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A Thousand Days in Tuscany: A Bittersweet Adventure | 
 enlarge | Author: Marlena De Blasi
Publisher: Algonquin Books
Category: Book
List Price: $23.95
Buy Used: $1.48
You Save: $22.47 (94%)
New (23) Collectible (1) from $10.99
Avg. Customer Rating:  24 reviews
Sales Rank: 385231
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 325
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 7.2 x 5.8 x 1.3
ISBN: 1565123921
Dewey Decimal Number: 641.59455
EAN: 9781565123922
ASIN: 1565123921
Publication Date: November 1, 2004
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: E-mail sent to you when item is mailed.
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Product Description
American chef Marlena de Blasi and her Venetian husband, Fernando, married rather late in life. In search of the rhythms of country living, the couple moves to a barely renovated former stable in Tuscany with no phone, no central heating, and something resembling a playhouse kitchen. They dwell among two hundred villagers, ancient olive groves, and hot Etruscan springs. In this patch of earth where Tuscany, Umbria, and Lazio collide, there is much to feed de Blasi's two passions--food and love. We accompany the couple as they harvest grapes, gather chestnuts, forage for wild mushrooms, and climb trees in the cold of December to pick olives, one by one. Their routines are not that different from those of villagers centuries earlier.
They are befriended by the mesmeric Barlozzo, a self-styled village chieftain. His fascinating stories lead de Blasi more deeply inside the soul of Tuscany. Together they visit sacred festivals and taste just-pressed olive oil, drizzled over roasted country bread, and squash blossoms, battered and deep-fried and sprayed with sea-salted water. In a cauldron set over a wood fire, they braise beans in red wine, and a stew of wild boar simmers overnight in the ashes of their hearth. Barlozzo shares his knowledge of Italian farming traditions, ancient health potions, and artisanal food makers, but he has secrets he doesn't share, and one of them concerns the beautiful Floriana, whose illness teaches Marlena that happiness is truly a choice.
Like the pleasurable tastes and textures of a fine meal, A Thousand Days in Tuscany is as satisfying as it is enticing. The author's own recipes are included.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 19 more reviews...
 From Venice to Tuscany July 18, 2008
Left wanting more from Ms. DeBlasi's previous book, I moved with her from Venice to Tuscany and never wanted to leave. The prose in these books is as sumptuous as the life seems to be--rich in detail, rich in emotion and rich in love for the place, the people and the food. Through Ms. DeBlasi's pen, we are immersed in tender moments, breathtaking settings and relationships of great depth, which brought tears and laughter and a hunger to share such a life. Most surprisingly, I came away thinking life can be more deeply appreciated no matter where we are. Once again I couldn't bear to leave this delicious tale and moved right along to read the next chapter The Lady in the Palazzo: At Home in Umbria. This story ranks right up there with my favorite books about Tuscany.
The best of the series! May 13, 2008
This book was my introduction to Marlena De Blasi's collection of stories. In my opinion, "Tuscany" is the best story of the series. De Blasi paints beautiful pictures of the people, places and food on her adventure in Tuscany. Her humor and lust for food are always evident and her ability to weave the story tightly with these elements succeeds in transporting the reader to the kitchens, vineyards and orchards of this little village. This book launched me on the path to continue to read more of Marlena's stories, but perhaps like a first love...those that follow pale by comparison.
Read this book! And find a way to warm a winter's evening in the cold temperate climes April 10, 2008
Thank you, Marlena and Fernando, for the warmest, loveliest winter reading experience (s) I have had in a long time! You got me through the howling winter evenings, and the dreary grey days, armchair travelling to your beloved Italy from my upstate NY lakeside community. I have told many of my friends about your books, and cannot WAIT for the latest installment, with old friend and new acquaintences filling your cornucopia of Life to overflowing.
It is evident you had a love at first sight, as we have reading your story.
My hope for you both to continue in good health (and great food and interesting beloved friends) as you make this life's journey together. Your story is an inspiration for those of us afraid of major life changes at 'any age.' GOD BLESS YOU BOTH!
My new favorite book October 27, 2007
I love this book and would love to give a copy to everyone I know. I wish I had MDB in my life too. Reading that books moves you to look around and enjoy/love the life you find yourself living. The food and recipes are great, but what I really take away from this book is the philosophy/life lessons.
My favorite quote from the book, "First prize for not waiting, for not waiting to splash in a river, for not promising myself that I would someday splash in a river, but for doing it now, right now."
 (4.5 stars) A gorgeous tribute to Tuscany and her people... September 28, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
A THOUSAND DAYS IN TUSCANY is Marlena de Blasi's second memoir recounting her life in Italy, after 2002's A THOUSAND DAYS IN VENICE. In the book's opening pages, she and her husband and soul mate, Fernando, have left Venice for a dilapidated farmouse deep in the Tuscan countryside. The residents of the idyllic village near their new home welcome them with a meal, which inevitably lasts for hours, ending with a dessert whose cream was just milked from a blue-eyed cow that morning. Subsequently, Marlena and Fernando are befriended by Barlozzo, one of the town's oldest residents, who is eager to share stories about the locals and to introduce them to timeless Tuscan traditions: hunting for truffles, baking bread, picking olives for olive oil, crushing grapes for wine, harvesting chestnuts... But it's not just Tuscany that Marlena and Fernando learn about during their stay in one of the world's most beautiful places; they also learn a lot about each other and about themselves, and a lot about what it means to slow down and enjoy a life free from the hustle and bustle of the modern world.
This was a beautiful, beautiful book, with some of the most stunning writing I've ever come across. De Blasi's descriptions bring Old World Tuscany utterly and completely to life; you can almost taste the olive oil, can almost feel the grapes bursting under your feet, can almost imagine yourself there, in an old Tuscan farmhouse, starting out the window at that marvelous landscape. The pictures de Blasi paints of the townspeople are insightful and vibrant, and the recipes at the end of every chapter are completely succulent, including the recipe for the "one true bruschetta" (no tomatoes, no garlic, no onion or herbs...just fresh-baked toasted bread doused in olive oil and topped with a little bit of sea salt). It's really obvious from her writing that de Blasi loves everything about Italy: her people, her food, her breathtaking vistas and her sun-drenched, relaxed way of life.
I fell in love with Marlena de Blasi's Italy, with her gorgeous writing, her delicious traditional Tuscan recipes, and her vivid portrayals of the people who live in the beauty and romance of Tuscany every day. There were moments when I felt like her writing bordered on pretentious, but mostly I just thought everything about this book was gorgeous. I haven't read A THOUSAND DAYS IN VENICE, but I'm definitely going to. You can definitely tell how much Fernando and Marlena are in love in this book, but I'm eager to learn how their love story began.
The Tuscan state of mind can best be summed up with the following passage, spoken by one of Marlena's dearest Tuscan friends: "Maybe the only thing that matters is to make our lives last as long as we do. You know, to make a life last until it ends, to make all the parts come out even, like when you rub the last piece of bread in the last drop of oil on your plate and eat it with the last sip of wine in your glass." A THOUSAND DAYS IN TUSCANY is a book for people in love, for people who long for a simpler way of life, for people who go to that idyllic Tuscan countryside every night in their dreams. I loved everything about this book!
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