While I was living in southern California, I used take trips to Julian, a wonderful little mining town nestled in the mountains.  During one of those trips I stumbled on a great little bookstore full of works by local authors and other hard to find books.  It was in this little store, in this little town that I was introduced to one of my all time favorite authors, Marlena De Blasi.

De Blasi is an American woman who fell in love with a Venetian, and left her life in the states to marry her man from Venice.  Her first book is called A Thousand Days in Venice, and it tells the story of her romance with her Venetian, but it is her second book, A Thousand Days in Tuscany that made me fall in love with her words.

I read A Thousand Days in Tuscany first, long before living in Italy was even close to becoming a reality for me, and I was so entranced by the way she described Italy that I could almost taste the fried squash blossoms and white beans she was cooking (she even includes recipes!).  I think the thing I love most about her writing is that she is deliciously descriptive without being over the top.

I have a few books I can read over and over again, but for the most part I don’t really reread books.  I have read this book four times now, and it was during my second reading of this book that I was offered my job in Italy.  It was meant to be.