Bella Figura: How to Live, Love & Eat the Italian Way

Never before have I enjoyed one of these style of books – a sort of biography, lifestyle and self-help book in the form of a novel. However with Bella Figura by Kamin Mohammadi I was drawn in from the first page. I have always loved Italy and more recently OH and I have been wondering if we didn’t live in the UK where would we most like to live and Italy features in both of our top 3.

This book, Bella Figura: How to Live, Love & Eat the Italian Way is one woman’s guide to living a more beautiful, sensuous and satisfying life ­- and a wonderful exploration of the Italian views on pleasure, food and love. Kamin Mohammadi was living in London with a high-powered and very stressful job in the magazine industry when she found herself worn down, with weight and health issues, and a non-existent love life. A new friend offered her the use of an apartment in Florence and so Kamin jumped at the chance of a change of lifestyle giving her the motivation to write her own book.

Kamin Mohammadi’s writing is so evocative one can smell the flowers, taste the flesh of the sweet peaches, hear the chatter of her neighbours and the sound of people meandering through the cobbled streets of Florence. Even her descriptions of her own love life are so vivid that one can picture the Italian men she tells us about.

As you read on it is inevitable that you think about your own life and whether you are missing out on something. Whether our lifestyle in the UK is just so fast-paced we don’t appreciate the small things. We don’t have time to stop and smell the flowers, talk to all of our neighbours. Kamin paints a picture of a slow-paced lifestyle, never having a take-out coffee but sitting and enjoying and watching the world go by. Mornings spent in the market choosing the fresh produce for your meals (no plastic packaging here!)

She ate healthily, invalidating all the extensive and expensive diet advice that bombards us. She eats plenty of vegetables and fruit but she also eats pasta, bread, olive oil and wine! Not a juicer in sight. But still the weight drops off her and her acne clears up. Gym membership is not part of this lifestyle but she walks everywhere and climbs the stairs to her own apartment which all seem to keep her fit.

We do not have a translation for the Italian words, Bella Figura, but it is like Hygge in Danish and it is certainly something that we should try to create, here in the UK. Read this book and live the lifestyle in your mind and wonder…..

To purchase from Amazon click HERE.

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