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SLOW: Life in a Tuscan Town

(Welcome Books)
DISCOVER - September 9, 2009

"I wanted to get beneath the surface and live Italy from the inside," notes Douglas Gayeton in his SLOW: Life in a Tuscan Town, to be released September 29, 2009. Join his nostalgic journey through the simple life of a bygone era, light years from the digital life of 21st Century America. Colorful vignettes full of élan and earthy photographs chalked with script reveal Italian traditions against backdrops of medieval architecture and pastoral serenity.

Deep into the night the men gathered in the dining hall beneath the farmhouse, cooking meat over the fire, making pizzas and opening bottles of wine; all the while arguing over the best way to prepare the pasta. "We were still eating pasta as the sun rose."

From SLOW: Life in a Tuscan Town.
Text and Photography © 2009 Douglas Gayeton.

As readers move from one light-hearted episode to another, something's not right. So many of its artisans and craftsmen are old. Missing are the young. Have they foregone the quaint for the exciting, do they fancy the city over the country? Will the slow, simple life fade away as the sepia images imply? Italian, Carlo Petrini and American, Alice Waters hope not. Petrini, who founded today's Slow Food movement authored the book's preface and Waters wrote its introduction.

Happily, la dolce vita flourishes across wine country. As America's palate matures, true artisans continue to make wine and cheese with respect for tradition and care for nature. "Better to spend money at the butcher than the pharmacist," as the old Tuscan proverb admonishes.

SLOW: Life in a Tuscan Town
Photographs and text by Douglas Gayeton
www.WelcomeBooks.com/slow

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