http://www.amazon.com/dp/0993693407
This light, lively book takes place in Italy, with hilarious anecdotes about the author and her husband’s trip to visit his family in Abruzzo and finally their escape to Tuscany. It’s a rural relocation similar to Peter Mayle's A Year in Provence, but with zany family members adding a "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" touch.
Ivanka Di Felice’s own expectations were shattered when she embarked on la dolce vita. She envisioned drinking unforgettable Brunello by candlelight and discussing art and history with elegant dinner guests. Instead, dinner discussions revolved around how to avoid a “bad wind,” whether the Mafia runs IKEA, and bizarre theories on why the Chinese in Italy never have funerals. Now she drinks Zio’s own “unforgettable,” almost undrinkable, wine, as he pays long-winded tributes to the vile liquid as if it were an elixir of the gods. Celebrate with our author—for mere mortals, or their livers, could not have lived to tell the tale.
Ivanka thought her hair would suddenly become long and thick and her bust size would miraculously increase. She would be dressed by Dolce and Gabanna. Yet instead of wearing four-inch spike heels with a flowing linen skirt and a “minimum-coverage, maximum-support bra,” she actually became less fashionable in Italy and could model “forty is the new sixty” with her newly adopted casalinga look.
Follow her unlikely adventures as she’s reduced to tears by crazy-making Italian bureaucrats and tries to find work as a truffle telemarketer. You will encounter elderly aunts climbing trees, pyromaniac septuagenarians, and all sorts of “fowl” play.
So pour yourself a glass of bad Italian wine, add a dose of accordion music, and spend some time in Ivanka Di Felice’s Italy.