Up at the Villa
Available through independent booksellers and online. For a signed copy, please contact the author directly at lindadinijenkins@gmail.com. And for more information about Up at the Villa or scheduling Linda for an event, please contact her at the same address.
"Up at the Villa:
Travels with my Husband"
Italy was never on my bucket list. I didn’t make it there until the year 2000, at the age of 51, when my husband Tim and I signed on to a small group of six other interested travelers whom we knew from church. It was an image-shattering and life-changing two weeks.
When he asked me about going to Rome, I would say something like, “I don’t have to go to Rome to see Italians. I just have to have my Brooklyn relatives drive out in their iridescent blue Plymouth Valiant with far too many teased-hair cousins inside. The noise is deafening.” He told me I was way off base, but it took him nine years to convince me, I was that stubborn. Or wary. Or afraid.
When we landed in Florence and began driving out to the countryside, I could feel my shoulders drop, my breath becoming more regular, and my eyes more aware of my surroundings than they had ever been. I was home, and I knew it. So Up at the Villa describes a lot about that first trip, including the places we visited, the reasons we decided to stay in the “villa” from time to time, and the amazing friends we made on the trip. But it also takes the reader on other journeys: to Paris, Bermuda, Brugges, Colorado, even South Orange, New Jersey. And introduces some of the more off-the-beaten-track places in Italy that we explored in the early years of our marriage when we were forming what would become our small group tour business, Travel Italy the Write Way. Most importantly, it laid the groundwork for Becoming Italian through observing those traits and customs and food that were so familiar to me, without really knowing why.
In the Press
"With the beauty of her prose and poetry, Jenkins provides a window on all of those small things that make Italy so alluring. At the same time, she artfully captures the nuances of relationships and what makes them tick. A lovely book."
Kathy McCabe, Founder, Editor and Publisher, Dream of Italy and host of PBS’s Dream of Italy and Dream of Europe on Up at the Villa
"Linda Jenkins has written a new kind of book: it’s a love story, a picaresque adventure, a treasury of impressions, a candid memoir, and a testimonial to the way places can preserve, imagine, and beget the human story. If you have yet to plan your trip for the year, pick up Up at the Villa and go where you haven’t been before."
David J. Impastato, filmmaker, co-founder of Poetry Retreats and editor, Upholding Mystery: An Anthology of Contemporary Christian Poetry on Up at the Villa
"Anyone dreaming about renting a villa in Italy must read this book. The important discoveries are not about villas or their locations, but about the kind of people and attitudes required to successfully enjoy them. Linda conveys valuable travel insights with passion, warmth and humor. Her excellent style draws you in as part of the family and at the very least, after reading this book, you may consider kidnapping her husband Tim as your permanent chef and navigator. After renting villas in Italy to thousands of travelers a year, I finally figured out why people love the concept so much."
Mario Scalzi, President & Founder, The Parker Company on Up at the Villa
"One of the Top Ten travel books I’d give my girlfriends."
Journeywoman
Available through independent booksellers and online. For a signed copy, please contact the author directly at lindadinijenkins@gmail.com. And for more information about Up at the Villa or scheduling Linda for an event, please contact her at the same address.
Who were they, this hybrid family, half-Italian, half-God-knows-what? Who was she?
Here, in chapter and verse, is the tale of an Italian-American girl who started out in the suburbs of New York City and writes her way to understanding herself, her family and her place in the world.
When Tim and I first moved to Boston in 1991, we looked for a church community. Our pastor in Burlington, Vermont, where we got married, told us about this fantastic UCC Church on the corner of Boylston and Dartmouth Streets: Old South Church. If you’re ever watched the Boston Marathon, that’s the big church at the finish line. After a few weeks attending services, we decided to stay.
