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A review of A Thousand Days in Venice: An Unexpected Romance

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

A Thousand Days in Venice: An Unexpected Romance 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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-- A Thousand Days in Venice: An Unexpected Romance - by Marlena de Blasi
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