A chronicle of the author's first four years in Italy, describing her purchase and restoration of an abandoned villa in the Tuscan countryside, her transformation of the overgrown gardens, and her discovery of the many links between the food and culture of the region.

Contains essays and photographs that celebrate the pleasures of life in Tuscany, discussing the Italian village, feasts and festivals, the growing seasons, the kitchen, and the natural beauty of the region.

The author, having spent several summers working to restore the villa she purchased in Tuscany, shares her ongoing love affair with her home and the country, and discusses her joyous experience of the spring season in Italy.

From the famed author of Under the Tuscan Sun, the most delicious Tuscan pasta recipes that can be made in the time it takes to boil water. Frances Mayes is known for transporting readers to the charming Italian countryside in her bestselling books. In Pasta Veloce, Mayes brings that irresistible Italian flavor right to your home with 100 of her favorite pasta recipes. These well-loved recipes blend traditional Italian technique with magic from Mayes's...

"Dara Willcox, up in New York for a weekend, meets Austin Clarke at an art gallery. If love at first sight can happen, it happens to them. These two vivid, ambitious people are on different trajectories - he's British, working temporarily in New York. She's set on law school. They don't care. They will make their lives together happen. At their engagement dinner at Dara's family home, her mother Lee sets a beautiful table and the family and close...