A Writer Finds Enchantment and Her Place ‘Under the Tuscan Sun’

Certain destinations suit me better than others. I know which ones because shortly after I arrive and begin to explore, I start dreaming up a new life for myself there.

Ten years ago in Tuscany, author and poet Frances Mayes did almost the same thing, except that she made her fantasy real by buying an old house called Bramasole near Cortona, 60 miles southeast of Florence. While turning it into a home, planting a garden, sampling wines and cooking pasta in a 200-year-old kitchen, Mayes kept a journal that became the bestseller “Under the Tuscan Sun” (Chronicle Books, $22.95). Since it was published in 1996, the book has been translated into 12 foreign languages and inspired readers to journey to Bramasole’s front gate, where Mayes and her husband, Ed, sometimes stop to chat with them. A sequel, “Bella Tuscany” (Broadway Books, $25), published last spring, describes the delights of Tuscan life and some of the trips that the couple has made to other fabled places in Italy, such as Venice and Sicily.

I read both books with pleasure. And I wanted to know more about how Mayes, who grew up in Georgia and teaches creative writing at San Francisco State University, travels and how she makes each new place she visits her own. So last month, I called her and asked.

Question: It seems you have a highly developed sense of place.

Answer: Much of my writing has been about who you are in a place and how it can change you. Place is very powerful.

Q. Women have traditionally been connected to the idea of hearth and home. Has that affected your sense of place?

A. Houses are very intrinsic to it. If it’s an old house, it’s already at home in a place. I’ve felt that at Bramasole. It’s on a hillside, below an Etruscan wall from the 8th century BC. I think of old houses as belonging to a place in a way that we can’t because we’re just passing through.

Q. How do you absorb a place when you’re just passing through?

A. When I travel, I try to let the place be and not impose myself on it. I think we are seriously displaced when we travel. So it’s natural to view new things in relation to what we already know. But the instinct to make comparisons and compartmentalize can be an inhibitor. You need to let it go.

I know people who just have their own prejudices confirmed when they travel. Many also isolate themselves. They go to places they’ve read about rather than taking a chance on a restaurant that isn’t in the guidebook or wandering the back streets. Getting off the beaten track is travel, not just seeing things everybody has seen and commented on.

Q. But that can be intimidating for a woman traveling alone.

A. One thing I have noticed is how many women are traveling alone. In Cortona, I go into town for coffee every morning, and lots of times there’s another woman there. Their husbands have died or they’ve divorced, but they seem to be having a fine time. Women are getting off the beaten track, going into smaller towns where they don’t feel so overwhelmed and alone. When you go into a trattoria by yourself in a small Tuscan town, it’s no problem.

Q. Did you travel much before you bought Bramasole?

A. Yes. I grew up in a very small town in Georgia, read a lot and dreamed of going any place other than where I was. So the minute I could start traveling, I did. The first trip abroad I ever took was to Ireland to see the tower where Yeats lived. I was 23, I guess, and I went alone. That was very thrilling. A year after that I went to Italy. About the third day I was there I had a flash and said, “These Italians are having more fun than we are. What’s going on here?”

Q. Did you have any trouble from Italian men?

A. Even when I traveled there at 24, when I was young and gorgeous, I didn’t. Men would say something under their breath as they passed. That happened to me, but no more than here.

Q. Do you like having a companion or traveling alone?

A. They’re different experiences. When I travel alone I meet more people and am more reflective. But traveling with Ed is more fun. Also, it’s hard to drink a whole bottle of wine alone.

Q. Do you have any favorite hotels?

A. Il Falconiere right outside Cortona is the ideal hotel to me. It’s in the country, small, impeccable and intimate. It gives people a real experience of being in Tuscany. And I love the Helvetia & Bristol in Florence.

Q. You said in “Bella Tuscany” that one of the reasons you travel is to see how other people live. Is that still true?

A. Yes, but there are certain places I just need to see, like Egypt and Greece. Until last year I’d never been to Hawaii. I never really wanted to go because I thought I knew what it was like. But I went there and was enchanted.

Q. I have a Hawaii fantasy about living in a house with a tin roof on the side of a volcano. Do you fantasize like that when you travel?

A. Absolutely. I start thinking about whether I’m going to live there the minute I get in a place. I went on a 38-city book tour and found out that there are lots of places in America that I like. I’ve always been brainwashed to think that you could only live in California, but I found out that Kansas City and St. Louis and Louisville, Ky., are fantastic. I was amazed.

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That may have something to do with the open-mindedness, dignity and joy Mayes carries with her wherever she goes.

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‘Getting off the beaten track is travel, not just seeing things everybody has seen and commented on.’

FRANCES MAYES