It’s time to embrace the Italian way of life...

“My ideal type of armchair travel: immersive, insightful, seductive. In Bella Figura, Kamin Mohammadi takes us to the year in Florence that changed her life, and gives us the tools to bring the grace of the Italian lifestyle to our own lives.” —National Bestselling Author Stephanie Danler “She walks down the street with a swing in her step and a lift to her head. She radiates allure as if followed by a personal spotlight. She may be tall or short, slim or pneumatically curvaceous, dressed discreetly or ostentatiously—it matters not. Her gait, her composure, the very tilt of her head is an ode to grace and self-possession that makes her beautiful whatever her actual features reveal.” This is the bella figura, the Italian concept of making every aspect of life as beautiful as it can be, that Kamin Mohammadi discovered when she escaped the London corporate media world for a year in Italy. Following the lead of her new neighbors, she soon found a happier, healthier, and more beautiful way of living. The bella figura knows: • That the food that you eat should give you pleasure while eating it. Pause for meals, and set a place, even if you are eating alone. • To seize any opportunity to get moving—be it taking the stairs, doing a coffee run at work, or dancing with abandon. • To drink a spoonful of excellent-quality extra-virgin olive oil four times a day. • To seek out nature, be it a city park, a tree on your street, or some wild place. • And to love yourself. The bella figura—occupies her space, emotionally and physically, with style and entitlement.

What does it mean to be Italian? Is it pausing to enjoy an aperitivo or gelato? A passeggiata down a laneway steeped in history? An August spent tanning at the beach? This book is a celebration of the Italian lifestyle – an education in drinking to savour the moment, travelling indulgently, and cherishing food and culture. A lesson in the dolce far niente: the sweetness of doing nothing. We may not all live in the bel paese, but anyone can learn from the rich tapestry of life on the boot. From the innovation of Italian fashion and design, the Golden Age of its cinema to the Roman Empire’s cultural echoes (and some very good espresso), take a dip into the Italian psyche and learn to eat, love, dress, think, and have fun as only the Italians can.

"After a lifetime of living and eating in Rome, Elizabeth Minchilli is an expert on the city's cuisine. While she's proud to share everything she knows about Rome, she now wants to show her devoted readers that the rest of Italy is a culinary treasure trove just waiting to be explored. Far from being a monolithic gastronomic culture, each region of Italy offers its own specialties. While fava beans mean one thing in Rome, they mean an entirely different thing in Puglia. Risotto in a Roman trattoria? Don't even consider it. Visit Venice and not eat cichetti? Unthinkable. Eating My Way Through Italy, celebrates the differences in the world's favorite cuisine"--Provided by publisher.

This text examines 22 restored homes in Italy. Owners and designers share anecdotes about their experiences with local artisans, vendors, and bureaucracy, while offering real-world advice on the tactics of restoring a house in a foreign country.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER Looking for the keys to a vibrant, joyful, vital life? Lifestyle pioneer Debbie Travis has found them in the Tuscan hills. And in her lively, inspiring way, she shares how to bring all that healthful magic home in Joy, a glorious book infused with the warmth and colour of life at the Villa Reniella, the thirteenth-century farmhouse retreat to which she welcomes guests from around the world. For more than ten years, Debbie Travis has watched the guests who come to her Tuscan retreats transform over the course of a single week of talking, walking, and eating together, until even the most driven and stressed-out feel so much better about themselves. When it's time to leave, they tell her it's the simple priorities of Tuscan life—the way the village locals, from young to old, take time for each other every day—that hit them in their hearts, and they pepper her with questions about how to retain what they've experienced when they get home. In Joy, Debbie offers the answers she gives them to all of us, capturing the essentials of the Tuscan lifestyle in a series of ten engaging and practical lessons—on everything from how to get a good night's sleep, to how to find community and rediscover purpose, to how to eat and drink like an Italian—designed to make our lives sweeter and healthier. Delightfully down-to-earth, Debbie draws on her own life experience, the example of her Tuscan neighbours, whose fabled longevity springs from the wisdom she captures in her lessons, and the expertise of her long-time friend and colleague, nutritional therapist Jacky Brown. Whether you wish to hit the reset button, start a new endeavour, regain your confidence, turn a page in your relationship, make changes to your worklife or your community, or simply reboot your vitality, these lessons will help guide you to a life filled with joy.

La Bella Figura is a lifestyle guide for the woman who aspires to live a European-style life filled with simple pleasures and wants to look good while she does it. It is about making your life richer with less, not more, just like European women do. Who Should Read This Book: * Do you feel overwhelmed and yearn for a life where you spend the majority of your time, money and energy toward what you think really matters? * Have you ever looked in your closet and felt overwhelmed by the sheer number of clothing items you own and yet still feel as if you have nothing to wear? * Do you want to elevate everything in your world to an art form -- from the way you dress to how you eat and spend your leisure time? La Bella Figura shows how you can bring all the simple pleasures of a European lifestyle into your home and life no matter what your budget or where you live.