A Thousand Days in Tuscany: A Bittersweet Adventure

by Marlena de Blasi

Continuing from A Thousand Days in Venice, this is the story of Marlena and her Venetian husband, Fernando, as they make a life for themselves in rural Tuscany.
Amongst the many people they befriend is Barluzzo, an old sage who takes the couple under his wing and initiates them in the age-old traditions of Tuscan life: since their house lacks electricity, he helps them build a traditional brick oven in the garden; in autumn he wakes them at dawn to gather chestnuts and porcini mushrooms, and at the onset of winter he takes them to pull grapes from the vines and beat olives from the trees. Beautifully written and richly seasoned with mouth-watering recipes of the region, this book is filled with the carpe diem attitude that so captivated readers of A Thousand Days in Venice.

• ISBN10: 1565125908
• ISBN13: 9781565125902
• Publish Date: 1 November 2004
• Publish Status: Active
• Imprint: Algonquin Books
• Format: eBook
• Pages: 337
• Language: English

Reviews

[MurderByDeath]

I think at this point there must be a whole genre/category built up around people who chuck it all and move to either Italy or France, live in run-down, dilapidated houses, discover la dolce vita and then write books about it.  I am their target market.   This is a follow up to her previous book A Thousand Days in Venice which I have not read, and it works fine on its own.  The writing is philosophical, sometimes overly so, and occasionally florid, but overall it's engrossing.  There's a definite air of self-satisfaction that almost crosses over into smugness, but doesn't; the narrative isn't about the author finding her bliss - she's already done that - but more about her awareness of her bliss.  It works better than it sounds like it should, although probably not as well as it could have.   The subtitle of this book is A Bittersweet Adventure and it is rightly titled (although it's not a thousand days, but merely a year, so maybe not).  I won't say more because I'd hate anyone considering this read to stumble on to this review and be spoiled.   Not sorry to have read it at all, even if others have appealed to me more.