Advance Praise

Botticelli Blue Skies
An American in Florence
Merrill Joan Gerber

"For those who have traveled to Italy, this book will be a delicious reminder. For those who have never been there, it is a seductive invitation. For those afraid to travel, the book provides an antidote to fear. For those who will never travel, the book is the next best thing to the real experience."
—Susan Koppelman, editor of Women in the Trees

"Gerber doesn't lead the reader through Italy; rather she lets us go along with her on her trips to the supermarket, the ballet, a synagogue, a friend's farm, an artist's villa. . . . Her eyes are sharp, and she has the ability to observe vividly. She deftly captures character, selecting just the right action, gesture, or fragment of speech. She gives a wonderful sense of what most travel books leave out—the exhaustion, the frustration, the mosquitoes, the mystery of public transportation, the need to go to the bathroom."
—Jenijoy La Belle, author of Herself Beheld

"No one is better at rendering the complications and frustrations of ordinary lives. Gerber's touch is light but her work is powerful."
—Robert Stone, author of Damascus Gate