Books About Italy, Italy Travel, Italy Life, Italy Experience!

I don’t know about you, but one of my favorite things to do when I go to a bookstore is make a beeline to the travel section and check out what’s on the shelves. I flip through guidebooks about all variations of Italy vacations and the Italian experience. I also meander over to the narratives. That gets trickier, because the books are shelved by author, not by region or country. So you have either to know what book you’re looking for or, if you’ve got a little time on your hands, to read the titles while you think about your next trip to Italy. You’ll definitely find a title or two. Under the Tuscan Sun by Frances Mayes is one classic. With good reason. The book, which was made into a movie starring Diane Lane, recounts the time Frances Mayes spent restoring a dilapidated villa in rural Tuscany. It’s quite a property, with, per her publisher, “faded frescos beneath the whitewash in her dining room, a vineyad under wildly overgrown brambles in the garden.” (The movie is loosely based on the book, the Diane Lane character is divorced, the book is about a married couple working on a renovation.)

In the spirit of celebrating Italy, Tour Italy Now is going to be making recommendations for books, films, exhibits, blogs and, last but not least, folks who tweet Italy on Twitter. Please suggest ideas here in the comment section or on Facebook or on Twitter. They can be new books or old, new movies or classics, Italy tweeters with a small following. If it’s about Italy and we like it, we’re game. We want to spread the word!

Yours in celebrating Italy,
Barbara Fellini