A Rosie Life in Italy: Why Are We Here?

Wedding planner Meleady blends HGTV, The Money Pit, and Under the Tuscan Sun in this entertaining account of her family’s move from Ireland to the Italian countryside. After their landlady unexpectedly doubled their rent, Meleady and her photographer husband decided to pack up their children, pets, and belongings and drive in a camper van to Italy, where both had worked at destination weddings. Having dreamed since childhood of restoring “a beautiful home in an exotic country near a lake,” Meleady fell for a dilapidated 1923 villa in Umbria that she dubbed “the Sighing House.” She and her husband put it in a fantastically lowball offer that the sellers ended up accepting, thus embroiling the family in a bitter dispute between eight cousins who co-owned the villa. Shortly after the deal went through and Meleady’s family began restoration, the Covid pandemic hit, forcing them to stop. Meleady regularly sidetracks the main story line to recount comic misadventures including a plumbing mishap in Ireland and accidentally buying her son a guide to drawing erotica. These detours bog things down a bit, but Meleady’s charm and enthusiasm win out in the end. This will delight armchair travelers and aspiring expats alike. Agent: Emma Parry, Janklow & Nesbit Assoc. (Oct.)