"The Travel Groupies"!! Just a chance for us addicts to say hi and touch base with the others afflicted with the same problem.
Hi Countrymouse, Barb, Elaine (I'd love to learn more about you. You are amazing), Scarlett, Bobthenav. Rex, Ira and everyone else. Hi and thanks Socialworker for my title.
1st general question to keep this going: Best recent vaction book (I'll be in Italy if that helps)?

ttt

Well, I am not sure I am a groupie rather than an addict, but for Tuscany you need to read VANILLA BEANS & BRODO by Isabella Dusi. It will get you into the heads of real Tuscans and their lives. It is all about life in Montalcino as seen thru the eyes of this transplanted Aussie. You can see my review at Amazon.com. We had the pleasure of spending a Sunday morning with her last Oct. Her new book is BEL VINO but is not easily obtained in the USA as yet.

Reading "Leonardo: The Artist and the Man" by Serge Bramley
1. because I want to know about LdaV
2. because we're going to Amboise soon

Bonjour panucci!
My most recent book took place in Provence, so I am useless
But I am reading my Food & Wine Italian recipe book

Since I couldn't cite anything good for you, I went Amazon-surfing.

Take a look at "Pasquale's Nose: Idle Days in an Italian Town" - - and if that doesn't seem like your cup of tea, then something here might work for you...

=======================

Customers who bought this book also bought:

A Valley in Italy by Lisa St. Aubin de Teran

A Thousand Days in Venice: An Unexpected Romance (Ballantine Reader's Circle) by Marlena De Blasi

An Italian Affair by LAURA FRASER

Ciao, America: An Italian Discovers the U.S by Beppe Severgnini, Giles Watson

The Hills of Tuscany: A New Life in an Old Land by Ferenc Mate

============================

Best wishes,

Rex

Hi Panucci,

Rex beat me to it, but I was going to suggest A Thousand Days in Venice, also. Under the Tuscan Sun is a nice read, although it's nothing like the movie. It's very descriptive to get you in the Italian mood, though. A Room with a View is also a good book.

If you'll be in Southern Tuscany you might enjoy Iris Origo's "War in Val d'Orcia" and "Images and Shadows".

We stayed in one of the rentals at La Foce, her former home, and found the area history in both books very interesting.

The estate offers tours of the gardens, which, depending on the time of year that you are there, are beautiful.

I just finished 1000 days in Venice and its wonderful.

Extra Virgin is the title, I don't remember the author. About two women who take jobs at a vineyard in northern italy.

I'll chime in with 1,000 Days in Venice as a real page-turner.

If you're in Venice I can also recommend Venetian Dreaming by Paula Weideger. Weideger becomes intrigued with a pink palazzo on Fondamente Nuove and rents part of it for a year.

For Florence - Brunelleschi's Dome by Ross King.

I found "War in Val d'Orcia" rather tedious. I'm glad I read it, but had to take it in small doses over several weeks.

"Under the Tuscan Sun" and "Bella Tuscany" are among my favorite books of all time. (The movie was a joke.) Her descriptions of Etruscan art, the color of the sun, etc. Oh, sigh. I may have to read them again.

I'm currently reading "Botticelli Blue Skies" by Merrill Joan Gerber. She and her husband moved to Florence while he taught art history. I'm enjoying it because she goes so many places I'm planning to visit in February.

Which one do you guys recommend next: Brunelleschi's Dome, 1000 days, or Vanilla Beans?

Hi Panucci:

I just finished Almost French, which I REALLY enjoyed and I am now into Me Talk Pretty One Day. I just received Vanilla Beans and Brodo, which will be my travel book for upcoming trip to Tuscany,(together with 2nd Bridget Jones Diary book for the plane) I have been saving the Da Vinci Code to read right before I leave. Enjoyed Angels and Demons too. Stopped reading A Place in Normandy by Nicholas Kilmer, just didn't care for his writing style. Still hoping to catch up with you in Tuscany!

Hi panucci,

Aside from some others already mentioned; and some that I now look forward to reading, I enjoyed "As the Romans Do" by Alan Epstein too.

I'd add "Dances with Luigi" to this list. Much preferred it to Pasquale's Nose.

And, Annie Hawes wrote Extra Virgin. She has a sequel out. Like Bel Vino, the sequel to Isabella Duse's Vanilla Beans & Brodo, it is not available in the US. Go to amazon's UK site for these two.

I was entranced by War in Val d'Orcia. Preferred it to Origo's autobiography, Images and Shadows. In part, I think, because it was so immediate in her writing in the former book, whcih in fact was a diary.

I don't know if I should respond or go directly to amazon.com.
Thanks for the research Rex!
I read and enjoyed Under The Tuscan Sun. Didn't love An Italian Affair own, but have not read 1000 Days in Venice. There are 3 or 4 listed that sound very interesting.
Scarlett, I have a very good Risotto recipe if you're interested. You can tell me the wine to serve with it.
Thanks everone I can't wait to check them out tonight....almost as much fun as this.
Barb, Angels and Demons had very interesting information on Rome and The Da Vinci Code is fun. I own, but again haven't read, Me Talk Pretty One Day. I am reading The Other Boleyn Girl now. Very good!

Hi panucci, I'll add two old but excellant books.
"The italians" by Luigi Barzini'
"The Leopard" by Giuseppi di Lampedusa

Hi panucci, thank you!
I am always open to recipes. I have quite a collection of cookbooks so when I am without a good mystery, I can always go read a recipe or two LOL

With risotto, the Yankee would drink Chardonnay , I only drink red wine so I would probably have seltzer , haha!

panucci, I'd love to read your recipe. These are the wines I marry with the recipes that I use here.
http://www.thewinenews.com/octnov00/cuisine.html

Mimi- Great article about risotto!
On a cold fall or winter day, my favorite is risotto with sausage and truffles (an Umbrian recipe). And Scarlett- It's best with a hearty red wine!