The Reluctant Tuscan: How I Discovered My Inner Italian

by Phil Doran

A Book Sense Pick for May 2005, this is the humorous tale of how the author moved— against his will and his better judgment—to Italy with his wife, only to rediscover himself, his marriage, and the importance of getting in touch with his inner Italian.

After years of working on a string of sitcoms, Phil Doran found himself on the outside looking in. Just as he and his peers had replaced the older guys when he was coming up the ranks, it was now happening to him. And it was freaking him out. He came home every night angry, burned- out, and exhausted. After twenty-five years of losing her husband to Hollywood, Doran’s wife decided it was finally time for a change—so on one of her many solo trips to Italy she surprised her husband by purchasing a broken-down 300-year-old farmhouse for them to restore. The Reluctant Tuscan is about the author’s transition from being a successful but overworked writer-producer in Hollywood to rediscovering himself and his wife while in Italy, and finding happiness in the last place he expected.

In the witty tone that made him a success as a writer in Hollywood, The Reluctant Tuscan captivates those who simply love a good travel narrative as well as anyone who loves the quirky humor of Bill Bryson, Dave Barry, and Jerry Seinfeld.

Praise for The Reluctant Tuscan:
“Doran’s brutally funny accounts . . . are enough to keep readers hooked until the last page.”
—PUBLISHERS WEEKLY

“ . . . disarmingly funny.”
—THE ARIZONA REPUBLIC

“A truly funny book that reveals Italy as never before.”
—THE GRAND RAPIDS PRESS

Genres: Travel, Italy, Nonfiction, Memoir, Book Club, Biography, Italian Literature

312 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

Phil Doran
Born in Hammond, Indiana February 13, 1944
Died February 4, 2023
Genre: Humor, Travel Memoir

A television producer and writer and producer for twenty-five years, Phil Doran worked on shows such as All in the Family, Sanford and Son, The Wonder Years, and Who's the Boss before giving up the hectic Los Angeles pace to restore a 300 year old farmhouse in Tuscany with his wife, sculptress Nancy Fields.
Doran recorded his experiences in the 2005 title, The Reluctant Tuscan: How I Discovered My Inner Italian. Returning to Los Angeles, Doran wrote and produced Baby Boomer Blues, an original “coming-of-old-age” play for the Laguna Woods Theatre Guild.
Doran passed away on February 4, 2023 in Murrieta, CA at the age of 79.

Reviews

[Lisa · Rating 1 out of 5]

The story of a couple who buys a run down, ancient building in the hills and renovates it is not unique. The appeal when I picked up this book was the claim by Doran, a former Hollywood screenwriter, that he was telling the story of how he came to love Italy after he and his wife renovated a house near Pisa.

I don't believe him. From the beginning, when he reluctantly joined his wife after she bought the house, to the end, when they are living in the house, his tone is sarcastic and his description of the culture and people is derogatory. He is the classic "Ugly American" at the outset; in the end he is only slightly less ugly.

The book might have been redeemed had he related the stories of the local people in a believable way. All of them, however, are caricatures. Every odd characteristic is exaggerated. In the end, Doran could not overcome his screenwriter training and mentality.

[Sandra · Rating 3 out of 5]

After reading this book I have mixed emotions. I loved the story of the people who live in this little town in Tuscany, but I didn't like some of the meanness of the author and his wife. I understood their reasons for being devious to the people in this town, but at the same time it seemed like instead of getting an attorney and working towards a mutual solution for everyone, they chose to be petty and spiteful, just like their neighbor.
The author also shows how much us Americans are pampered in our air conditioned lives.
But, the author also shows how, in this day and age, you can live in a different time and be happy. The life they live in Tuscany could be set back in the 1020's. So if you never left that town again, it would be like stepping back in time and life now in America would not exist.
There are so many places in this book that I just burst out laughing. It made me smile a lot. If the author and his wife could have gotten past the petty it would have been a great story.
A lot of the story also had me wondering if the author took a lot of "leeway" in describing what they actually went through to get this house built and livable. Some of the descriptions of the people sounded like caricatures and not actually how it was.
But all that said, I enjoyed this book a lot, and would recommend it to anyone who likes a romp through history and a good laugh.
I am hoping Phil Doran and his wife have settled in to their new way of life in Tuscany and that they and the town have come to love each other.

