Nothing feels as good as settling into the place you call home and celebrating with friends at your dinner table makes it even better. Frances Mayes knows that feeling all too well as described in her new book Every Day in Tuscany: Seasons of an Italian Life, the sequel to her wildly popular memoir, Under the Tuscan Sun. Mayes and her husband Ed are still living in Cortona at their home Bramasole and now relish the daily routines that fluctuate with the seasons.
Weekend trips to seaside towns and vineyards are favorite past times now. Art expeditions through small villages across Italy become a passion to Mayes as she searches for paintings by her beloved and long-gone friend Luca Signorelli. Living friends and neighbors teach cooking classes that are a must to Mayes if she is ever going to learn how to work the oven properly to make the perfect pizza.
Yes, food is the focal point of this book as in the prequel. Mayes includes recipes for all of her meals and describes the setting that goes with each menu. Over plates of Potato Ravioli with Zucchini, Speck, and Pecorino or Crostini with Rucola Pesto and Cherry Tomatoes you hear children laughing in the garden and watch neighbors playing musical chairs to have a chance to talk with everyone at the long table. Singing and music ensues later into the evening. Scenes like this permeate the book and leave your mouth watering and heart desiring a plane ticket to Tuscany.
No one enjoys the food more than Mayes’ young grandson, Willie, and her determination to introduce him to Tuscan food and culture is what I love most about the book:
“I never love Italy more than when Willie is here. Everything good about living here magnifies. Everything just ordinary takes on the aura of his interest. Having this boy in my life offers many large gifts and the best is an expansive sense of largesse. Maybe freedom comes when you can feel your best self way out in the open.”
She is in awe of him as she watches him become involved in the kitchen and is eager to try new foods. She loves his innocence and wonder as he walks through a museum. In turn, it reminds her of how much she loves Italy. Shouldn’t we always walk through life always with this sense of amazement? We would then appreciate everything so much more despite the routines. No matter how settled Mayes is in Cortona, she enjoys every day throughout every season and that is the way to live a Tuscan life.
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