyable enough. And the opening where Jennifer compares herself to Lucy Ricardo in the famous grape stomping episode of I Love Lucy is very cute. (I had just seen that episode on television again the previous week!). But we are never really sure why she wants this life change so badly and some of her trials and tribulations just become tiresome after awhile. Beyond a certain point in the book, we don't really care about her friends or if she gets a job .

If you really want to be charmed and laugh out loud, Heart over Heel by Chris Harrison is a much more delightful and well written book by an Australian trying to make it in Italy.

A great and interesting real life story about a talented lady who actually had the nerve and ambition to live the dream and move to Italy. I loved it - hmmm, I wonder if I can follow in her footsteps!

I absolutely loved this book! Most people think a move to Italy would be like vacations there. No rose-colored glasses here. It shows you the good and not so good. I hope Jennifer writes another book!

After meeting Jennifer at Poliziano in the fall and enjoying
Her candidness; I was eager to read her delightful book. It was everything she said it would be. I hope more of her ongoing adventures will be shared soon

This book was just ok...barely. Woman moves to Italy without much planning. Life is difficult and she can't find work and is thus out of money. Ok...but why would she write about her affair with a married man? She nonchalantly carries on with a married man and casually notes that she had said she would never do that. I wasn't impressed...no wonder her father got angry and didn't want to lend her money. She's 40, and she can't plan, she seems desperate...ugh. As an aside, she won't be making a living from writing, either.

For anyone who has ever visited Tuscany or wanted to, this book will charm you. Ms. Criswell's private travails may be unique to her but the overview of life in an Italian village, struggling to learn the language, find work, and assimilate into the culture is humorous and, in someway, universally understood by anyone who has ever changed careers, location, and/or lifestyle.

Having recently visited Montepulciano, I was able to visualize the hills, cobblestones streets, cheese and wine shops, the small boutiques and even the grocery market mentioned. It made it personal for me but Ms. Criswell's breezy, humorous prose feels like a great visit with a friend whom everyone will enjoy.

I've loved traveling in Italy and feel the author certainly captured many realistic attributes of the culture and features of the communities and countryside. Her long struggle to find work made the book seem to drag on and on to the point that I actually jumped to the end when I was about eighty percent through the book. However, if other readers are dreaming of moving to Italy, this book will serve as a terrific eye opening.

Naive American woman late thirties w lg dog, minimal Italian language, very little funds, goes to live in montepulciano. Has affair w married local green grocer... cries a lot. For goodness sake! Don't give up your babysitting job!!

Not the greatest writing style. Uses so many Italian words without a glossary in the back. Thought I would be transcended to Tuscany for a mini-mind escape and a little humor. So, far not so. I LOVED Under the Tuscan Sun. Thought would be similar of the process of living what we all dream of doing someday. Or at least a few months out of the year.

A while back, I went through an obsessive phase with the American expat experience. I think I just needed to read about big adventures and different ways of life. While I've lost the urge to virtually move across the globe, I'm still very interested in expat stories, and At Least You're in Tuscany: A Somewhat Disastrous Quest for the Sweet Life by Jennifer Criswell is a great one.

As a young woman, Criswell took an extended trip to Italy and knew she had found her true home. Years and several more visits later, she finally leaves New York and moves to Montepulciano, Tuscany, with her dog Cinder. Despite careful preparation, she hits roadblocks from the start - a rude landlady, social isolation, difficulty speaking Italian, and most of all, serious financial trouble because she can't work. Her Sicilian ancestry entitles her to Italian citizenship, but of course, what was presented as an easy process takes much longer than anticipated. In the meantime, no one will hire her under the table. Much of this memoir is simply about looking for work in a small town, but Criswell makes it interesting. On the non-work front, she's dismayed to be dumped by old friends in the area, but eventually finds new ones in unexpected places - and has a fling with a charming, classically Italian produce vendor. :) I also loved the stories of the grape and olive harvests she participates in, although I totally believe her that the work is less romantic than it sounds.

At Least You're In Tuscany doesn't sugarcoat the challenges of moving overseas, but affirms that for those who really want to make the move, it's worth it. It's a great resource for expats, a great read for anyone interested in travel and/or Italy, and a general encouragement that hard times eventually end!

This is such an enjoyable non-fiction book about a woman, Jennifer Criswell, who decides to move from the United states to Tuscany, Italy. Although there is much in the story about Tuscany, there is more about how the author adjusts to a new location so far from home.

This is a honest story. Jennifer Criswell writes about her personal struggles to rebuild her personal world overseas. To me, the most difficult part of the journey is her lack of funds. She planned to work, but getting a job was like finding a nail in a haystack. Finally, Ms. Criswell had to skype her parents to ask for a loan. Not easy because her father didn't mince words about thinking she had done things a little bit backwards. Then, her paper work to get a job seemed to take forever to come together.

I've often read and enjoyed books about people who move overseas to live and restore a chalet, cottage, etc. It was new to me to read about a woman's personal journey with problems like gossiping neighbors, emotionally distant people and spending the holidays, Christmas, far from Rockefeller center.

While I cried and worried along with Jennifer Criswell, I also had the chance to enjoy Thursdays at the marketplace, the taste of asparagus, tomatoes and grapes and a glass of wine. In At Least, I Live in Tuscany, I felt the pain of a romance with a married Italian. I also enjoyed the family she met with many children. She wasn't ready to accept the idea of babysitting but did enjoy visits with the family.

Overall, the Italian autobiography taught me gratefulness and strength of spirit. When she faces the lowest period her words are, "at least, I'm not homeless in Tuscany." Perhaps, Cinder, her dog, helped her carry the burdens of learning a new language and dealing with a cold home and a grumpy landlord. Along the way Cinder ages. Perhaps watching his master struggles in a strange place were more than he could bare. Still, along the way Cinder showed patience and grace. Thinking about it even Cinder taught me the beauty of learning how to live. jennifercriswell