Book Review: Debbie Travis' Joy - Life Lessons from a Tuscan Villa

When I first thumbed through “Joy” I thought it was just an interesting cookbook full of good recipes and photos of Tuscan countryside.  Arguably a good way to experience the food and beauty of Tuscan Italy without the travelling part.  As I read the pages of text at the beginning I began to think it was more of a self help book than a cookbook. All very nice, but like, when do we get to the food?!

I was impatient for recipes but as I read I became enchanted with the Tuscan/Italian lifestyle and Debbie Travis’s expatriate thoughts on living in Tuscany. Tuscans have a sense of community. Socializing with friends, family and neighbours is a huge part of their daily life.  Debbie extols a calm healthy lifestyle and when we (finally) get to the recipes I felt I had not just read, but experienced Tuscany. The recipes and eating the food gave me a sense of being there that reading a book cannot. Located on a farm, the retreat uses only the freshest of local ingredients and as it happens I found out this week that a farmers market I thought was closed for the winter is open in an arena at the local rec centre.  They have local produce that was harvested recently even though it’s winter.  As a previous skeptic to the value of “organic” in the grocery stores, I’ve become a convert, not so much because it’s organic but because it’s so much fresher! And helping the local economy. 

Reading “Joy” isn’t actually going to Italy, but it was life-changing for me, and a way to travel without airports, expense, stress or exhaustion.