Arrival in Tuscany
May 16th, 2010
After the long flight (longer because of flying way north to avoid the volcanic ash) the shock of deeply verdant hills flashing by the car window opens wide my sleepy eyes. The splendid greens of May, intensified by constant rain, glow with a florescent brightness. Towers! Poppies! Sheep! We’re back. Always, it’s a miracle. Oh, no, Mirko is driving 110 miles an hour. I’ll have to get used to that. Bramasole looks beautiful in the rain as we struggle up the driveway with our luggage. I broke the family carry-on only rule and Ed has the pleasure of pulling fifty pounds uphill under a cloud burst. Gilda has left soup, a dish of chicken and artichokes and several salume and cheeses, which we attack immediately. The house has been closed all winter and a faint mustiness is slowly giving way to the flowers Gilda has left in every room. I’m in time this year for my lilacs and peonies. The two mystery roses—twins—that survived thirty years when the house was abandoned, and now twenty more of our years here, are laden with buds about to break open. No one ever has identified this rose, which has an essential-rose fragrance, a tight round bud and a glorious many-petaled form. I call it the Bramasole Rose.
Home! We simply pick up where we dropped off last fall. Ed goes out to get his hair cut. He’s been waiting for Francesco’s special touch with his spiky hair. I pick up the book I didn’t finish last October and fall to bed for a three hour sleep. Lovely that the days are long now. We walk around the land and see that our fava beans are coming along, and the artichokes will be ready soon. Half of one plum tree looks dead. Ed builds a fire and we have dinner pulled up close to the heat. This stone house hasn’t given up winter yet.
We talk about how the summer looks and how busy we’ll be with the 20th Anniversary party, loads of guests, a wedding in Friuli, a cruise where I’m to be the guest speaker, The Tuscan Sun Festival (Sting is coming!) and on and on. This summer, I’ll probably spend most of my time in the kitchen because we’ve decided to gather all our favorite recipes into The Tuscan Sun Cookbook. Ed is delighted because when it’s published, we won’t have to search through my books, our folders, and in odd drawers for scraps of paper where I’ve scrawled the ingredients for something we’ve eaten somewhere. Steven Rothfeld will photograph as we go. www.stevenrothfeld.com We work together every year on an agenda with photographs (Frances Mayes Under the Tuscan Sun Agenda from Chronicle Books) and he did the good work in Bringing Tuscany Home. We’re excited about creating a book together and look forward to the inspiring fun of being with Steven.
We’ll start with spring’s bounty: peas, asparagus, fave, artichokes, green almonds, green garlic—green, green green. We’re seeing green and will be tasting green for weeks. First dish: risotto primavera. Tomorrow, we’ll go to the market.
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What a lovely post. I wish I could purchase a Bramasole Rose – what a wonderful testament they are to enduring hardship and neglect, and flourishing under the right care.
I’m enjoying the same simple pleasures here in Coeur d’ Alene, Idaho – a place you’d likely enjoy as well.
I wouldn’t want to be anywhere but here, however… if I HAD to be somewhere else, it would definitely be Tuscany or Ireland.
I just found your blog, and will be visiting often. I’ve been wanting to send a letter or note for the past three years… and finally have found a way.
Your book (and the subsequent movie) “Under The Tuscan Sun” quite literally saved my spirit. Here is a little of my story:
I left my pilot husband due to infidelity among other things with my 15 month old son in tow (I was also 8 months pregnant with our planned twin sons) and had an incredibly difficult adjustment to finding my spirit again after the subsequent divorce. I left Alabama for Idaho with only what I could fit in my car (which was mostly baby equipment) and crumbled.
It was in those very dark, frightening days that I’d pull out your book, and read it again and again. The struggles with feeling beautiful again, finding joy, feeling the power of true forgiveness… it all spoke to my heart in a way that would bring me back to life when it felt as though there were nothing but ash left inside my chest.
Now, I’m pursuing some “terrible ideas”, and more joyful, strong and hopeful than ever. I still watch the movie from time to time to remember the various things that I’ve endured and overcome, but rather than feeling desperate and alone, I feel empowered. I feel a kinship with her. The faucet in my life if finally streaming and filling me with childlike delight.
Thank you for capturing those feelings and giving my heart an opportunity to see what it was like to thrive, if only for a moment, in those dark days.
