Sample text for Escape to Tuscany / photography by Antonio Sferlazzo ; text by Candice Gianetti.
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This short essay from the editors at Fodor's explains why Escape to Tuscany is the perfect book to bring all your dreams of the ideal Tuscan getaway to life.
Most books on travel shelves are either long on the nitty gritty and short on evocative pictures, or the other way around. We at Fodor's think that the balance in this slim volume is just perfect, rather like the intersection of the most luscious magazine article and a sensible, down-to-earth guidebook. On the road, the useful pages at the end of the book are practically all you need. For the planning, roam through the color photographs up front: Each one reveals a key facet of the corner of Tuscany it portrays, and taken together with the lyrical accompanying text, all convey a sense of place that will take you there before you go. Each page opens up one of Tuscany's most exceptional experiences; each spread leads you to the quintessential places that highlight the spirit of Tuscany at its purest.
Some of these Tuscan adventures are sure to beckon. You may yearn to sojourn amid olive groves and vineyards, to join the harvest and savor aromas of loamy earth and good food. Scramble through quarries whose marble inspired Michelangelo. Learn to make fresh pasta in a cooking school presided over by a Medici descendant. Discover an amazing islet in the Tyrrhenian Sea and sybaritic hot springs known since the days of myth. Take in Florentine fireworks or folkloric rites of spring, horse races or a classic-car race. At day's end, you can seek shelter in crenellated abbeys, castles, and monasteries, Renaissance villas, restored mills, and medieval towers.
While working with words to capture the Tuscan magic that Antonio Sferlazzo defines so beautifully in images, author Candice Gianetti was reminded once again of the truth of the statement that Italians truly know how to live; she rediscovered the pleasures of eating good food fresh from the market at the edge of a vineyard under a tree in the hot sun, and was restored by the peace and ineffable beauty of the Tuscan countryside.
It has happened to centuries of travelers before her, and it will happen to you. So be prepared to embrace il dolce far niente -- the sweetness of doing nothing. Leave your laptop behind. And escape to Tuscany. You owe it to yourself.
Library of Congress subject headings for this publication: Tuscany (Italy) Description and travel