Product Description

Ann?s journey to learn about her Italian heritage evolved into loving Italy with its wondrous food, medieval stone villages built into the sides of mountains, the colorful confetti shops in Sulmona, the tartufo festival in Succiano, the town celebration of Feragosto, and the festas in Goriano Valli.

The adventure of exploring off-the-beaten-track hidden itineraries, cooking in the church kitchen of a monk, shopping at the local markets in San Demetrio and L?Aquila, buying food from trucksters who delivered right to the front door, seeing ricotta being made in a shepherd?s shack, picking artichokes in her cousin?s garden, and living like an Italian in the village she was born in opened the door to a heritage and family previously unknown to her.

She learned of a scandal in her parent?s family, never known to her American family, and heard moving stories of unrequited love and wartime heroism.

From the fabulous cooks in her family, recipes for chinghiale, zucchini flower fritters, carbonara, chicken cacciatore, milk of almond from the times of Michelangelo, polenta on the board and many other recipes are included in this book.

About the Author

Ann is a graduate of Drexel University in Philadelphia; loves opera, gardening, cooking, her new Italian family and foraging. She is an accomplished cook and cooking teacher with published newspaper features on her classes. Ann is currently living with her husband Ralph in Fort Myers, Florida.

Visit author at Atavismo.com

From Publishers Weekly

Not every writer who owns a house in France publishes a book about its pleasures and pains. Even among such owners, Barry, a food and travel writer and former editor at the New Yorker and the New York Times, is exceptional, because she does not actually live in her house in Carennac, a village in southwestern France near the Dordogne; she only visits it for two or three weeks a year. When she is there, she reads, jogs, cooks, hosts friends from home and explores the nearby regions. Because her visits are so short, her experiences in her village seem confined to finding a neighbor to keep her keys for her and someone to garage her car while she’s away, and food shopping at wonderful country markets. She writes grippingly about her search for the best bread and vividly profiles familiar native types with whom she is acquainted. Her writing skill makes much of little.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
–This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.


From Library Journal

Barry, the former travel editor at The New Yorker and the New York Times, describes her experiences as a homeowner in the Lot region in southwestern France. With no intention of moving permanently to France, she was pleased to have her own base of operations in a country she loved to visit several times a year. The usual attractions of provincial France are here: food, wine, local markets, reserved French locals, and a sense of time passage unfamiliar to a fast-paced New Yorker. Not quite the charmer of Peter Mayle’s Year in Provence (LJ 4/1/90), Barry’s account does not offer food as delicious nor the French neighbors and tradespeople as quirky as in Mayle’s best seller, but the same attraction to the French provinces by the English-speaking foreigner appeals in Barry’s work. Recommended for general travel collections.
Mary Ann Parker, California Dept. of Water Resources Law Lib., Sacramento
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
–This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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