by Marlena de Blasi
A gondola ride through a middle-aged love affair, and an Italian feast for the stomach and the heart.
Reviewed by: Helen Harvey
About Helen Harvey
While in Venice Marlene is whisked off her feet by
Fernando, a local banker, known to Marlene as “the
stranger’. On returning home to St. Louis Fernando
follows Marlene, and persuades her to leave behind her
established life as a café owner, chef, and mother of
grown children, to return to Venice to marry him, and
there this improbable and unlikely romance unfolds.
Unlike fairytales where our heroine would have been
ensconced in a beautiful Venetian palazzo to live
happily ever after, less than suitable accommodation,
cultural differences, and their new arrangement,
brings about, not surprisingly, criticism and argument
from both parties. With maturity and good sense on
their side, their marriage takes place, and Fernando
decides to quit his job of nearly three decades to
embark upon a business venture in conducting
gastronomic tours with Marlene.
Packed full of culinary delights, picturesque
descriptions of an Italy that most of us have only
dreamt of, and even some recipes with which Marlene
charmed Fernando, this beautifully written book whets
the appetite for all things Italian, gastronomically
and otherwise. If your budget won’t allow for a
vacation exploring the alleys and markets of Venice,
where you just might meet a stranger of your own, it
will surely stretch to a plate of pasta and glass of
chianti at your local trattoria.
With love, food, and the glorious Italian panorama, a
Thousand Days in Venice is a recipe that can’t fail.
Click here to buy this book, or read more about it at Amazon.com: A Thousand Days in Venice: An Unexpected Romance
Copyright © by Helen Harvey, 2002
Reviewed by Helen Harvey:
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