Un Amico Italiano: Eat Pray Love in Rome by Luca Spaghetti

 The magic of Rome told by Elizabeth Gilbert’s chaperone in Eat, Pray, Love.

In September 2003, Luca Spaghetti got an email from an American friend that would change his life: ‘A friend from university is about to move to Rome for three months. She’ll contact you. She’s a writer and her name is Elizabeth Gilbert.’ Luca did not have high hopes for this bookish tourist but he needn’t have worried. Here was someone who wanted to discover the true Rome, the Rome of Romans. And who better to show her than a born and bred Romano.

Luca Spaghetti (yes, his real name!) is the guide/guardian angel who looked after Elizabeth Gilbert in Rome, as described in her worldwide bestseller Eat, Pray, Love. Luca’s own book is part memoir, part unconventional guidebook. Knowing Rome intimately, he is the ideal person to tell us about the hidden gems that don’t appear in the traditional guidebooks: the charming little square, the wonderful Renaissance painting in an out-of-the-way church, the tiny trattoria that serves the best bucatini all’amatriciana.

As an homage to Elizabeth Gilbert, Luca has divided his book into three sections; Eat (where to go, recipes and Roman rituals as well as Luca’s personal stories related to food); Pray (Rome as the city of art and churches, and how this comes into Luca’s personal life and his friendship with Elizabeth); and Love (Rome as the ‘city of love’, and the habits of Romans in love, including Luca).

Luca is charming, witty, funny and irresistibly Italian; anyone who has read Eat, Pray Love will want to read this book too.

Luca Spaghetti (1970) was born and lives in Rome. He graduated in economics and his real last name is Spaghetti. He loves Roman cuisine and American music. He supports Lazio, and this is his first book.

Viking Paperback - NZ$37.00