If you loved Under the Tuscan Sun, you?ll love this. Great stories of ageing, abandonment, lost loves and Mafia feuds, interspersed with wonderful recipes for authentic dishes -- Viv Groskop ? Red MagazineCelebrates the life-affirming joys of food and friendship... Marlena de Blasi recounts meals she and four Italian neighbours cook together every week and the stories they share about their lives and loves. ? Good HousekeepingCharming... astonishingly rich... Marlena De Blasi writes about the food with mouthwatering relish... Best of all, the women tell de Blasi the stories of their lives: stories that between them make for a terrific piece of social history -- Reader's DigestMarlena de Blasi knows how to write real-life romance... Each woman's passions, disappointments and hopes are artfully recounted in this earthy celebration of life's "small delights" ? Sydney Morning HeraldMarlena De Blasi?s glittering descriptions and mouthwatering recipes take you directly into the heart of Italy and into the souls of the Italian people. -- Adriana Trigiani ? author of The Shoemaker?s Wife Biografía del autor Marlena de Blasi is the internationally bestselling author of A Thousand Days in Venice, as well as four further bestselling memoirs and a novel, Amandine. She has been a chef, a journalist, a food and wine consultant and a restaurant critic. She is also the author of two internationally published cookbooks of Italian food. She and her Venetian husband, Fernando, live in Orvieto in Umbria, Italy.