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The Lady in the Palazzo At Home in Umbria Marlena de Blasi 9781565124738 Books

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The Lady in the Palazzo At Home in Umbria Marlena de Blasi 9781565124738 Books

There are a number of wonderful things about De Blasi's book and one somewhat irritating aspect. I'll kill off the irritating one first. For some reason, she uses a mechanism that works in speech but, for my taste, fails in writing. She ends a sentence and then finishes the thought in the next sentence without using a connecting word or phrase. An example: "Like the ladies up in Buon Respiro, we forage, too. For wild asparagus...or pirates beard...or the silky transparent cress..." At times, I found myself falling out of the enchantment of the writing as my brain searched for the connector. Shaking my head in irritation. (I'm sorry. Couldn't help it...)

Otherwise, this is a beautiful book. I was expecting another thin offering written by an enthusiastic ex-pat with marginal writing skills and was pleasantly surprised to get pulled into a skillfully crafted narrative. In short, the author and her husband search for a home in Umbria and find it, but the struggle to make it their own is long one. Along the way they bring together a set of people from different classes of Umbrian society and ply them with food, color, and music. Also, along the way, the author did just what a good author should—she made me want to be there.

De Blasi is a first class observer of people and her descriptions of them are rich and earthy. She, herself, comes across as mildly eccentric and happy about it. She is willing to reveal some of her own personal insecurities, but does not dwell on them, which i found to be an endearing trait. As the work progresses, she introduces other mild eccentrics, each with their own beauty, scars, and weaknesses. In the end, she brings the reader to a dinner party in their remodeled home (the ancient ballroom of a noble family near the duomo in Orvieto) and seats them around a table with pineapple legs. Around that table are a collection of persons that she was warned could not be brought together in Umbria...ooops.

All in all, a good read.


Tags : The Lady in the Palazzo: At Home in Umbria [Marlena de Blasi] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. <DIV> Marlena di Blasi seduced readers to fall in love with Venice, then Tuscany, with her popular and critically acclaimed books <I>A Thousand Days in Venice</I> and <I>A Thousand Days in Tuscany</I>. Now she takes readers on a journey into the heart of Orvieto,Marlena de Blasi,The Lady in the Palazzo: At Home in Umbria,Algonquin Books,1565124731,Women,Orvieto (Italy);Description and travel.,Orvieto (Italy);Social life and customs.,BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY Personal Memoirs,BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY Women,BIOGRAPHY AND AUTOBIOGRAPHY,Biography,Biography & Autobiography,Biography Autobiography,BiographyAutobiography,De Blasi, Marlena,Description and travel,Europe - Italy,GENERAL,General Adult,Homes and haunts,Italy,Non-Fiction,Orvieto,Orvieto (Italy),Personal Memoirs,Social life and customs,United States

The Lady in the Palazzo At Home in Umbria Marlena de Blasi 9781565124738 Books Reviews

Wonderful, very personal story. Marlena de Blasi.writes beautifully. This book will make you want to travel to Orvieto.
This book is a beautifully and masterfully written memoir about living in Umbria. Any Italophile will relish this book and delight in its sensory indulgences.
I agree with everyone who says this book is de Blasi's best yet. She seems to have settled into marriage with Fernando. In Venice and Tuscany everything seemed tinged with a lustful haze, but now they are working things out together, caring for each other - much more seemly behavior for a middle-aged couple!

I was totally captivated by Marlena's struggle to fit in with her new neighbors. Fernando seems to provide minimal assistance. Also thrilled that Barlozzo appears in this book - he is such an endearing character!

This book brought me to tears several times. Few books compel me to keep reading without a break until they are over. This was definitely one of those books. Days later I can close my eyes and picture scenes from the book, her writing is so vivid. My guess is that Marlena and Fernando will make another move before too long - they are both restless characters. Even if they stay put for a while, surely the story will be just as riveting. I eagerly look forward to the next chapter in their journey
Everything di Blasi writes is wonderful if you like food and have a genuine desire to know what it's like to become part of the places where she and her blueberry-eyed Venetian husband, Fernando, travel. They worm their way into the bosom of each community in which they live (one per book), making friends, making a new home, and cooking whatever is fresh and ready to become a mouth-watering lunch or dinner. I highly recommend each of her books, of which this is the fourth. They can be read out of order but I think the reader will get more out of them if they're read in chronological order.
When I travel, I enjoy reading novels about the place I'm going to - it adds an extra dimension to all of the new sights and cities. To this end The Lady in the Palazzo was a good book to read about Umbria, with lots of fun anecdotes about the towns and culture of the region. However the writing is run-of-the-mill and at times awkward. For example, in the middle of the book two chapters are devoted to the back stories of the novel's supporting characters. While flashbacks like this can be an interesting literary device, these chapters seemed like they were just randomly and clumsily pasted into the middle of the novel. What's more, the books finale seemed like it was more for the author's benefit than for the readers (I won't spoil it).
A delightful romp through the nuances of the rich (and to me, not famous) families of Orvieto. Having visited the "rock" several times for long periods, it was a very fun read. The beautiful city and surrounding countryside came to life in Ms de Blasi's tale of moving to and renovating a home in Umbria.
Moving on to her earlier book about Venice.
These books are all very easy reading, particularly if you've been to Italy. You'll recognize the basic elements of the culture she describes, but be enlightened by her education in the regional ways of thinking, living, and cooking. She transports you to each region n which she lives. Magical! Occasionally her metaphors and adjectives get a litte blowy, so you have a hard time understanding her meaning, but that issue is completely outweighed by all pleasure you'll get from her. Prose,mthe evident live she has for the people, the food, the culture of Italy.
There are a number of wonderful things about De Blasi's book and one somewhat irritating aspect. I'll kill off the irritating one first. For some reason, she uses a mechanism that works in speech but, for my taste, fails in writing. She ends a sentence and then finishes the thought in the next sentence without using a connecting word or phrase. An example "Like the ladies up in Buon Respiro, we forage, too. For wild asparagus...or pirates beard...or the silky transparent cress..." At times, I found myself falling out of the enchantment of the writing as my brain searched for the connector. Shaking my head in irritation. (I'm sorry. Couldn't help it...)

Otherwise, this is a beautiful book. I was expecting another thin offering written by an enthusiastic ex-pat with marginal writing skills and was pleasantly surprised to get pulled into a skillfully crafted narrative. In short, the author and her husband search for a home in Umbria and find it, but the struggle to make it their own is long one. Along the way they bring together a set of people from different classes of Umbrian society and ply them with food, color, and music. Also, along the way, the author did just what a good author should—she made me want to be there.

De Blasi is a first class observer of people and her descriptions of them are rich and earthy. She, herself, comes across as mildly eccentric and happy about it. She is willing to reveal some of her own personal insecurities, but does not dwell on them, which i found to be an endearing trait. As the work progresses, she introduces other mild eccentrics, each with their own beauty, scars, and weaknesses. In the end, she brings the reader to a dinner party in their remodeled home (the ancient ballroom of a noble family near the duomo in Orvieto) and seats them around a table with pineapple legs. Around that table are a collection of persons that she was warned could not be brought together in Umbria...ooops.

All in all, a good read.