When you write a book, people ask you what it’s about. When people ask me about Cucina Tipica: An Italian Adventure, I tell them that it’s the story of a disheartened American who arrives in Italy on holiday and decides he never wants to leave—pretty much what’s written on the back cover.

That’s accurate and appropriate from a traditional book marketing strategy, but the reality is that the novel is really about Tuscan gastronomy. It’s only a matter of days after arriving in the hills south of Florence that our protagonist declares his intentions to remain in Italy forever.