In Maremma: Life and a House in Southern Tuscany [Paperback]

David Leavitt (Author), Mark Mitchell (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 28, 2002

A delightfully warm and intimate portrait of life in a small rural town in Tuscany . In Maremma recounts David Leavitt and Mark Mitchell's restoration of a dilapidated 1950's farmhouse in southern Tuscany and the process by which they became initiated into a part of Italian life that foreigners rarely see. The pleasures of the olive harvest and picking wild asparagus are juxtaposed with the vagaries of political corruption and self-perpetuating bureaucracy. Landscape and weather provide the stuff of reverie, as do the benefits of boredom and the longing for peanut butter. A celebration and exploration of a little-known part of Italy, In Maremma is also a fond if sometimes critical corrective to other more rapturous portrayals of Tuscany. "An old house, a poor province, and two adventuresome guys (who happen to be great writers!). Join them in restoring the old place and getting into the life of the Maremma. Along the way they find themselves becoming Italians, savoring the acqua cotta and learning the difference between a frustone and an aspide." Elaine Petrocelli, Book Passage Corte Madera, CA "The lovely effect this [book] has is that you don't yearn to uproot your entire life and move to Italy, as some of us might after reading [Peter] Mayle's accounts of France. Instead, you drive down your own Main Street in the morning, wherever that might be, and you notice the people having their cappuccino outside. You notice the people washing their cars at the local car wash. You watch yourself drop off your own children at school as if, for one glorious moment, you were a traveler, a tourist, a visitor, a foreigner. The mundane is made charming. Priceless."Los Angeles Times Book Review"Learning to do things 'the Italian' way coupled with the complexities only gay men can impart to creating a home proves to be an ultimately rewarding (and entertaining) endeavor. "Genre Magazine

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Thanks to authors like Peter Mayle and Frances Mayes, a whole subset of travel memoirs is now devoted to the theme of restoring old houses in Europe. While most authors use the home as a vehicle to examine the surrounding culture, David Leavitt and Mark Mitchell tilt their measure decidedly on the side of home decor. "Nothing tells you more about a people than their houses," Leavitt and Mitchell write, as they set out to "construct a past based on our own private notions of comfort, upon which we could glance with pleasure in some hypothetical future." While initially daunted by the task of restoring a country house in bureaucracy-plagued Italy, the two dive in with gusto when they find Podere Fiume (River Farm) in Maremma, a little known part of Tuscany. Unlived in for more than 20 years, the farmhouse's downstairs is composed entirely of animal stalls, complete with stone troughs, while its two acres are lined with olive and fruit trees and a small creek. The authors tell of tapping into the Italian tradition of craftsmanship, taking on iron-fitters, lamp and lampshade makers, wood carvers, and furniture restorers. They design their own couch, reconstruct an 1803 fireplace, and commission a copy of an 18th-century Venetian bookcase with secret doors for CDs. They even recount the paint colors and fabric designs they consider. Needless to say, the density of detail they devote to their decor will mostly be of interest to those who pour over design magazines like House and Garden and World of Interiors, as the authors do. Fortunately, they also devote some of their short but precise chapters to humorous and telling bits about Italy--the habits, feuds, and "poetry and madness" of Italian bureaucracy--as well as to portraits of some of their more interesting neighbors, such as Pepe the iron-fitter and Pina the restaurateur. Written from the point of view of expatriates who live among but are not of, In Maremma offers an interesting, sometimes overdone and other times right-on-target portrait of a less glamorous if no less interesting part of Tuscany than Frances Mayes's. --Lesley Reed --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

Novelist Leavitt and Mitchell (co-editors of The Penguin Book of Gay Short Stories) relate their first two years restoring and inhabiting a run-down farmhouse in Maremma, the poorest and (to tourists) least-known province of Tuscany. Each short chapter describes a different aspect of their lives there, from the incredible lengths of red tape involved in obtaining a driver's license (a holdover, according to a local restaurateur, from the fascist government's inclination "to make private life as difficult as possible, to discourage independent thinking") to "sheep jams" on the roads, for which local procedure is to drive right into the middle of the herd. The authors find that, in this "most boring of all European countries," "one grows to love boredom." Indeed, the authors can devote eons to decorating and landscaping. But they also "profit... from such old-fashioned... diversions as reading, listening to music, gardening, painting, doing jigsaw puzzles, cooking, playing with the dog." The character sketches generally illustrate the country's leisurely pace, e.g., their architect Domenico, when faced with a problem, suggests that they "study" it ("`Study,' in Italian, is synonymous with `put off'"). Although much of the book, replete with rapturous descriptions of furniture, drapes and paint, might be better suited to Elle D‚cor, the nuanced, sometimes funny depictions of the people of Maremma and the premium placed on quality of life are worthy of authenticity-hungry travelogue readers.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: Counterpoint (May 28, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1582432112
• ISBN-13: 978-1582432113
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 4.7 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,108,165 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beatufully captures Tuscan life without sentimentality, May 11, 2002

By 

digerati "digerati" (San Francisco, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: In Maremma: Life and a House in Southern Tuscany (Hardcover)

Life in Maremma chronicles the trials and tribulations of the authors decision, move to and life within Maremma (literally, "marsh) in Southern Tuscany.

This slim volume is beautfully written in concise, witty prose. The authors make it easy to understand the local customs and people, and resist the urge to show off their knowledge of Italian admirably. The book is amusing in two ways: the comedy of their Maremma life and the wide camp streak that runs throughout the book. This endearing campiness boils to the surface in a couple of chapters of exstatic writing on interior decoration and a voyage of discovery into the world of fabrics that made me laugh out loud.

A large part of what makes this book so good is its refreshing approach to the overheated genre of "Anglos Move To Europe And Renovate House With Colorful Locals And Great Food". While the authors clearly fell in love with Italy, their viewpoint is balanced and clear: they nail the good and the bad even-handedly. There is none of the cloying sentimentality or blind worship of their adopted country. The authors don't build up the inhabitants of Maremma to be superbeings with all the answers to the Anglo quest for improved quality of life -- there's no subtext of "if only everyone would live like this we'd solve world peace and hunger"

Highly recommended, though a little short for a full-price hardback.

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Sorry - I couldn't get interested, January 3, 2003

By 

E. Maselli (NJ) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: In Maremma: Life and a House in Southern Tuscany (Paperback)

I was prepared to love this book, based on the reviews posted so far and my general love of travel and books about other cultures. While it is written well, I found it disappointing - the characters weren't fully drawn, the situations weren't interesting - overall, it just didn't grab me. And it's a lot of money for such a slim volume. If you want a good read about buying a house in Italy and adjusting to life there, try Extra Virgin instead.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars The worst book I've read about Tuscany, January 6, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: In Maremma: Life and a House in Southern Tuscany (Hardcover)

This book was the 5th memoir book I've read about life in the Tuscan region of Italy. I was very perplexed why the authors even decided to write it, why they've decided to live there, why ...... They were very sarcastic about the Tuscan life, its people, its traditions and its values, making fun of everything and everyone in a mean spirited way. They went so far as to make fun of the Italian cuisine and say that nothing is like eating at McDonald's restaurants in the US or eating peanut butter sandwitches for lunch or ...... Why they've decided to live there is a mystery to me and this book was a big disappointment.