Blasi, Marlena de

Marlena de Blasi is the bestselling author of A Thousand Days in Venice, Tuscan Secrets, An Umbrian Love Story, That Summer in Sicily and a novel Amandine. She has been a chef, a journalist, a food and wine consultant and a restaurant critic. She is also the author of two internationally published cookbooks of Italian food. She and her husband, Fernando, moved from Venice to San Casciano where Tuscan Secrets was written and now live in Orvieto. Antonia and her Daughters developed as Marlena became friends with and a trusted confidant of the real Antonia who wanted Marlena to tell her story. Although Marlena was working on quite a different book, Antonia's story began insisting that this was the right time and should be the basis of Marlena's next book.;