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If Frances Mayes' sensuously abundant book and film, UNDER THE TUSCAN SUN, had not appeared in advance of BRINGING TUSCANY HOME, they almost would have to be created because of it. Perhaps that's saying an awful lot about a volume that looks for all the world like a first-rate "coffee table book." But that's where appearances are deceiving.
BRINGING TUSCANY HOME starts with being utterly gorgeous on every spacious page, and rises from there to the sublime. In fact you may find, as I did, that it will take several leisurely journeys through Steven Rothfeld's magnificent photos before you flow naturally into a poetic text that weaves the Mayes's Tuscan experience together like the flavors of good country wine.
Although this book began with the discovery and loving adoption of a crumbling, spider-infested villa called Bramasole (the true star of the film), its substance goes far beyond those homey, nostalgic before-after tales where the ingenuity of the restorer sometimes steals center stage. I was even a bit disappointed at first to find no "before" photos of the place, until I realized that this is a celebration of its new life. The former condition of Bramasole, and of several other unique country ruins that play supporting roles, is treated gently and briefly through a few well-chosen anecdotes. These neglected architectural patients had been in a coma, and the big news was to be about their resurrection as living places for real people.
And real people abound here. One cannot read about the beautiful frescoes on Bramasole's walls without being drawn in by the life-journey of the local man who painted them. Same for carpenters, gardeners, arborists, glaziers, vintners, and stonemasons. Any craft or skill you could imagine as part of an old house's revival comes wrapped in the joyous and sometimes poignant package of a richly drawn human being. With their deep affection for people and the myriad textures of their lives, it's no wonder that the Mayeses have long been welcomed as friends, rather than foreigners, in the neighboring community of Cortona.
An especially insightful aspect of BRINGING TUSCANY HOME is its enduring and harmonious reverence for the culture that created places like Bramasole. The Mayeses emphatically do not instruct readers on how to surface-copy Tuscany in their non-Italian abodes. Instead, they use the poetry of sensory awareness to convey the spirit of the place --- the part of home that travels inside the heart and gently prompts one to choose this color over that, this accessory in favor of the other, and so on. Home is, above all, a feeling of belonging.
And speaking of the senses, no comment on this delightful book could overlook its generous collection of annotated Tuscan country recipes that taste good even when you read them. Of course, that's only the first step...on the way to market and, finally, the kitchen.
--- Reviewed by Pauline Finch (paulinefinch@rogers.com)
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