Across a crowded room in Venice, Marlena de Blesi is seen by a
stranger who persuades her to leave her life as a chef and
journalist in America to live with him in Italy. This book is her
account of what followed. It is an inherently sentimental story,
but her 'stranger' is no knight in shining armour, just an ordinary
human being who just happens to be the love of her life. As she
attempts to adjust to a different culture and absorb the sights and
sounds of magical Venice, he too has to learn to accept that the
profile he first fell in love with belongs to a three-dimensional
woman. Marlena loves Fernando but she also loves to cook. So much
the better, if her food can be shared by someone who also loves to
eat. However, this is more than a book about sex and cooking. Her
descriptions of markets at the Rialto, the preparation and
consumption of meals, the loving and sensual details of luscious
ingredients, together with descriptions of her romantic house in
America and the changes wrought in Fernando's distinctly
unpromising flat on the Lido all reveal a woman who will seize and
enjoy the moment. Starting to live together as strangers, Marlena
and Fernando also have to contend with more practical matters, such
as getting things done in Italy in all its bureaucratic glory, as
Fernando demonstrates the 'innocent cunning' needed for life there.
As their relationship develops, the meals they eat together come to
symbolize the love between them. This is a charming story which
will be enjoyed by the gourmet and romantic alike. (Kirkus UK)
When Fernando spots her in a Venice cafe and knows immediately that
she is The One, Marlena de Blasi is caught off guard. A divorced
American woman travelling through Italy, she thought she was
satisfied with her life. Yet within a few months, she has left her
job as a chef, sold her house, kissed her two grown-up kids goodbye
and moved to Venice. Once there, she finds herself sitting in
sugar-scented pasticcerie, strolling through 16th-century palazzi,
renovating an apartment overlooking the seductive Adriatic Sea and
preparing to wed a virtual stranger in an ancient stone church.;As
this transplanted American learns the hard way about the
peculiarities of Venetian culture, we are treated to an honest,
often comic view of how two middle-aged people, both set in their
ways but also set on being together, build a life. The book is
filled with the foods and flavours of Italy and peppered with
recipes and culinary observations. But the main course is about a
woman who falls in love with both a man and a city, and finally
finds the home she didn't know she was missing.
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