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The Lady in the Palazzo: At Home in Umbria
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About The Lady In The Palazzo: At Home In Umbria
Product Description Marlena di Blasi seduced readers to fall in love with Venice, then Tuscany, with her popular and critically acclaimed books A Thousand Days in Venice and A Thousand Days in Tuscany. Now she takes readers on a journey into the heart of Orvieto, an ancient city in the less-trodden region of Umbria. Rich with history and a vivid sense of place, her tale is by turns romantic and sensual, joyous and celebratory, as she and her husband search for a home in this city on a hill—finding one that turns out to be the former ballroom of a dilapidated sixteenth-century palazzo. Along the way, de Blasi befriends an array of colorful characters, including cooks and counts and shepherds and a lone violinist, cooking her way into the hearts of her Umbrian neighbors. Brimming with life and kissed by romance, The Lady in the Palazzo perfectly captures the essence of a singular place and offers up a feast—and the recipes to prepare it!—for readers of all stripes. From Publishers Weekly Following A Thousand Days in Venice and A Thousand Days in Tuscany, de Blasi's new book, set in Orvieto, is ostensibly about her effort, with her Italian husband, first to find, then to renovate and at last to move into the ballroom of a splendid, dilapidated medieval palazzo. The renovation becomes an engrossing portrait of the town and some of its inhabitants. Nothing goes according to plan or schedule, but de Blasi uses the years (literally) of waiting to explore the life of the town, centering on the home-based caffé-kitchen of her friend Miranda and the caffé's patrons. De Blasi's exuberance and her American disregard of Italian class distinctions at times distress her new friends and also her husband, but eventually, almost by accident, she pulls off a coup of diplomatic détente just after they finally set up housekeeping in the palazzo. Vvid writing and an affectionate appreciation of the sounds, scenes and flavors of Italy, as well as of the somewhat eccentric Umbrians she meets, will charm lovers of that country. (Jan. 26) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From Booklist In previous books having chronicled her emigration from St. Louis to Venice and her subsequent sojourn in Tuscany, chef and writer de Blasi pulls up stakes again and decamps to Umbria. Her first encounters with locals leave her wondering if Orvieto really is for her. Umbria, de Blasi contends, differs from other Italian provinces because it touches neither the sea nor another country. Its central location gives it characteristics of both north and south. Despite Umbria's singular physiography, Orvietans are even more guarded and distant than the neighboring Tuscans. After a few false starts, de Blasi and spouse settle into a decrepit palazzo of uncertain vintage. The owners promise renovation, but handshake agreements rarely turn out as either party might expect. The chef in de Blasi rebels at the compact kitchen with its tiny refrigerator, single-burner stove, and multiple microwave ovens. But the land's charms counterbalance these shortcomings. Mark Knoblauch Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved Review “[De Blasi’s] poetic writing style, her meditative internal monologues, her celebration of traditional foods and her inclusion of a number of recipes from the region, make this a feast for armchair travelers, food enthusiasts, romantics and anyone who enjoys a good story with a happy ending.” – Rocky Mount (NC) Telegram From the Inside Flap With the breathless anticipation that seduced her readers to fall in love with Venice and then Tuscany, Marlena de Blasi now takes us on a new journey as she moves with her husband, Fernando, to Orvieto, a large and ancient city in Italy's Umbria. Having neither an edge to a sea nor a face to a foreign land, it's a region less trampled by travelers and, in turn, less accepting of strangers. So de Blasi sets out to establish her
