Tuscan Echoes: A Season in Italy - Hardcover

Smith, Mark Gordon

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0974098302 ISBN 13: 9780974098302

Publisher: Almar Books, 2003

Synopsis

SUPERANNO The author presents a series of luminous vignettes that uncover the hidden corners and treasures of Florence, Tuscany, Assisi, and Venice. He shares sensual and luminous details about living for a season in Italy, while making small excursions to the hill towns and gardens of Tuscany and Umbria. Venice comes to life through the author’s great passion for the city, enriched by his keen eye.

About this title

From the Publisher:

Mark G. Smith knew he was taking a risk when he decided to leave behind a successful business career to pursue his lifelong dream of becoming a writer. For eighteen years, Smith worked as human resources professional in the dog-eat-dog world of corporate America. When the companies he worked for experienced financial downturns, he knew the time was right. "I left the corporate world after two companies I worked for went bankrupt. The experience led me to believe that the time had come to pursue a dream that I have had all of my adult life—to write. The timing seemed appropriate as well. A move was in the works, and that move would take me to a new city with no corporate connections, somewhere I could have a place to reflect and create," Smith says. In 2001, an opportunity to live in Italy for an entire season, and to take part in a two-week writing workshop in Italy, confirmed his decision. Tuscan Echoes: A Season in Italy is the result of his memorable trip—and it's obvious Smith's gamble paid off.

An unconventional travel memoir, Tuscan Echoes employs a series of short vignettes that take the reader along with Smith as he moves from Florence to Assisi, Pisa to Venice, and everywhere in between. Making stops at some of Italy's most famous attractions, Smith describes what he sees with a poetic eye, and even as he explores the lesser-known side streets he paints vivid portraits that reveal Italy's particular emphasis on family and spiritual life. The result is a celebration of the very things Smith found lacking in his role as corporate businessman. As the season progresses, he becomes more and more submerged in the daily life of Italy, and slowly, he comes to realize some things about his own life. "The realization that the trip was having a profound affect on me did not occur until about half way through the season. I began to feel more comfortable in silence, more aware of sounds and tastes and flavors; more so than at any other time in my life. The journey became richer, more profound, because of that awareness." Tuscan Echoes is a strikingly intimate portal into Italy, one that armchair travelers will appreciate for its unique approach and sensual descriptions.

Mark G. Smith has lived the life of a world traveler from the time he was born. His father was a career military officer and Mark moved eight times before graduating from high school. His family lived in Italy, near Florence, for two years during his childhood, and it was at this early age that he began his love affair with all things Italian. After graduating from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, Mark served for five years as a military officer. When he left the service, he worked as a human resources professional, finishing his corporate career as a consultant. For over thirty years, Mark has continued his travels across Europe and the world. He began work on Tuscan Echoes, his first book, shortly after his decision to focus on writing full-time.

We believe this to be one of the most unique, descriptive, and sensual travel memoirs yet written about a place so beloved by travelers, and readers, everywhere.

From the Author:

As I began to write, every day, in and around Florence, the book began to take shape. The day to day, quiet, out-of-the-way experience of seeing a city as a semi-resident, a "semi-Fiorentino" as the Italian’s say, gave me permission to enjoy sights, sounds, and events few tourists have the time to experience. A lot of my experiences in travel to Italy over the last 3 decades influenced the work as well. However the key influence on my writing was the time that the season in Italy gave to me.

I hope that readers will discover a curiosity about seeing Italy again, if they have been there before, or, if not, I hope that they will want to visit. There are lands that we know simply by being in them; they are places in which we feel more at home than any other. That is what Italy is for me, my soul’s home. I hope that readers will discover in my writing how strongly that love of Italy, and sense of place, can be.

About this edition

• Publisher: Almar Books
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0974098302
• ISBN 13: 9780974098302
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 183