This is an auction for UNDER THE TUSCAN SUN by Frances Mayes.

"Mayes's favorite guide to Northern Italy allots seven pages to the town of Cortona, where she owns a house. But here she finds considerably more to say about it than that, all of it so enchanting that an armchair traveler will find it hard to resist jumping out of the chair and following in her footsteps. The recently divorced author is euphoric about the old house in the Tuscan hills that she and her new lover renovated and now live in during summer vacations and on holidays. A poet, food-and-travel writer, Italophile and chair of the creative writing department at San Francisco State University, Mayes is a fine wordsmith and an exemplary companion whose delight in a brick floor she has just waxed is as contagious as her pleasure in the landscape, architecture and life of the village. Not the least of the charms of her book are the recipes for delicious meals she has made. Above all, her observations about being at home in two very different cultures are sharp and wise."

• Publishers Weekly (US)

"This beautifully written memoir about taking chances, living in Italy. loving a house and, always, the pleasures of food, would make a perfect gift for a loved one. But it's so delicious, read it first yourself."

• USA Today

"Irresistible . . . a sensous book for a sensous countryside."

• Minneapolis Star-Tribune

"An intense celebration of 'the voluptuousness of Italian life'."

• The New York Times Book Review

"Armchair travel at its most enticing."

• Booklist

Very favourable reviews on Amazon.com.

Paperback 1997.

280 pages.

Good condition.

The cost of shipping is $5.95

There is of course no charge for shipping if you collect this book from my shop in Palmerston North following the auction.

Payment within seven days, please.