Not Another Book About Italy

I’d love to write…a lovely tome filled with pages of evocative prose about fields of dancing sunflowers and groves of shimmering olive trees.  I’d love to tell you about the simple joy of erecting a table under a giant fig tree after a rewarding day spent sanding old ceiling beams and discovering beautiful frescoes beneath years of mould on thick dining room walls.  I’d introduce you to my new best friends from the village down the road…

And I’d have every paragraph punctuated with charming italicised Italian words and names. ‘Ann Rickard has not, however, lived in Italy for any length of time, nor has she restored an old house and bonded with the local signoras.”

Instead, after decades of working, paying off mortgages and raising children, she has packed up herself, her husband Geoffrey and her laptop, and headed off for some well-earned luxury.  The result?  A joyous and wine-soaked tour of some of Italy’s most breathtaking cities, villages and trattorias.

As Ann and Geoffrey zigzag their way across Italy and battle a growing addiction to olive oil, Ann lovingly records the details and her thoughts on their experiences…the terrifying run-ins with autostrada tollbooths…the unforgettable encounter with Italian aristocracy…the search for the perfect Louis Vuitton rip-off (and the perfect pizza)…the embarrassing public displays of underwear…and the promiscuity in the Tuscan sunflower fields.

Ann’s love of life and Italy will entertain and charm readers interested in the food, the wine, the sites, the history, the local mammas, the g-string-clad playboys, the hotels, the beaches, the frighteningly glamorous signorinas, the Vespas, the shoes, and everything else that fascinates us about Italy.