Going to Europe as a budding cook opened my eyes to food in a different way. When I got to Italy, the first thing I did was put my little basil plants in the ground and watch them turn into… — Frances Mayes Copy Share Image
I think I went to Italy initially for the art, architecture, food and history, but I stayed there because of the people in Cortona. — Frances Mayes Copy Share Image
If you've got a plot the size of a car or a tiny yard in Italy, you're going to be growing tomatoes and basil… — Frances Mayes Copy Share Image
“Always, I liked the infinitive 'to go.' Let's go, let's go. let's really go. 'Andare' was the first verb I learned to conjugate in… — Frances Mayes Copy Share Image
“[As Garibaldi says,] 'Sleep, my dear Chevalley, sleep, that is what Sicilians want, and they will always hate anyone who tries to wake them...” — Frances Mayes Copy Share Image
All afternoon in the deck chair, I try to describe to my notebook the colors of the water and sky. How to translate sunlight… — Frances Mayes Copy Share Image
Life offers you a thousand chances... all you have to do is take one. — Frances Mayes Copy Share Image
The Only Thing More Surprising Than the Chance She's Taking...Is Where It's Taking Her! — Frances Mayes Copy Share Image
The Italians have their priorities right: They're driven, they do their work, but they really enjoy the day-to-day and they don't put off the… — Frances Mayes Copy Share Image
Anytime the perfume of orange and lemon groves wafts in the window; the human body has to feel suffused with a languorous well-being. — Frances Mayes Copy Share Image
It’s daunting to find the language so foreign, so distant, but also so thrilling. One is absolved of responsibility when the language is incomprehensible. — Frances Mayes Copy Share Image
“There are reasons we congregate in these hot spots- to worship beauty and to feel its effects light up the electrolytes in the bloodstream.” — Frances Mayes Copy Share Image
“And my mother, whose radius of travel was short, tied the letters with ribbon and kept them in her desk, When you get the… — Frances Mayes Copy Share Image
I got the idea that to write books would be the best way to spend a life. I never thought of anything else that… — Frances Mayes Copy Share Image
![“[As Garibaldi says,] 'Sleep, my dear Chevalley, sleep, that is what Sicilians want, and they will always hate anyone who tries to wake them...” quote by Frances Mayes](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/89e/frances-mayes-7779_sleep_as-garibaldi-says-sleep-my-dear-chevalle_148800.jpg)
