by Bauer, Anne M.
Illustrations/Photography by: Strada, Alberto

Published in 2018 by Beta-Plus Publishing, [Brussels]
ISBN: 2875500589
Edition: First
Binding: Hardback
Condition: Fine
Comments: When author Anne M. Bauer moved to Rome as an employee of the U.N., she harbored dreams of owning a small house in Provence, France, the country where she had lived at several points in her life. It didn’t take long for the dream to shift from owning a small stone house in Provence to owning a small stone house in Tuscany, Italy. Since she was now based in Rome, it actually wasn’t too difficult to buy a dilapidated former farmhand cottage. The problem was restoring a near-ruin to something suitable for vacations and weekend getaways. Though she tells the story of how she pulled that off in her book, “Restoring a House in Tuscany,” she’s more interested in telling a general story of the work that goes into finding, buying, and then restoring houses in rural Italy, whether they be small worker’s cottages or larger villas, based on the help she has given other ex-pats since she retired. Though this is a classic “coffee table book,” with gorgeous photographs on every page, the text in between the pictures gets into such pragmatic issues as the legalities involved with purchasing an abandoned property and how to get water and electricity hook-ups for a house that’s not connected to the communal lines. The large majority of the pictures are color photographs taken by Alberto Strada. However, a number of the houses, starting with Bauer’s own, include snapshots taken by the owners in the early days of their projects, before it occurred to anyone that the end result might be so beautiful that it could wind up in a book and would warrant professional photography.

This copy is “fine”—though it appears to have never been read, there is some rubbing of the back cover that is difficult to see at all unless the book is held at a particular angle. Other than that, it is in pristine condition, and it is finished in linen. No dust jacket as issued. The front cover features a photograph of the courtyard of Bauer’s farmhouse today, which also appears inside the book. This book is currently out of print and, and far as we can tell, unavailable from the standard sources. See our photographs.

Seller Inventory #: 0000525