Any reader with a passion for food, wine, literature, and, most of all, the streets of Florence, will find the release of Andrew Cotto’s latest novel, Cucina Tipica: An Italian Adventure, a rare delight to the senses and intellect. Through Cotto’s hypnotic prose, one finds themselves lost in the less-explored villages of Italy as they harvest wild truffles from roadside trees, savor local cuisine (cucina tipica) with unlabeled bottles of exquisite wine, and fall in love with a different side of humanity; one becomes reminded of the passionate view of life and the world.

While on this journey, we follow Cotto’s fascinating cast of characters through ancient villages while Jacoby—an American on hiatus from life as he knows it—searches for his origins and touches on that existential question: who are we (exactly), and what are we doing here? There is no more charmed place to do so than Italy. In this conversation, Cotto shares a generous, in-depth view of what went into his delightful exploration of life, love, and humanity, all unfolding in the hills of Tuscany.