[Christine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this! If a vacation to Italy is out this year-or possibly next, this will take you right in the middle country where you would want to be, without all the touristy mire. I really enjoyed the characters in this book: They were real,honest, and strangely familiar to me. Lots of hilarious situations regarding the thick Italian country culture. I wanted to be apart of them. I didn't want this to end! It's one of those "I'm depressed because I finished this book" reads. It was a mini-vacation, I wasn't ready to come home...
Anyone want to go-in on a Italian villa?

[Chuck Slack · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Highly entertaining and very funny. It is kind of in the Bill Bryson vein which I also enjoy. Highly recommended.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

Part of my planning for a spring trip to Italy has me inhaling almost anything I can find to read related to Italy, especially Tuscany and Umbria. Fiction or nonfiction, I'm reading it all. Including travel guides, this is my tenth book on Italy and one of my favorites.

While much of the earlier parts revolve around the author's wife trying to convince him to give up the helter-skelter life of an L.A. TV writer, eventually he moves on to describing the Tuscan people, places and customs around the town of Cambione, and it is here where the book shines. Just from descriptions of the food I think I gained ten pounds.

The Italian life is a slower-paced one (as long as you're off the highways) than almost anywhere in America. Following the author's transition from a frantic writer straniero (foreigner) to a calm (unless he's driving), accepted resident of this wonderful slice of Italy was delightful.

[Kathleen · Rating 1 out of 5]

I would not recommend this book for a number of reasons. 1. The story is presented as non-fiction but that is entirely unbelievable. There is nothing remotely believable about the dialogue or actions of any of the characters. So much has been exaggerated for comic effect that none of it plays realistically. 2. The portrayal of the people he meets in Italy is embarrassingly cliched, written as though the author never actual went to Italy and thinks he can get along with resurrecting cliches that no one should accept. 3. I found the author to be very unlikeable, perhaps due his offensive portrayal of his new Italian neighbors or by his obsession with his faltering career and the idiots he has to deal with in Hollywood. There are many other, better written books about starting a new life in Italy. Read those instead.

[Carolyn Dorstek · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is refreshing to read a book that makes you laugh from the first sentence. I am thoroughly enjoying this book. Just what I needed this week. Thanks Matt for recommending it.

Finished this book awhile ago and it still comes to mind. It's humor and refreshing look at a wonderful culture has become the stuff of daydreams for me. Out to dinner last night with friends who tried to burst my "daydream bubble" by pointing out the realities of living life in another country, but dreams (or the need for them in my life) are stronger and I enjoy the possibility of a venture like this.

I am ready for change!

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was the book I chose to read while vacationing in Italy, and it was great. It was charming, funny, irreverent, but believable -- written by a middle aged Hollywood comedy writer, who with his wife decided (albeit reluctantly on his part) to escape the rat race and stress of their American lives and move to a small town in Tuscany. What they experienced while renovating their Piccolo Rustico (extreme fixer-upper) and assimilating with their neighbors was both hilarious and touching, and above all, entertaining. I really enjoyed it.

[Stephanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Super fun book, very funny! Ending I felt was lackluster. 3.5!

[Kathryn · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a very pleasant book about a man rather unwillingly giving up his Type A Hollywood lifestyle to restore and live in an abandoned rustic house in rural Tuscany. It’s a fun easy read, and one that I enjoyed very much.

For twenty years the author has been a writer of television scripts in Hollywood. His wife of twenty years (no children) is an artist and sculptor, and they spend half the year apart, with him in Hollywood and she sculpting in Italy. Just when he realizes that fifty-year-old television writers are dinosaurs, his wife phones him with the news that she has purchased a three-hundred year old house on a hillside in rural Tuscany that needs, to put it mildly, extensive repair and remodeling work.

The author thus joins his wife in Tuscany, but still misses the breakneck pace of life in Los Angeles; while his wife is wholehearted devoted to this old house, he takes every chance he gets to suggest going home to California. But he eventually realizes that he loves the pace of life in Tuscany, even as he and his wife gain weight from the cooking and fight to get necessary building permits.

This is a gentle book, and funny; but it also gives good lessons for Type-A people (and the rest of us) to enjoy life, and to enjoy life to its fullest.

