Under the Tuscan Sun’s Frances Mayes Releases a New Book

If ever there was a time to break away from the madness in the world, that time would be now. Luckily for all of us, there’s a piece of escapism that’s about to drop that is the perfect fodder to keep our minds off the insanity. Renowned author Frances Mayes of Under the Tuscan Sun fame is releasing a new book called Always Italy. Part travelogue, part travel guide, the book covers every region of the country and delves into the history, the culture, and most importantly, the food and wine.

I spoke to Frances about her new book, what she learned about the country she loves, and a lot about the food she devoured along the way.

What was your inspiration for writing this book?

I think the chance to write about all 20 regions of Italy was personally important for me because even though I’ve been in Italy for lo these many years, there were still parts I had never been to. One of the big joys of the book was that I really fell in love with the north. It’s just so spectacularly beautiful.

Let’s talk about food. What were some of the most interesting and surprising things that you found?

One of the most astonishing things about Italy is how diverse it is from region to region and how they have maintained their food traditions. I loved going all over and realizing there’s a special pasta for practically every single region.

I was especially astonished in Puglia because the one place where it’s predominantly a vegetarian cuisine, and Puglia, of course, was so poor for so long, but they had millions and millions of sheep, they must’ve just got sick of eating sheep that they turned to the land. I really couldn’t get enough of their bread though. You know the loaves are 6-8 pounds, and they’re these big round things that you just pull off a big hunk while you’re driving and eat it like cake. The bread tradition and the vegetable tradition in Puglia was a big surprise, I learned to eat anything that comes out of the ground.

I think another great food area discovery for me was the Friuli area right near the Veneto because they’re perched there under Austria, adjacent to Slovenia and there’s this great rustic tradition of hunting and gathering. I loved the food in that area, so much innovation is going on there with young chefs. But the main thing about Friuli is that they have the best wine, and so many people who know wines don’t know the white wines of Friuli which are every bit as complex as the reds and just divine. The real joy of writing the book was finding all that diversity within each region and eating my way around the whole country it’s a wonder I’m not as big as a house.

Tell me about the restaurants you loved while researching this book:

Oh, there are so many I can’t even begin to sort it out. I loved finding all of these out of the way places where there was always a young chef who had gone off to London or Milan or even Rome to study with somebody and work in restaurants. But, in the Italian way, they had missed their family and opened a wonderful restaurant in their hometown. They’re still keeping traditions alive but not being a slave to them and bringing back what they know and developing around those traditions with the new things they learned.

And I began to learn so much more about Italian food that I never knew before. I remember in particular a really wonderful restaurant in Ostuni in the hotel there, that was one of the spectacular meals. La Subida in Friuli was a huge favorite of mine. I absolutely loved Il Falconiere in Cortona because the chef there is another one of those innovators, and she bakes these olives, baking them overnight in the oven and then pulverizes them and coats a filet with the olive dust on either side and roasts it. And it’s one of those very simple recipes and you think wow, somebody thought of this. And the restaurant at Vigilius in the Dolomites was another spectacular one. That’s an area where the best apples in the world are grown and so a lot of the cuisine is heavily roasted, things like venison, boar, things like that, but the very innovative use of apples in the cuisine is just incredible. Each area seems to have its own private little thing marked out for itself.

What were some of the biggest differences between the regions?

One of the things that brought that home to me the most was that in the book, each region has a section called ‘In Your Glass’ and it made me seek out the best wines in those regions. Again, it’s a wonder that I’m still standing after all that wine. I loved writing those, but it was really hard. I’m sure things got left out because the wine scene there is absolutely vast. Discovering the wines way down in Calabria, that was an area I had never been to before and it was such a joy to discover that really spicy cuisine down there. But the wine was a surprise. It’s really up and coming. Of course, the wine scene in Sicily took off long ago. And it was really fun to travel through Sicily and finding those wines. That volcanic soil seems to do something magical to wines and tomatoes and everything else that’s planted there.

What do you want people to take away from reading this book?

I think the diversity of Italy. It’s the size of Arizona, but you can’t imagine Arizona having thousands of museums and the country is so packed, it’s impossible to ever say that you know Italy, because you don’t. I don’t. I still feel like I just scratched the surface. It’s the endless country and I hope this book, big and heavy as it is, that it gives that sense to the reader.

Frances Mayes’s book is out, buy her books here!