Book Review: Every Day in Tuscany

For over forty years, I've been an Anglophile. I never experienced a yen for Italy. Then, in 2017, I took a solo trip to London/Paris/Rome. If I had to rank them, I enjoyed Rome the most, then Paris, and London the least, this time around. I had a marvelous time in Italy and only wish I had spent more days there. Two days in Rome was simply not enough! Now, whenever travel videos come on my Facebook feed, showing Italian streets and sights, I'm always interested. Plus, Maria Novajosky's book about her Italian heritage whet my appetite even more (see my review here).

The author of Every Day in Tuscany is a poet, so the writing is highly poetic. Almost too much so. Is that possible? She waxes lyrical about the Renaissance painter Luca Signorelli and expounds on many recipes and foods. I'm a horrible cook, so I didn't even bother to open the expanded final CD for the pdf of recipes. Still, it was fun to hear someone articulate what she loves about Italy. It was, as the back cover proclaimed, "a passionate and inviting account of the richness and complexity of Italian life." Yet, if asked to rank the two similar books, I would choose Maria Novajosky's An Ocean, an Airplane, and Two Countries Full of Kisses over this memoir. Perhaps more accessible.