Hi Frances,
I am an Italian/Australian living in sunny Brisbane, Queensland Australia. I am first generation Italian with both parents born in Italy. I constantly feel a connection with Italy and believe not only that we will again visit but hopefully spend some time there in the distant future. Scattered all over Italy are relatives whom we last saw 8 years ago, hopefully sometime next year we will see them again.
In essence i wanted to thank you for writing such vivid descriptions in your books. I love the movie Under the Tuscan Sun, I have Bringing Tuscany Home and I have just started to read Every Day in Tuscany. I love reading about your food ‘adventures’ and the simplicity of eating within Italy. When I am reading I feel like I am there as on onlooker, I look forward to finishing the book.. Thank you for bringing Tuscany home to me, I love the Tuscany area and am planning to have my 40th birthday in Tuscany with friends, hopefully I too can see the now famous Bramasole..
Regards
Anna
Dear Ms. Mayes: I have just started reading for what must be the sixth or seventh time “Under the Tuscan Sun” because, as my own retirement plans begin to take shape, my wife and I and another couple plan to spend 3-4 weeks in Tuscany in the fall of 2012 and it helps to get ‘in the mood’ for that great adventure. I am an avid reader–and your book initially served to reinforce my “savor the moment” attitude while encouraging me to explore the other possibilities that life has to offer.
Your books (and I have all of them but the latest publication) have brought me great joy while faithfully reinforcing the good stuff in my life, of which there are many. Best regards: Scott
Hi Frances – We’re having the dream of a lifetime trip to Italy for a month and chose to end it in Tuscany for a week at Villa La Limonaia just outside Castiglion Fiorentina (in part because of you). I was also born and raised in South Georgia (Colquitt) and a friend of the Jay family in Fitzgerald. Like you, I left for college (in ‘57)and never returned but love my southern heritage. Before returning to Maryland the first of next week, we would love to say hello and share a story or two. 0575 97 456 is the local number and my cell is 443-676-6121. You will have this e-mail address. A long shot you would respond…..but hey….I’ve been lucky all my life and what a tale I could tell our friends back home! Chuck
And when do you leave Castiglion Fiorentina????
Hi Frances – We are supposed to go to Florence on Saturday and fly back from there to the US on Tuesday. But we love staying at La Limonaia on the Villa Albergotti property that we hate to leave and are thinking of staying at least until Sunday. What do you think?? :>) We would love to see you. Charles from South Georgia
I know how impossible this is….but I remember a recipe in one of the books. I’ve read them all and can’t remember which one! It was a casserole with four cheeses, two sausages and pasta, tomatoes….yum! HELP! I have guests coming over Friday at 6:30 p.m. PT and I need that recipe!
I so enjoyed the description of your return to Italy. I was in Switzerland for 6 months last year and spring was such a highlight of my time there. I can still smell the lilacs in the air if I close my eyes. Europe is a glorious place in spring.
Hi again – We are here in CF thru today (Saturday) and leave for Florence and back to the USA on Tuesday. We had friends show us around Cortona yesterday and see why you love it. Fantastic! Earlier, lunch at La Macine is another experience not to be missed with the great food and spectacular views. Charles and Anita……who will stay longer here at La Limonaia on the Villa Albergotti Estate property next time!
Dear Madame,
I am Italian, and I come from Tuscany also if I am studing in London.
I have read your book Under the Tuscan Sun, but your description of Italian characters is so picturesque, so ingenua, that someone could not understand why in this land we had a so great culture. It is not ONLY a place for holidays and for enjoing life,love and food. I hope the beloved Forster could agree with my impressions…………
Beautiful landscapes do not come from the sky…Thank you for reading.
Best regards
Elisabetta
Hello Frances,
I absolutely adore Italy. I’ve been there four or five times now. and I speak quite good Italian. I have been looking for a way to live and work there for years, but have not found that way yet. Because of my rather ‘unconventional’ life experiences and point of view as well as my extensive experiences living and working overseas people are constantly telling me I should write a book. I actually would like to write a screenplay. I do really enjoy writing but the problem is that though I have an idea ‘how’ to write, I don’t know ‘what’ to write or how to begin. If I were to write fiction I would have no idea how to create a character or create believable dialogue. Do you know of anywhere in the vicinity of Florence where an expat could take writing classes without spending an arm and a leg? I will be staying in Tuscany for several months this fall, and I’m hoping to find somewhere near Florence to take an advanced beginner or intermediate-level writing classes for a few months.