[Liz · Rating 3 out of 5]

As long as there are human beings on earth, I think, there will be books of this genre. Yes, yet another "outsider goes to foreign country and has amusing experiences with the quirky locals". These books practically write themselves, because it is a simple fact that wherever you go on earth, there will be crazy people doing crazy things. And, as any writer knows, these experiences beg to be written down. But sometimes the most frequently used formulas are the best, and that is why these books will continue to be entertaining, no matter how many you read. At least, that's the way I feel about it. That being said, all you really need to know is that it takes place in Tuscany.

[Naturegirl · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was interested to read this book because Phil Doran is the screenwriter who worked on Who's the Boss and The Wonder Years. He's also a complainy, whiny American who, thank goodness, finally gets his childish act together and works out his marriage with his wife. Granted, his wife bought a house in Italy and there were tons of obstacles involved in repairing the place, but his attitude toward the Italian culture was more than reluctant at first. He came around in the end, but the book ends on a note that makes me wonder if his marriage actually survived.

I don't know. The book had some great parts, but it was a little too "selfish" for me.

[Jill · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very fast read. Very funny. While it falls in the Frances Mayes category of I-had-a-midlife-crisis-and-so-I-bought-a-villa-in-Tuscany-and-found-myself-and-here-is-what-I-learned-to-love-about-Italy-in-the-process book, it is much more self-deprecating, and, like I said, very spot-on-funny about Italians at times.

[Mattsmom · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cute. Funny. Quick read. Loved

[Murcam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mattsgrandmom also gave us a copy of this one and enjoyed it. Good, quick read, especially after our Tuscany trip!

[Julie Durnell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thoroughly enjoyable and amusing book of their purchase and trials restoring a small house in Cambione!

[Nari · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is really 3.5 stars. The author comes across as vain, spoiled and annoying during the first third of the story. He doesn't depict life in Tuscany, he made fun of it. Somewhere along the line, there's a major event that happens that seems to cause a major shift in him. This is evident in his writing and his observations of Cambione. He felt more approachable. True to the title, he was quite reluctant to embrace this move and new life that his wife sort of imposed on him by buying a house there without telling him. Overall, I enjoyed the book, you just need to need to through the first half. Also, skip all the Charlie scenes. It's horribly stereotypical and made me feel uncomfortable reading those scenes.

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

While a lot of it was really funny, it is incredibly non-PC. I mean, why in the world would an old white guy think it is OK to "channel" an imaginary female rap singer and use the "n" word?! Plus joking about Britney Spears more than once and wondering whether she had breast implants. I think we all know that Britney has suffered enough without people who have no connection to her making her a joke in their book. I gave it three stars because when the author wasn't coming up with jokes that probably were OK in the 70s, it was a fun read about the renovation of their house. Although there was always a scam of some sort going on by this guy and his wife. Maybe I need to change it to two stars.

[Cindy Adair · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is part memoir and part travel log. The author shares his journey leaving Hollywood to help his wife rebuild a rustic cabin in Tuscany. The adventures take place as they try to navigate the “red tape” of getting permits and building in a country that seems to have its own sense of time and place. Through His frustrations we watch him grow and change as he learns to love the people and country of Italy.

There were parts that were funny and others that were touching. His descriptions of Italian drivers and parking were spot on. I’ve been to Italy once, and this book makes me want to go back! This book was and easy to read escape from everyday American life!

[Kristina Gringogidget · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this book on my Airbnb host's shelf in Italy and immediately soaked it up. It was a really cute and fast read.

I chuckled and had feelings for some parts of the book, but felt that sometimes the author used too many similes or over described things rather than getting on with the story.

Otherwise, the imagery is very beautiful and his caricature-like description of Italian people is somewhat accurate if you've ever visited a small town in Tuscany. I can see though, how some people in the reviews here find it a bit offensive coming from a white guy from LA ;).

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was a find at my local library book store. As my friends and I are planning a Fall Italy trip, I felt the book was especially inspiring. I enjoyed the picture the author painted regarding the life style and culture of the Italian people. I found it easy to read and related to the comparisons he made of the Italian to American life style. I enjoyed his descriptions of the Italian countryside, especially Tuscany. I am passing it on to my traveling companions as I think it's a great read to prepare for our trip!

