Will Rycroft

I was really intrigued by... This novel is set in Italy, and I was really intrigued by one moment in the book where you describe the fact that a lot of people think of Italy as being a very old country, but actually...

in its modern form as a unified country, it's actually younger than America, and it was these separate kingdoms, and that that's why you have these very separate rules about food or customs and things like that.

When did you notice that, I suppose, and how did you use that in the telling of this story?

This is one of the things I love about Italy is they are very strict about their food rules, even though they seem slightly absurd to anybody.

Yeah.

We have mentioned food.

There is so much food in this book.

And as somebody who loves food, I just love descriptions of food.

You appear to as well.

There's a great bit where there is the pressing of olives for olive oil.

Is that a real thing that you did?

Because it feels so lived, that experience, and the taste of that sort of proper extra virgin olive oil.

And I suppose that leads into this seasonality of eating.

Again, the sort of slight joke in the book is that there is...

something will come into season and you will eat just that for that week or two weeks.

Oh, I don't know if I'd like radicchio season.

You see, now you're talking as far as I'm concerned.

You've mentioned that as you were there in real life, you started to make notes about these little moments.

And what I loved about this book is, I suppose, one of the Baroness's philosophies is about...

celebrating these little adventures in life.