I’m conflicted about this book, so I’ll just say that I enjoyed much of it: The author Frances Mayes’s romantic descriptions of the landscape, her ambition to take a big risk restoring a crumbling villa, and her efforts as an outsider to really embrace the Tuscan way of life. Other parts struck me as a little out-of-touch, namely the barely acknowledged pile of money it would take to own a home in San Francisco, restore a home in Italy, fly back and forth multiple times per year, travel around, buy furnishings, stock a wine cellar, etc. I’m trying to keep in mind that this book was published in 1996, when that kind of wealth was still portrayed in pop culture as achievable or at least aspirational for middle class people. Things have changed, but the author can’t be blamed for that.
The other part worth mentioning is that, while this book was undoubtedly romantic — Mayes is swept off her feet by Tuscany, the culture, and the work before her — there is no love story to speak of. We are told she is divorced, and her beau Ed is an equal partner in the Tuscany project, but there is zero in the way of romantic scenes between them. That differs, I’m told, from the film adaptation of the book. I’m glad, because the book is about the larger romance of going all-in on a dream, and focusing too much on a relationship would have distracted from that.
So, notwithstanding the parts that come off as out-of-touch nearly 30 years after it was published, the book was a well-written and inspirational account of a hugely ambitious project that most people wouldn’t have the fortitude — or the means — to see to completion.