Product Description

I always imagine each of the signoras who lived in this house—where she shelled peas, rocked the grandchild, placed a vase of the pink roses. Now I would like to take one of these women back to my house in California to show her how Bramasole traveled to America and took root, how the doors there are open to the breeze from San Pablo bay and to the distant view of Mount Tamalpais, how the table has expanded and the garden has burgeoned…


The “bard of Tuscany” (New York Times) now offers a lavishly illustrated book for everyone who dreams of integrating the Tuscan lifestyle—from home decoration and cooking, to eating and drinking, to gardening, socializing, and celebrating—into their own lives.

When Frances Mayes fell in love with Tuscany and Bramasole, millions of readers basked in the experience through her three bestselling memoirs. Now Frances and her husband, In Tuscany coauthor Edward, share the essence of Tuscan life as they have lived it, with specific ideas and inspiration for readers stateside to bring the beauty and spirit of Tuscany into their own home decor, meals, gardens, entertaining and, most important, outlook on life. In her inimitable warm and evocative tone, Frances helps readers develop an eye for authentic Tuscan style, with advice on how to:

• Choose a Tuscan color palette for the home, from earthy apricot tones to invigorating shades of antique blue.

• Personalize a room with fanciful door frames, unique painted furniture, and fresco murals.

• Cultivate a Tuscan garden, adding fountains, vine-covered pergolas, and terra-cotta urns among the herbs and flowers

• Select the best Italian vino. (Frances describes lunches at regional vineyards and imparts tips for pairing food and wine.)

• Create an atmosphere of irresistible, anytime hospitality—a casa aperta (open home).

• Make primo finds at local antiques markets. (And to help truly bring Tuscany home, shipping advice and market days for several Tuscan towns are included.)

• Set an imaginative Tuscan table using majolica and vintage linens.

• Enjoy the abundant flavors and easy simplicity of the Tuscan kitchen, with details on everything from olive oil and vino santo to pici and gnocchi, plus special homegrown menus and recipes.

• Make the most of a trip to Tuscany, visiting Frances’s favorite hill towns, restaurants, small museums, and other soothing places.


With more than 100 photos by acclaimed photographer Steven Rothfeld (including several of the Mayes’s California home and its Tuscan accents), twenty-five all-new recipes, and lists of resources for travelers and shoppers, Bringing Tuscany Home is a treasure trove of practical advice and memorable images.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #19525 in Books
• Published on: 2004-10-05
• Released on: 2004-10-05
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 240 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Only those who love sitting through slides from other people's vacations are likely to warm to Mayes's latest, on the joys of owning a renovated Tuscan villa. Mayes's first book on the subject, Under the Tuscan Sun, sold two million copies and spawned a Hollywood film, but with each return visit to familiar territory (Bella Tuscany; In Tuscany) Mayes finds less fresh material. This work is a grab bag of guess-you-had-to-be-there anecdotes (Mayes devotes an entire paragraph to the activities of a wasp that flies into her study while she's writing) and suggestions for how readers can, as Mayes and her husband, Ed, do, live the good life in northern California and Italy. (Hint: it takes a lot of money.) The book includes 25 recipes, though few are specifically Tuscan. Instead, Mayes devotes space to Nancy Silverton's Italian Plum Tart (Silverton, founder of Los Angeles's Campanile restaurant, has her own villa one valley over) and several recipes of Ed's. The listing of Mayes's own "At Home in Tuscany Collection" of furniture at book's end adds to the coyly self-indulgent feel.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From AudioFile
Where UNDER THE TUSCAN SUN was a passionate love letter to Tuscany, this book is an often tedious travelogue. "Knowledge of the superior destroys you for the ordinary," Mayes tells us, as she applies the maxim not only to dinners but also to her current lifestyle. Her haughtiness is softened by her slightly Southern drawl, and Mayes does redeem herself in the final section of the book when she indulges in the sensuous glories of Tuscan food, with recipes and how-to's via her husband, poet Edward Mayes. Details of the disastrous first pressing of wine from their grapes ("tastes like shoe polish") is, at last, a flaw in the perfection of life at their home, Bramasole. Mayes is human, after all. And the adventures of a wasp sneaking through a keyhole into the author's desk to lay its eggs is told with a sweetness that contrasts with the general pomposity of the narration. All in all, still a trip worth taking, but patience and perseverance are necessary parts of the baggage. M.T.B. © AudioFile 2005, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

From Booklist
Mayes' In Tuscany (2000) is a glossy coffee-table volume that combines a cookbook, a guidebook, and Mayes' appreciative ruminations about Tuscan culture. With the help of her husband, poet Edward Mayes, she revisits much of the same material, but this title reads more like a lifestyle guide for Italophiles yearning to bring the Tuscan sun into their own homes. The loosely organized chapters focus on home and garden design, food, and entertaining in spreads accompanied by Steven Rothfeld's lavish photographs of villas, fields, and the Mayes' friends enjoying la dolce vita around the table. Some of Mayes' suggestions, such as her garden tips borrowed from the Medicis, may be out of reach for many readers. And a few recipes use ingredients that are hard to find stateside. But she offers plenty of accessible ideas as well, such as the rich colors and decorative scenes painted on many Tuscan walls. And most readers won't want this for the practical specifics; they'll merely enjoy the vicarious plunge into a relaxed, gracious culture that this, like all of Mayes' titles, offers. Gillian Engberg
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Customer Reviews

Visually inspiring...
Mayes's poetic assemblage of words, captures your attention from the moment you open this book. Accompanied with luscious visualization, her words even further embrace the art of Italian living. The colors and textures of the country melt upon the pages of this book, as Frances's emotional connection with the folks of the sun drenched terrain and their joyful heritage and love for family and food, are celebrated in this work.

I purchased this book along with another Your Home A Living Canvas: Create Stunning Faux Finishes & Murals with Paint and was amazed at the similarities of these two books. Though completely different writing styles, Mayes's book "descibes the essence" of Italian lifestyle, while Heuser's actually "captures the rich color and artistic spirit" of the Tuscan home. Both authors suggests unique ways to recreate the warmth and beauty of the Tuscan country home into your personal life - Heuser's "Your Home..." is an actual how to book, giving the reader over 30 step by step, well illustrated projects on how to easily achieve the timeless old-world atmosphere. Like the Italian inspired murals painted in Mayes's home, Heuser shares the secrets to creating "period" styled finishes and mural detailing throughout every room in your home. Both lovely books are accompanied with unbelivable art photography, with Heuser's packed with unimaginable before during and after shots illustrating the transformation of a 1890's historic home into an Italian paradise. I highly reccomend both of these titles, "especially "if you are seeking interior inspiration for creating the authentic Tuscan look and feel in your home decorating!

For all Italian food & design lovers!
I read this book first, as I have all Frances Mayes books, from the library. Wanting the great ideas and recipes at close-hand, I purchased this as well as her others. I used many suggestions on my trip last Fall to Italy.

How can a Frances Mayes book be anything but fabulous??
Francis Mayes does such an incredible job of bringing Tuscany to the rest of the world. This book includes fun recipes and beautiful photos...a joy to read!
--Vicki Landes, author of "Europe for the Senses - A Photographic Journal"