Under the Tuscan Sun

On a summer afternoon, the narrator watches local workers eat watermelon. She spots a man gathering pinecones from the driveway trees. Soon, Anselmo Martini, their agent and friend, arrives and shows Mayes and Ed how to crack the pinecones to free the edible pinoli (pine nuts). They gather cones together while he explains foraging customs and the property’s past as an orchard and vineyard. He recalls the wartime German occupation of a nearby fortress and shares details of his own history.

The narrator bakes a torta della nonna (grandmother’s cake) with the pinoli and invites Signor Martini to share it. He praises her effort. She and Ed walk the terraces and identify fig, peach, cherry, and apple trees, along with the stone supports of a vanished vineyard. They admire five fragrant linden trees, and Ed proposes keeping bees on the property. Mayes notes the calm of the old olive trees. She makes peach marmalade, continuing a family tradition of preserving that connects her kitchen to the orchard.

At the height of summer, Ed leaves for a trip, and Mayes adjusts to a solitary rhythm, watching the sun move through the rooms so predictably that the house functions like a sundial.