One Summer in Venice

De: Nicky Pellegrino

Narrado por: Jane McDowell

Can a city hold the key to happiness?

'This isn't a mid-life crisis OK? For a start I'm not old enough yet to have one of those. I'm calling it a happiness project. I've stolen an entire summer from my life and by the time it's over I plan to leave this place with a list in my hand. The ten things that make me happy, that's all I want to know. How difficult can it be? They may be small things - a perfect cup of coffee, a day without rain - or bigger ones. It's still the beginning so how can I know?'

Addolorata Martinelli knows she should be happy. She has everything she thought she wanted - her own business, a husband, a child. So why does she feel as if something is missing? Then when her restaurant, Little Italy, is slated by a reviewer, she realises that she's lost the one thing she thought she could always count on, her love of food.

So Addolorata heads to Venice for a summer alone, aiming to find the ten things that make her happy. Once she's found them, she'll construct a new life around her ten things, but will they include her life in London?

©2015 Nicky Pellegrino (P)2015 Orion Publishing Group

Loved it

I like the twists in the plot. Gave me plenty to think about! I need to start my own list.

WHAT A FANTASTIC DREAM!!!

What a DREAM it would be to be able to put your real life on hold, put your responsibilities on hold, just drop all of it, and go somewhere different for an entire summer, to change your life entirely for a while…

I LOVE the concept of this book — of being able to try on a new life like a new outfit, to be able to change it at will, to find out what REALLY makes you happy.

It’s a concept that few of us could ever do. Few of us “everyday” people have the resources to do. But, what a concept! Oh, to have a talent, a PASSION with which to make your living, as Dolly does in this book as a chef. It’s a talent one could take anywhere and be employable — that would certainly make dropping your life and picking it up elsewhere more of a possibility.

I love the concept of spending a few months dedicated to finding out what REALLY makes you truly happy. I don’t think the majority of us ever really THINK about what makes us happy…we just go through whatever life we have fallen into in order to make ends meet and in order to fulfill our responsibilities.

This book inspires me to find what out what really makes ME happy; like Dolly, maybe it’s a just a perfect cup of coffee, an impromptu afternoon nap, or to sit somewhere quietly people watching, wondering about THEIR lives. Maybe the secret is as simple as appreciating all the little things we already have in our own lives.

How LOVELY it would be to go somewhere completely different and being able to immerse yourself in a new environment. What a dream to be able to eat your way through a place like Italy! Definitely something to aspire to!

Author Nicky Pelligrino did a fantastic job with this book, and as always, narrator, Jane McDowell was WONDERFUL!

I highly recommend this book to everyone.💕

Best of Peligrino’s books

This was my 6th book of NP and by far the best. The details of the story truly made me feel immersed in Venice. I’ve been there numerous times and her storytelling was not only accurate but magical!

Fluffy and shallow

I found this to be very superficial the character to be selfish and self-absorbed especially as a mother and wife, it’s easy to look at other lives and think that they look interesting but to act on it is another. I definitely think there’s better books to spend time on.