Your Comments
May 3rd, 2010
Thanks for writing, if you have. Something I cannot figure out is how to make my replies correspond with the comment. All comments go to spam until I approve them— lots of Viagra offers, absurd porn, and mortgage junk come my way and must be deleted. Once approved, the comment is posted. When I reply to one, my answer goes to spam too. When I approve my own answer, it no longer appears with the intended comment. It does go to the right post–but appears at random. This is a mystery. So–if you’ve asked me something, look around for the answer! I’m trying to solve this. Any suggestions???
What platform do you use for blogging? It sounds like there is a bug in the CMS (content management system). I use wordpress for my own blog and comments work very nicely. There is a spam filter to weed out the viagra type junk, and I also have to approve posts, but it is very simple and they all post to their original article. Looks like this may be something set up by your publisher. Ask them to switch you to a wordpress.org platform. Good luck.
Dan–thanks! Will pass this on to the team at Random House. I don’t even know what a “platform” is! Frances
Valuable info. Lucky me I found your site by accident, I bookmarked it.
I wrote to you once many moons ago, make it years…I never received a reply but just figured it wouldn’t go directly to you anyway (I imagined you had an entourge the size of the US president I was so in awe of you).
So I’d like this chance to say again…thankyou
I first read Under a Tuscan Sun a decade ago when I was suffering a bout of depression and lethargy. Your book spoke poetically to my soul and helped trigger me into the moment of gratitude and then freedom from that moment I was stuck in. I remember reading a few pages, then going outside and really “seeing” a tree outside I had taken for granted. I loved that tree…and nature, the light of autumn and I began to “live” again.
Each book you publish is a tonic for me. Your writing touches us all in a magical, hopeful way.
Thankyou!
Colleen
Hello Ms. Mayes,
I absolutely loved the movie Under The Tuscan Sun and I have always believed that the book is usually better than the movie. So I was online looking for it when I discovered there is a new one and another I did not realize existed. I am trying to figure out which is the first. I prefer to read an author in chronological order. Could you tell me if Bella Tuscany came first, and if not, which one did?
Thank you so much!
Lisa Gomley
Hi Lisa–there have been so many by now: Under the Tuscan Sun, then Bella Tuscany, now Every Day in Tuscany. And two phototexts: In Tuscany and Bringing Tuscany Home. Thrown into the mix were also a novel, Swan, and a book of travel narratives, A Year in the World. Now I’m working on a memoir about the American South–something totally different. Thanks for writing. Frances
Dear Frances, Since hearing you read at Pancuito in Hillsborough about Ed loving Cannellini beans for breakfast (with olive oil, salt, pepper)…i have been eating them every day and loving this! I wanted to send you an email to say that besides the obvious joy involved- Did you realize that Cannellini beans- among other riches- have 45% of thiamin-B1- per serving???? That is rather luscious……..10% zinc, 10% phosphorous, 10% iron, 15% magnesium, 6% folate and 4% calcium, riboflavin 8% (B2)? Bravo to you for introducing me to a new and grand breakfast! Best, Averette that works for Sharon at Purple Crow Books
Averette–Thanks for this info about the nutritional values of cannellini beans–this makes them even better. With leftover cannellini, an easy dip or spread is to puree them with garlic, sage leaves, salt and pepper. Really good. The Panciuto event was such fun–real sense of community in that town! Frances
Ciao Ms. Mayes, Last year, flying to Bologna, I read your book, Under the Tuscan Sun. I was heading to a 4-week visit to Reggio Emilia. I traveled with mixed feelings as my friend and her husband, who had invited me, were hospitalized in critical condition and understandably not available to me. While I had a reservation at Anna e Ricca B&B and a schedule for Italian lessons at Reggio Lingua, I was essentially on my own. At the end of the month, as I headed home, I took with me wonderful memories of good friends and good times. This wasn’t my first time in Italy but it was my very first time staying in one place for such a long time. From the very first day I was ‘passed around’ – and a network of contacts evolved into an amazing network of new friends. I would meet someone and after a time they would say ‘you must meet XXXXX.’ They would make the contact, we would me and next thing I knew I had to keep a written calendar! Off to Cinque Terra, a day in Rimini, Aida @ Verona, Jazz in Montalvo, Quatro Castelle – I could go on. I grew to love the people, the food, the small towns – everything. This year will return and will stay even longer. This time, my dear friends who extended the first invitation will be there to greet me – greatly improved and ready to welcome me to their home. Thanks to FB, email and SKYPE I have been able to stay in touch with everyone and I am looking forward to reconnecting. While the food, wine, customs, etc. differ from one provence/region to another one thing is constant. The joy of life and the welcoming nature of the Italian people. (Oh, I loved the book!) Grazie Mille!
It’s posts like this that keep me coming back and checking this site regularly, thanks for the info!
