Fernando first sees Marlena across the Piazza San Marco and falls in love from afar. When he sees her again in a Venice caf#65533; a year later, he knows it is fate. He knows little English; she, a divorced American chef traveling through Italy, speaks only food-based Italian. Marlena thought she was done with romantic love, incapable of intimacy. Yet within months of their first meeting, she has quit her job, sold her house in St. Louis, kissed her two grown sons good-bye, and moved to Venice to marry "the stranger," as she calls Fernando.
This deliciously satisfying memoir is filled with the foods and flavors of Italy and peppered with culinary observations and recipes. But the main course here is an enchanting true story about a woman who falls in love with both a man and a city, and finally finds the home she didn't even know she was missing.
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Add a CommentA quirky, fun book. Descriptive and chronicaling a love story later in life. Sweet and tasty as romances go.
A delicious biography for anyone who loves to read about food, romance and Venice. A chef and a food critic, Marlena is sent to Venice to write an article and instead finds herself falling in love with a venetian bank manager who looks like Peter Sellers. After one morning of coffee and conversation she heads back to the States and finds that in that brief encounter she has met her destiny. In the next eight months she packs up her life in St. Louis and moves to Venice to marry the stranger, against the wishes of her grown children and many of her friends. Her new life has many challenges, but in the end, love does seem to conquer all.
There are sentences in this book that are so beautifully written I would re-read them just to savor the sounds and ideas. The story is full of gentle humor as well as unexpected passion between a Venetian man and an American woman who meet by chance and then strive to build a life together.
I loved this book, so descriptive and in depth. If you liked Under The Tuscan Sun you will enjoy this too, about life and love in Italy.
A beautifully written book about Marlena's falling in love with a Venetian man she has just met. The language is beautiful in this book. There were turns of phrase that had me alternately chuckling and weeping. And given that she is a food writer, Marlena includes recipes of some of the food she cooked.
This is a very charming story. If you love travel lit - you'll really enjoy this book.