A book to daydream. Fantastic story that after its publication would inspire a film which didn´t have any connection with the book because, in an hour and a half, the huge amount of sensations and situations that it describes, can´t be related.
It tells in the way of a diary and with fantastic explanations about landscapes, meals, experiences, sensations etc…, a norteamerican university teacher´s experiences, who, after her divorce, spends time on travelling around Italy with her new couple, during the three long holidays months, renting houses in various places in order to find one that satisfies them completely. The main couple, in love with the Italian landscapes as well as its habits and gastronomy, decide at the beginning of the book, to buy a house in the mentioned european country. After wandering a lot and many unsuccessful visits to various properties, they fall in love with a villa composed of an old house, empty for a long time and that contains picturesque historic treasures or, at least, a curious ones, and a piece of land with a garden and fruit trees. The villa is set in Cortona´s surroundings, in the Italian Tuscany Region and its name is “Bramasole”, the first detail that captivates the protagonists. For this reason, first of all, they´ll do their best in order to get it, what will take them all their savings, and later, to restore it little by little as their scarce budget lets them. That´s the reason why they participate too in the restoration as much as they can. All this, of course, with the neighbours and villagers´ help who send them some workers and give them various advice, which, in a future, will let them enjoy even their own harvest, savouring the natural foods in the dinners they use to prepare with their friends.
It´s a book full of sensations, most of them pleasant, which drives you in a way that you have the feeling you´re in Bramasole, in company of the protagonists, enjoying with them all their experiences because the descriptions are so detailed that it´s difficult not to feel the same as the characters of this story.
That´s why it´s a book to escape, enjoy the solitude moments, and reflect on life, learning to enjoy the little pleasures that it provides us.
More abstracts about the Bajo el sol de Toscana (Under the Tuscan Sun. At Home in Italy)