Frances Mayes, whose enchanting #1 NYC Times bestseller Under the Tuscan Sunlight made the globe fall deeply in love with Tuscany, invites readers back for a delightful year of a friendly relationship, festivity, and food, there and throughout Italy.

Having spent her summers in Tuscany for days gone by several years, Frances Mayes relished the opportunity to experience the pleasures of primavera, an Italian spring. A sabbatical from teaching in SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA allowed her to come back to Cortona- about Bella Tuscany and her beloved home, Bramasole-just as the initial green appeared on the rocky hillsides.

Bella Tuscany, a companion volume to Underneath the Tuscan Sunlight, is her passionate and lyrical account of her continuing romance with Italy. Today truly in the home there, Mayes writes of her deepening link with the property, her flourishing friendships with residents, the joys of artwork, food, and wine, and the rewards and occasional heartbreaks of her villa’s ongoing restoration. It is also a memoir of a season of transformation, and of renewed possibility. As springtime becomes summer season she revives Bramasole’s lush gardens, meets the issues of learning a new language, tours regions from Sicily towards the Veneto, and faces transitions in her family life.

Filled up with recipes from her Tuscan kitchen and created in the sensuous and evocative prose that has been her hallmark, Bella Tuscany is a celebration of the sweet life in Italy.