Dear Ms. Mayes,
I have read and re read Under the Tuscan Sun and made all the wonderful recipes from that book. The Mushroom Lasagna and the Roast Pork are now my tradional Christmas Day Dinner. I am from Italian decent and just love the way you have taken your readers on a wonderful journey. This Mothers Day my daughter gave me a copy of Bella Tuscany and I love it. I especially enjoyed your trip to Sicily when you mentioned the town of Modica which is my maiden name. My Dad was born in Sicily near Ragusa but I have never been there myself. My parent retired to Rome and a small town near San Remo but are both deceased now. You take me back to villages and stories they would tell us when together. I have looked at the town of Modica online and even purchased the chocolate they specialize in for an Easter dinner with the whole family and gave all my nieces and nephews and my children copies of the history of Modica.
Thank you for giving me such a warm good feeling while reading your books. I am going to read the next one in July when I take my vacation . We live in Fairfield Ct which has many beaches-it is not the Med but I love it. Please keep writing and sharing.
Warmest regards
Taffy Parisi
t
Hah I am honestly the only reply to your awesome read?
Dear Ms. Mayes, I writing to you to say….I know..what you feel…I been living my Toscana dream for 12 years now…and I am as in love now as the first day I arrived. I am an Canadian, born of Italian parents. and I tell you that I would not live no where else in the world…I found out about your book, Under the Tuscan Sun, and the movie, one day 5 years ago when I happen to be back in Canada for the holidays and I was standing on line in a store, talking to the cashier, and I happen to mention that I live in Tuscany, and the woman next to me went wild !! saying, “Oh my God, did you see the movie, under the tuscan sun”? “I want to move there..” at that moment I had to say “no” but then I did….for me it’s the magic here, and I understand everything you had said and written about this wondrous place.. please keep writing, I can wait to get a copy of your new book. All the best !
About the problem you are having with emails going to spam, my firend had to contact her serve.
Hi! I am very fascinated and inspired with your writings. Just like you, I have fallen in love with Italy and I have this appetite to learn about their food, their culture…their every day life! I am a food enthusiast and an aspiring writer. And I’m thinking of going back to Florence to embark on a gastronomic journey. What words of wisdom can you share?
Kudos and more success to you!
Claire
Washington DC
Your Comments The Official Website and Blog of Frances MayesI completely agree with the above comment,6/5/2010
Dear Frances,
I congratulate you on your sheer exuberance and courage and on the ongoing vitality and romanticism you symbolize for so so many individuals who have dreams that don’t always come true.
I have a powerful dream myself – it all began when the eminent Architectural Historian at Yale Universtiy – Vincent Scully – who insisted if I was interested in public art that I had to experience ROME to understand Michaelangelo’s shaping of public space and powerful gesture in the placing of the great bronze equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius on the pedestal there at the center of the world ‘Caput Mundi’.
On a Fulbright Fellowship in 1983-84 in Rome I was struck by the beauty and abandon of the Rome’s Tiber River, where in the heart and center of Rome there is an absolutely perfect rectangle a ‘water theatre’ that becons – that I envision as the beginning of an international water festival and conference the beginning of a World Water Foundation !
Frances, I am a visual artist with a powerful instinct for space, for light and the fluid of TIME…. I was just reading the recent Wall St. Journal article on your new book and was struck by the following quote: “In America I usually feel up against time—looking at my watch, booking appointments weeks in advance,” she says. “Here time is more of a river to float on, than a current to swim against.”. I would love LOVE to meet you and talk to you about the Tiber River that runs through Tuscany to Rome. I would love to share some of my experiences in Rome with you ! I have been working on a project called TEVERETERNO, Rome’s River (www.tevereterno.it ) for the past 10 years, in Rome 10 years is hardly a beginning. I am 53 years young full of energy I have built a small group of believers who volunteer time and advice. I can not help but know that your experience in Italy – that meeting you could be extremely valuable to me. I am at a turning point, its time to stop and change the way I work. Your advice would mean a great great deal to me.
I am a huge fan.
Can I invite you to the beautiful home of a dear friend of mine outside of Todi in the first of second week of August ?
Kristin Jones
‘Teverista’
Kristin, sounds interesting!! I will be back in the US after the Tuscan Sun Festival. Keep in touch–Frances
Cara Frances,
I just sent you a note about my dream for Rome’s River: TEVERETERNO. I forgot to mention that I have dared to name a section of the Tiber as the cornerstone of the project: “Piazza Tevere”.
Here is a quote from our website about : PIAZZA TEVERE:
Rome is a city of water, a city of fountains. Water is the dramatic focal element celebrated throughout Rome’s public piazzas. The legendary city was born on the banks of the Tiber, the source of life and water. Today the Tiber River, the spine of the city, flows isolated and apart from urban life. The Tiber’s natural flow is confined within man-made constraints. For most Romans, the Tiber River does not exist.
Hidden within the fantastic serpentine meander, a ready-made arena awaits the public. It is a contemplative space: the current, an intangible constant, the serene silence of the water magnified by the noise of the city. Between Ponte Sisto and Ponte Mazzini, the dramatic site is the only straight segment of the Tiber, remarkably equal in dimension, and parallel to the ancient public arena, the Circus Maximus.
The space holds tremendous potential to become a public gathering place, a site for art outside of the traditional confines of museum or gallery, a commons: a piazza for the Tiber.
Salve,
Kristin