When Fernando spots her in a Venice caf and knows immediately that she is The One, Marlena de Blasi is caught off guard. A divorced American chef and food writer travelling in Italy, she is happy with her life. Yet within a few months of meeting Fernando, she quits her job, sells her house, kisses her two grown children goodbye, and moves to Venice to marry 'the stranger' as she calls Fernando. Once there, she finds herself sitting in sugar-scented pasticcerie, strolling through 16th-century palazzi, redecorating an apartment overlooking the Adriatic Sea and preparing for her wedding in an ancient stone church. But living this romantic dream is not always a smooth path. De Blasi is sometimes bewildered by the peculiarities of Venetian culture, and even mystified occasionally at the differences evident between she and Fernando. His Spartan tastes are a world away from the sensual delights she loves to create. Both set in their ways but also set on being together, they learn from each other what is important in their shared life. A Thousand Days in Venice is filled with the flavours, sights and life of Venice. In de Blasi's evocative prose every trip to the food markets becomes an adventure, and every mouth-watering recipe a celebration of food and love. 'What a delight - De Blasi portrays her adventure with a velvet touch, and instills the reader with a desire to jump on the next vaporetto!' Susan Herrmann Loomis, author, On Rue Tatin 'De Blasi relates it all in a voice at once worldly and sensuous, unsentimental and aware of what it means to have such good fortune.She binds her love of Fernando to her love of food, like a bouquet garni, in one long delicious engagement running throughout this ode, from cappuccino and apricot pastry to pumpkin gnocchi in cream and sage.' Kirkus Reviews