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The Reluctant Tuscan: How I Discovered My Inner Italian
by: Phil Doran

List Price: £7.99

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Used Price: £1.08
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Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 910
EAN: 9780753510155
ISBN: 0753510154
Label: Virgin Books
Manufacturer: Virgin Books
Number Of Pages: 288
Publication Date: May 05, 2005
Publisher: Virgin Books
Studio: Virgin Books
Sales Rank: 154561

Related Items:

The Hills of Tuscany: A New Home in an Old Land

La Bella Vita: Life, Love and and Food in Southern Italy

Vanilla Beans and Brodo: Real Life in the Hills of Tuscany

Editorial Review:

Kathy Lette:
'Doran lobs a comic hand grenade into the Tuscan hills. Hilarious.'

Book Description:
In the sun-blushed hills of Tuscany is Il Piccolo Rustico, a 250-year-old crumbling stone farmhouse – that doesn’t even have a road leading to it. To make this rustic ruin her home is Nancy Doran’s idea of a rural idyll. It is her husband Phil’s nightmare. Reluctantly leaving behind the high octane, air-conditioned Los Angeles where he lives and works as a Hollywood scriptwriter, and only after being given the genuine guarantee of a bathroom, Phil uproots to a country intoxicated by O sole mio, virgin olive oil and oak-aged Chianti. But local life is not all strolling around town during the passagiato and sampling regional delicacies under the awnings of picturesque cafés. The couple are beset by seemingly impossible challenges, from the cunning tricks and daily traumas of the Pingatore family and friends to the confusion and chaos of the Italian roadbuilding programme. Through an inspired approach to their situation, and the ability to access their ‘inner Italians’, the American strangers are welcomed into the community.

Synopsis:
Rising From The Mist in the sun-blushed hills of Tuscany is Il Piccolo Rustico, a 300-year-old stone farmhouse that Nancy Doran dreams of lovingly restoring into an idlyllic home. All her husband Phil can see is a crumbling money pit that, as far as dreams go, is more of a nightmare. Reluctantly leaving behind high -octane, air-conditioned Los Angeles where he lives and works as a writer-producer, Phil is uprooted to a strange country intoxicated by O sole mio, virgin olive oil and oak-aged Chianti. The local village reveals itself to be a hive of seething passions, secrets and age-old blood feuds, and the newcomers find that life is not all strolls around town during the passagiato and relaxing under the awnings of picturesque cafes. Beset by a rift of exasperating challenges - from the cunning tricks of the Pinatore family to an infuriating Byzantine Italian bureaucracy - it is only with an inspired touch of the 'Inner Italian' that Phil and Nancy finally manage to soften the hearts of their neighbours and are embraced by the community.

Customer Reviews

Average Rating: out of 5 stars

Rating:

- Very disappointing and contrived
Oh dear, I really wanted to enjoy this book as I love Tuscany - we have a house there - and it seemed so promising - he's a screenwriter, so am I. But the people they encountered characters were so contrived, just stereotypes - did you really meet this people or did you make them up. Sorry. I didn't get past the first 30 pages and then gave up.

Rating:

- WELL, YOU CAN'T PLEASE EVERYONE ALL THE TIME
Book shelves bulge with stories by those who have sought health and happiness in a foreign country. However, "The Reluctant Tuscan" is a memoir of another stripe. Peter Mayle wrote of his frustrations in restoring a hotel in Provence with whimsy and affection. After reading the iconic "Under the Tuscan Sun," we dreamed of booking a flight on Alitalia. Few will want to join sitcom writer Phil Doran in his 300-year-old Italian farmhouse, as this is a man who not only went kicking and screaming to the hills of Tuscany but did a fair share of kvetching once he arrived.

While still in California the once in demand Doran found himself viewed as a bit of a dinosaur as the younger writers were leaving him in the dust. He'd been married ... Read More:

Books : The Reluctant Tuscan: How I Discovered My Inner Italian