The Wisdom of Tuscany: Simplicity, Security & the Good Life - Making the Tuscan Lifestyle Your Own

Living in the countryside in Tuscany sounds idyllic, but to those of us who live elsewhere, this isn't very practical. I live in a very large gated community in the US, very rural (over 50 sq miles) and 18000 people (so we aren't crowded by any means). We have privacy but we are not isolated, and as such, there is no way Ferenc's book suggestions would work here. Believe me, I would love to have the setting of Tuscany, but it's not possible for me. I've lived in large towns, small towns, rural towns, etc in the US and nowhere in my 81 years so far, is there any place I've found that would offer what he's found in rural Tuscany. Why?? Well, the US is not Tuscany to start with. The population is much more varied here, the population movement in the US is constantly changing. We don't have a history of families living in one area for several generations. Now, even living in Tuscany, what he has experienced would not work in Florence or any town in Tuscany with a population of 20,000 or more. Nice thoughts, but not very practical in most of the world.

Although Ferenc will suggest repeatedly that you close this book if you disagree with the content -- i.e. concern with decent human values -- I implore you to open your mind and set yourself free. From the land of Slow Food, Ferenc shares the possibility of living simply and depending on your own wits and instinct, as well as sharing life's burdens and pleasures with friends and neighbors. Thoughts about using your hands, being crafty and creative, being a part of nature's rhythms, are some of the ruminations within, as are passionate criticisms of SUVs, pesticides, labor and industrial blight. He speaks of how Tuscans tackle a mechanical problem, like when his new VW needed repair "...he tightened the last screw and shut the hood. I was speechless; not because of his speed, but because three pieces were still lying in my hands." There is a freedom of thought, to rely on ones senses and to not take things so literally. To be able to move laterally, "The best description of Tuscans -- besides spontaneous -- may well be independent" (from the chapter titled Build Your Own Life). From the struggle against the military industrial complex by way of Molotov cocktails to the hopeful return of handmade goods and their availability by way of the web site Etsy, Ferenc packs a lot into the 272 pages. I found myself nodding in approval and solidarity with each page and having the reflex to pick up the phone and give him a call to let him know, "I hear you!" He has that conversational way of writing so that you feel as if you are there, having a glass of wine with a friend. A comrade. My husband Richard proclaims, "He's such a soul brother!" And my ten year-old gardening son Marcel was tickled pink by his tale of planting garlic by moonlight. "Making the Tuscan Life your Own" is not just a good suggestion, but vital and necessary medicine. Piano, piano!

I have long enjoyed Ferenc Mate's writings, and this one certainly did not disappoint. A wise and considered look at the world we live in, and the suggestion that we have lost much community spirit and pleasure. He points out that many of us have become isolated in our home lives, our work, our communities and cities, and that this could be changed by choosing a simpler life. I highly recommend this book.

Once my wife gifted me this book on Christmas Eve, I couldn't put it down. Ferenc spoke volumes of my inner Italian dream of living life simpler and with more purpose. Our innate human drive is to make the most with less and Ferenc has reiterated this concept numerously in various forms of Old World traditions, most nobly through the culinary richness of Tuscany. Who knew? We all do but just need reminded on a regular basis. Ference is a messenger with la storia. I plan to pass this book on to old friends and new acquaintances. I highly, highly recommend this book.

Mate has an easy style that makes prose wax poetic. But, woven through the pages in his this latest addition of life in bucolic Tuscany, Mate gives us a hard look at life in the new millennium--post economic crash. He looks at the ugly reality of how we got our selves into this predicament and, with all the refreshing relief of an Italian postprandial nap, convincing you that rural Tuscany has a realistic grasp on things--a two millennium one. The Bohemian Tuscan `writes' again, and the world is rewarded. Mate includes a beautiful section on Tuscan cooking and recipes sure to wet anyone's appetite. Salute!

Ferenc Mate is no armchair dilettante tossing pearls of wisdom from the comfy fireside of his Tuscan Villa. This guy has walked the talk. He's lived in at least 6 countries, built houseboats, cabins and knocked around 40 countries before settling in Tuscany twenty years ago where he restored a 13th century friary and built a world class winery. No trust fund baby, he started life as a war refugee and made his way with wit and hard work. A few years back he wrote an excellent book called A Reasonable Life which was a call to action for a return to a more human existence. This isn't so much another dreamy Tuscan memoir as it is a call for a revolution. Not a rebellion in the political sense but a call for a change in the way we live which is killing us and robbing us of the simple joy of living. Rampant consumerism, bad food, over amped lifestyle, driving to the poorhouse in our new cars, all stuff we've heard before but never has it had such relevancy as we deal with our current econmic crisis. Like swallowing a bitter pill with a spoonful of honey, The Wisdom of Tuscany is a window on a dream which isn't so much about place as it is about how we go about the business of living. Ferenc Mate points the way.