Customer Reviews

The Food and Wine Lover's Companion to Tuscany

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2 star:		(1)
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Carla Capaldo has updated her book originally published in 1998, giving readers a "New, Updated Version" with over forty new entries. That's an average of ten a year, which seems a bit light to my mind.
Her book-- regardless of the edition-- is a mix of restaurant recommendations, leads to wineries and enoteca, cheese shops, and also fattoria (farms) that offer such goods as olive oil, honey, etc. All well and good, but unless you are travelling all around Tuscany, over 95% of this book will be of little use.
That said, much of its value will be as armchair reading-- and here too, I have some problems, particularly with her organization. As might be expected, the entries are organized geographically-- but by a system that most readers will find baffling. For instance, San Gimignano appears in the section on Siena (it is in Siena Province) while its neighbor fifteen miles away, Volterra, appears in the same section with Pisa, many miles to the north. But many of the villages in the province of Florence, such as Panzano, Radda, and Greve have their own section-- Chianti Classico.
If it stopped there, one might eventually be able to discern what is where, but alas, the Index also compounds the confusion by listing entries alphabetically and then by offering, so we have Beekeepers, Bakeries, Candymakers, Chocolate Makers, Pastries, Biscuits, and Cakes, and Pastry Makers and Shops. Pity the person who is trying to recall where he/she had a nice pastry and coffee, followed by a gelato and perhaps a candy for the child!
Another cavil-- in the '98 edition, one entry includes this sentence: "By the time you visit,...may have completed their extension: the 'little shop' will be enlarged to add a tasting room 'for friends." That same sentence, verbatim, is also in the 2002 edition. Granted, renovations can take a little while in Italy, but I strongly suspect that the author simply neglected to revisit the shop in question, and revise her book accordingly!

If you are ONLY going to Tuscany, then this book may be of some use. If your travel plans include other regions of Italy (and they should), Faith Heller Willinger's "Eating in Italy" is far superior (though older) and there are several superior guides for serious enophiles.

I wrote this book, and would like prospective buyers to know that hundreds of people have written to me to say how much they have used and appreciated it when travelling to Tuscany. I'm glad, as it took three full years to write the first edition, and another 8 months to revise it, living on the road all around Tuscany as I did the research. Revising doesn't mean rewriting every entry: it means checking to see how things are after 2 years. If things have remained unchanged, I don't need to rewrite the entry from scratch. I also added 80 new places - my publishers wouldn't allow more - and removed others that had either closed or become less interesting.
The focus of my work is to write about the artisan food and wine makers that Italy is so rich in -- about their lives and products -- and to help travellers to find them. Necessarily many of these dedicated and hard-working people live in out-of-the-way places. That makes finding them more difficult, but makes the visiting more interesting, as it takes us to all corners of this wonderful region.
The Food and Wine Lover's Companion to Tuscany was shortlisted for Food Book of the Year in the UK. I have recently also published The Food and Wine Guide to Naples and Campania, fruit of three more years living and working in this fascinating southern region. I hope you will enjoy them!
Carla Capalbo

I have not read this book yet as I am waiting for it to arrive. I have, however, read "The Food and Wine Guide to Naples and Campania" and loved it. My only complaint was that pages 43-45 were missing (have no idea why). I cannot wait for The Food and Wine Guide to Tuscany to arrive so that I may complete this review. I am sure it will deserve the five stars I have given it!