Book review by Katherine Pulzone: February 2008

A THOUSAND DAYS IN VENICE”

By Marlena De Blasi

Every once in a while, a book comes along that you just can’t put down. After reading the last page, I found myself searching for just one more paragraph, one more sentence to satisfy my insatiable curiosity for more. This is one of those books you just don’t want to end. It’s a book for both men and women – a true learning experience that will inspire you to take chances, that youth isn’t the only time to experiment with big changes in life. I hope I don’t give too much away but enough to get you to read it:

Marlena writes about her adventures in Venice where she lived for one thousand days. She’s divorced, middle aged, mother of two adult children who live in different states other than St. Louis, Missouri where Marlena is a chef and culinary writer for a magazine and other publishers. Her writings consist of mainly food and wine in Italy. She takes frequent trips to various regions of Italy to get the accurate information needed for her little restaurant in St. Louis and her writing. Of all the years she flew to Italy, she held off going to Venice as long as she could. She felt a spiritual luring there that made her a little uneasy. Once there, she inhaled all that was Venice. In the meantime, a stranger watches her, remembers only her profile but Marlena is with someone, so the stranger does not approach her. So he waits another year for her to return. When she does, he sees her in a hotel café’ and calls her from a phone booth. The hotel steward directs her to the hotel phone and she knows immediately, from the voice, that it’s the stranger who has been watching her. And so it begins. Within days of her returning home, the stranger comes to St. Louis and spends a few days getting to know her and vice versa. She calls her realtor and puts the house up for sale, selling off many of her treasures and moves to Venice to be with the stranger. She has a few anxiety attacks, realizing she is middle-aged and selling off her life except for a few boxes of her prized possessions.

You will find yourself gasping at her courage to leave everything. Will it work with a stranger that can only speak a few words of English and she speaks just a few words of Italian?

Go and get this book – if anything, you will enjoy the history of Venice, the cooking, food and wine she has described throughout the book, the description of the feasts and celebrations, the people of Venice and places you should visit if you ever go there.