by Marlenade Blasi (Author)
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 chef and food writer travelling in Italy, she is happy with her life. Yet within a few months of meeting Fernando, she quits her job, sells her house, kisses her two grown children goodbye, and moves to Venice to marry the stranger as she calls Fernando. Once there, she finds herself sitting in sugar-scented pastisseries, strolling through 16th-century palazzi, redecorating an apartment overlooking the Adriatic Sea and preparing her wedding in an ancient stone church. But living this romantic dream is not always a smooth path. De Blasi is sometimes bewildered by the peculiarities of Venetian culture, and even occasionally mystified at the differences evident between she and Fernando. His kitchen is a cell with a Playskool stove , and his spartan tastes are a world away from the sensual delights which she loves to create. Both set in their ways but also set on being together, they learn from each other what is important. The book is filled with the foods, flavours, sights and life of Venice.
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 288
Edition: 1
Publisher: Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill
Published: 07 Jun 2002
ISBN 10: 1565123212
ISBN 13: 9781565123212
An irresistible grown-up love story. USA Today
Better than a romance novel, it's the real thing. New Orleans Times-Picayune
The story sounds impossibly romantic . . . [But] this moonstruck tale is absolutely true . . . It is, surprisingly, a story with a happy ending reached, as real-life happy endings must be, not by fiat but by accommodation. The Boston Globe
A little cioppino of a book, a tasty stew with equal parts travel adn food and romance, spiced up with goodly amounts of fantasy-come-true. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer
The 'happily-ever-after' is riveting and the recipes are mouthwatering just to read. The Philadelphia Inquirer