[Petra Be · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dobře se to čte a místy se člověk neubrání smíchu. Ale i tak máte neustále pocit, že velice důležitý rozmazlený Američan zesměšňuje Italy.

Tak jedna historka pro pobavení o Američanech: mívala jsem kamarádku na dopisování v New Jersey. V jednom dopise se mě zeptala, jak slavíme Den nezávislosti, na což jsem jí odpověděla, že ho neslavíme, že to je americký svátek.
Už se nikdy neozvala. Tak teď nevím, jestli se tak urazila, že si dovolujeme to neslavit, nebo dosud nerozdýchala, že kromě Ameriky ještě existuje i jiný svět :D :D

[June Finnigan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Vivid, emotional and Tuscany.

A lovely story that grips you then holds on. Nancy is in love with Tuscany and buys a ruined cottage . Phil is in Hollywood trying to find buyers for his latest script. Depressed and frustrated, he goes to join Nancy and enters a crazy Italian world, which against all the odds, and there are many, he starts to feel the lifestyle and people winning him over. A funny, sometimes heartbreaking yet heartwarming story. A must read for lovers of all things Italian.
June Finnigan - Writer

[Christine Musello, Psy.D. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Everything about this memoir, a narrative about an older L.A. couple creating a second home in Tuscany, is drenched in the beauty, idiosyncracy and uniquely Italian world-view that makes both the narrative and the actual country so irresistible.

If you're someone who, like me, fantasizes about how great it would be to return to Italy, this book will warm you through and through. Not without it's serious observations about relationships, The Reluctant Tuscan is, nevertheless, a vicarious immersion in an escape from the craziness of our culture into the beauty and craziness of another.

[K_private · Rating 2 out of 5]

Was a supposed to like the narrator, cause I didn’t...While initially charmed by the depiction of his artistic wife by the end I just found the whole thing disingenuous. Like...these people suck. They are mean and self interested. And vapid. Also, I had a really hard time with the treatment of race in this book - cringy and out of place at best, outright racist in the worst of times. The only saving grace is the reminder of the charm of Tuscany as well as how simple it was to get through stylistically. Would not recommend and will not be keeping.

[Shirley Schwartz · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was given to me as a gift, so I knew that it had to be good. It is not my sort of genre at all, but this memoir reads like fiction, and it's humorous as well. Phil Doran describes the people in the tiny village of Cambione in Tuscany so brilliantly, it made me want to meet them all. And seeing it through Doran's jaded American eyes, made it all the more fun. This was a very enjoyable read that was amusing as well as informative, and the food and wine described make it even more delicious Thank you so much for the gift. It was a delight.

[Jamie Dudiak · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of my all-time favorite books about moving to Italy! I read it in record time - day and a half, and passed it on to my husband with a mandate he had to read it! He was laughing out loud as he read Doran’s humorous immersion into Tuscan ways while trying to renovate an ancient heap of stones. Passed it to another friend and he throughly enjoyed too! A MUST read! You don’t want the story to end, and when I finished it, was immediately looking to see if there was a follow up book - sadly I haven’t found there is one!

[Milena Boyadzhieva · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved the book. Well, some sensitive Italians might not be that exited but I think the author writes with enormous love and appreciation for Italy. I am giving one star less, because the edition I had (not this one, at least the cover is different and I think it’s Virgin books) is a disaster. Pages cut out and mixed all over the place, in all honesty it shouldn’t be sold but the book itself was super fun to read and the writing is beautiful.
It ended like a next one should follow. So, I hope there will be one.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. I have been to Italy a few times & loved it. I enjoyed sharing in the experience of people making a new life for themselves in this amazing country. Most of us dream about doing something like this but never do for a whole range of reasons. You share in their ups & downs and gain insight to the citizens of a country that you don’t necessarily get to experience when you are just visiting.

[Sherry Beth Preston]

Funny quotes:
"I was hard pressed to understand his reluctance to settle down with a girl who not only looked good in a miniskirt, but also knew how to rebuild a transmission."

"Unlike Americans, who are world famous for our informality, the Italians are very rigid about this, using the more formal 'le' to address anyone older, more educated, or in a socially superior position, unless he is the prime minister of their country-and then they speak to him as if he were the Antichrist."