Thanks in advance. Ciao!
Gent.ma signora Mayes, sono italiana e sono una docente di architettura, molto impegnata per la difesa dell’ambiente tutto, dall’aria, all’acqua , al verde all’architettura agli intimi luoghi che molto bene lei descrive e che anche io amo da tempo. Ho letto con estremo piacere ma anche con intensa emozione il suo libro che ho acquistato per caso in una libreria a Massa Marittima. Così ho fortunatamente conosciuto lei e con lei ho rivissuto la mia esperienza. Anche io e mio marito, che viviamo in Liguria abbiamo deciso di comprare una casa in Toscana, a Massa Marittima, e come lei abbiamo vissuto momenti di emozioni contrastanti ma di estremo piacere per la nostra vita. Mi sono ritrovata in Lei, mentre scrivo quaderni di appunti, mentre ricerco ricette e ristorantini, mentre compro erbe per cucinare e cose per arredare,insomma nel suo libro ho letto un pezzo della mia vita. E’straordinario tutto questo e le confido che rileggo il libro proprio per rivivere questo sentimento.
Anche noi con le nostre figlie, quando possiamo, torniamo nella nostra casa in Toscana e non le nascondo che desidererei infinitamente incontrarla, magari a Cortona per conoscere Bramasole! La ringrazio per la cortese attenzione e la saluto ANTONIA
Dear Frances,
I’m delighted to hear that you’re preparing a cookbook for us! Would you mind if I make a couple of requests? The first is simple (I think) but I’ve not had good luck finding a recipe for it: antipasti… specifically, I would love for someone to tell me how to prepare the wonderful marinated (and often grilled) vegetables that constitute an antipasti platter.
The second request is for a heavenly pasta dish that my husband and I enjoyed a couple of months ago at a hotel near Rome. It’s called Tagliolini al Limone, and the restaurant (in the hotel) was called La Pineta dei Liberti (everything in this restaurant was wonderful, but especially this pasta dish). I’ve tried to reproduce the recipe on my own with no luck – perhaps you could convince the chef to share the secret to this perfect pasta. You’re certain to have more luck than I would.
I know it’s a crazy request, but I’ve found that if you never ask, you never receive.
The best of luck with your cookbook. I will keep an eye out for it.
Warm regards,
Loretta Wilkening
I just finished a Bramasole marathon by reading all three (Under the Tuscan Sun, Bella Tuscany and Every Day in Tuscany) in a row. I must confess I have seen the movie Under the Tuscan Sun twice and although it was enjoyable, the book is oh, so much better!
Even my little smattering of Italian has improved as I repeated your Italian words and phrases aloud …
I’m so glad there will be a cookbook. I’ve copied (by hand) the recipes from all three books – already made the Fruit & Mascarpone Tart and can’t wait to try several others this summer…. Planning on the Garlic Flan as part of our Thanksgiving dinner…!
Molto bene, bella… Grazie!
Hello Frances,
I just read your blog and learned that you are working on a cookbook! As a big fan of yours and Ed’s, I can’t wait. I have all of your books and was just gathering the audiobook info so that I can ask my husband for them for my birthday. They do wonders for my 3 hour a day commute!
Coincidentally, I just renamed my favorite cocktail (the old fashioned “Sidecar”) a Tuscan Sun Kiss. I had never made them before and the first time I poured the golden amber drink into my frosted crystal martini glass….it didn’t look like a Sidecar, it looked like a kiss of Tuscan sun…hence my new name. Here’s the recipe if you would like to try:
1/3 Cointreau
1/3 Freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/3 Hennessey Cognac VSOP
Shake well over ice and pour into frosted martini glass with a good sugar rim. Garnish with small twist of lemon. Bella!
Mille grazie for sharing Italy with us!
gent.ma sig.a mayes ho letto il suo libro”sotto il sole della Toscana” e l’ho divorato perchè ho rivissuto la mia esperienza che è stata quella di comprare una casa a massa marittima che lei conosce.Mi sono ritrovata in lei perchè ho anche io le sue stesse passioni ed essendo un architetto e un insegnante , amo particolarmente l’ambiente e l’arte toscana.Spero un giorno di incontrarla a Cortona.
Saluti Antonia