This was part of a box of books I was given by my neighbour, and as I'd previously read A Thousand Days in Tuscany, I was interested to read how de Blasi's story began.  When I first picked up A Thousand Days in Tuscany it was billed as 'romantic' but was not at all romantic (beyond the romance of living in Tuscany); it was far more about her and her husband's work on their land and home and I found it more interesting than I expected.  So when I saw this one touted as romantic as well, I took it with a grain of salt.

Turns out this one is all about the romance.  How she met her husband on a trip to Venice and had sold everything back home and married him within the year.  This might seem implausible to a lot of readers, but as I met MT, sold everything and moved to AU within 10 months, I'm not one of those people.  Our beginnings, however, weren't nearly as romantic; I suspect the setting had a lot to do with that.  Exotic (for me, anyway), but definitely not Venice-Italy-romantic.  (This might sound like a wistful complaint; it's not - I do not have a romantic bone in my body.)

So, generally, I did not enjoy this one as much.  I mean, I enjoyed the Venice bits, of course, but reading about her romance and her struggles to fit in to an entirely new culture, while getting to know her new husband were, even though they felt very realistic, not really my cuppa.  

Reading this did leave me with a very strong hankering for pasta though.  Three guesses what we had for dinner.  ;)