A Thousand Days in Tuscany: A Bittersweet Adventure
They had met and married on perilously short acquaintance, she an American chef and food writer, he a Venetian banker. Now they were taking another audacious leap, unstitching their ties with exquisite Venice to live in a roughly renovated stable in Tuscany.Once again, it was love at first sight. Love for the timeless countryside and the ancient village of San Casciano dei Bagni, for the local vintage and the magnificent cooking, for the Tuscan sky and the friendly church bells. Love especially for old Barlozzo, the village mago, who escorts the newcomers to Tuscany’s seasonal festivals; gives them roasted country bread drizzled with just-pressed olive oil; invites them to gather chestnuts, harvest grapes, hunt truffles; and teaches them to caress the simple pleasures of each precious day. It’s Barlozzo who guides them across the minefields of village history and into the warm and fiercely beating heart of love itself.
A Thousand Days in Tuscany is set in one of the most beautiful places on earth–and tucked into its fragrant corners are luscious recipes (including one for the only true bruschetta) directly from the author’s private collection.
Product Details
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
From its opening scene of an impromptu alfresco village feast of fried zucchini blossoms, fennel-roasted pork, and pudding made from the cream of a local blue-eyed cow, this memoir of the seasons in a small Tuscan village is rich with food, weather, romance and, above all, life. De Blasi continues the adventures begun in her A Thousand Days in Venice, as she and her husband, Fernando, leave Venice for Tuscany in search of "a place that still remembers real life... sweet and salty... each side of life dignifying the other." Fortunately, the two are adopted by Barlozzo, an elderly local eager to share his knowledge of the old ways. He introduces them to the local customs: grape harvesting, truffle hunting, bread baking, etc. Although the book teems with food references, including recipes for intriguing traditional dishes, de Blasi is more than a sunny regional food writer—she digs into the meaning of life. As she fights Fernando's periodic depressions and brings him back to joy, gains Barlozzo's trust and love, learns his troubling lifelong secrets and comes to terms with the death of a beloved friend, she immerses her readers in life's poignancy, brevity and wonder.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
Readers who enjoyed de Blasi's earlier work, A Thousand Days in Venice (2002), may be startled that the author has moved from Venice to Tuscany. Still much in love with the man for whom she left everything, de Blasi embarks on an idyllic, if hardworking, Tuscan life. The couple purchases an old farmhouse and is chagrined that it's not conveyed in the condition promised. Their neighbors welcome them to the community with a groaning board featuring all manner of Tuscan foods and capped off with a dessert that only hours earlier had been milked from a "blue-eyed" cow. As in her earlier work, most chapters close with recipes, ranging in complexity from braised pork stew that serves as both a pasta sauce and an entree to simple bruschetta, toasted bread topped with local olive oil. Thanks to de Blasi's style of rendering conversations first in Italian, then English, a careful reader can quickly pick up some useful conversational Italian. Mark Knoblauch
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Review
“De Blasi’s glittering descriptions and mouthwatering recipes take you directly into the heart of Italy and into the souls of the Italian people.”
–Adriana Trigiani, New York Times bestselling author of Lucia, Lucia
“Filled with warmth and the rich and simple drama of a beautiful life. The evocation of country dishes is mouthwatering, the lyrical beauty irresistible.”
–Susan Herrmann Loomis, author of On Rue Tatin: Living and Cooking in a French Town
“A love poem to de Blasi’s professional life as a chef.”
–USA Today
“Rich with food, weather, romance, and, above all, life . . . [De Blasi] immerses her readers in life’s poignancy, brevity, and wonder.”
–Publishers Weekly
Customer Reviews
From Venice to Tuscany
Left wanting more from Ms. DeBlasi's previous book, I moved with her from Venice to Tuscany and never wanted to leave. The prose in these books is as sumptuous as the life seems to be--rich in detail, rich in emotion and rich in love for the place, the people and the food. Through Ms. DeBlasi's pen, we are immersed in tender moments, breathtaking settings and relationships of great depth, which brought tears and laughter and a hunger to share such a life. Most surprisingly, I came away thinking life can be more deeply appreciated no matter where we are. Once again I couldn't bear to leave this delicious tale and moved right along to read the next chapter The Lady in the Palazzo: At Home in Umbria. This story ranks right up there with my favorite books about Tuscany.
The best of the series!
This book was my introduction to Marlena De Blasi's collection of stories. In my opinion, "Tuscany" is the best story of the series. De Blasi paints beautiful pictures of the people, places and food on her adventure in Tuscany. Her humor and lust for food are always evident and her ability to weave the story tightly with these elements succeeds in transporting the reader to the kitchens, vineyards and orchards of this little village. This book launched me on the path to continue to read more of Marlena's stories, but perhaps like a first love...those that follow pale by comparison.
Read this book! And find a way to warm a winter's evening in the cold temperate climes
Thank you, Marlena and Fernando, for the warmest, loveliest winter reading experience (s) I have had in a long time! You got me through the howling winter evenings, and the dreary grey days, armchair travelling to your beloved Italy from my upstate NY lakeside community. I have told many of my friends about your books, and cannot WAIT for the latest installment, with old friend and new acquaintences filling your cornucopia of Life to overflowing.
It is evident you had a love at first sight, as we have reading your story.
My hope for you both to continue in good health (and great food and interesting beloved friends) as you make this life's journey together. Your story is an inspiration for those of us afraid of major life changes at 'any age.' GOD BLESS YOU BOTH!
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