Frances Mayes's Journal Travel, Food, Books, People

We drove to Mira.  Never heard of it, right?  Neither had I.  We were picking up our friend Robert at the Venice airport Saturday morning early and selected an overnight in Mira, for its proximity to Marco Polo and for a hotel and restaurant that looked intriguing.  Good choice!  Mira is a village on the [...]

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Returning to Bramasole, we found the garden in full frisson.  This is an especially good year for roses, after all the downpours of May.  The Edens on the herb terrace wall decided to run rampant and they are a joy.  Sally Holmes I always refer to as a cheerleader and this year she’s doing the [...]

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11 June, Wall Street Journal link: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703561604575282892054989772.html?KEYWORDS=mayes
I admire Kate Bolick’s articles and am happy that she chose to write about our mountain house, and also about my good friend Fulvio Di Rosa’s project, the renovation of a medieval borgo in the mountains near Cortona. Included are slide shows of our house and Borgo di Vagli.
Another Italian [...]

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At lunch on the deck, someone spotted three dolphins leaping out of the waves.  Everyone abandoned their plates and leaned on the rails, hoping to see them but we saw only the water, so calm that the reflections of clouds slid over the blue, blue surface.  Maybe the tuna on the grill (dolphin fish?) sent [...]

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The book someone should write:  hidden Tuscany.  I won’t.  I don’t have the patience for details about hotels and restaurants and mileage from here to there.  But Tuscany is pieno, full, of places of secret loveliness, interest, good food, and  stunning landscape.  People often say to me, “Tuscany is full of tourists.”  Or, “We’ve been [...]

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