An ideal travelling companion, this time Frances Mayes takes us through Spain, France and the Mediterranean world of Turkey, Greece, Italy and North Africa.On each leg of the trip, she examines one aspect in depth: the meeting of cultures in Andalusia, and Portuguese cuisine. In Mantua – city of the Gonzagas and Mantegna, and also the place where Romeo waited for news of Juliet – she discovers an ideal place to live. The section about Burgundy is a literary pilgrimage, the one about Fès, the city symbol of Morocco, a passionate exploration. In Greece, she takes the classic Homeric route through the Aegean, and in Crete she stays in a stone house covered in bougainvillea. In Turkey, she navigates along the splendid coastline, explores fascinating archaeological sites, reveals the charm of Byzantine cities. The history of art, architecture and landscape are wonderfully blended with notes on cultural and culinary traditions, personal observations, with a passion for the search for authenticity: like every great travel writer, Mayes captures us with her prose and rekindles the pleasure of discovery.