jbronderbookreviews

This is a wonderful story. I loved following along as Nora works her way through her self-esteem issues to recreate herself. To become the person she has always wanted to be. But I also enjoyed the research and history that went into both Isabella’s story and Margherita’s. It was so easy to fall into the history of both eras and hope and pray for the best for all three women.

I loved this story that is rich in history and art. You can tell that Melissa Muldoon loves Italy as she describes this world. This is a great story and one that I strongly recommend.

I received a complimentary copy of this book. I voluntarily chose to read and post an honest review.

I would like to thank Italy Book Tours for the opportunity to read and share this book.

Guest Post

Cerreto Guidi – the Medici Hunting Lodge where

Isabella de’ Medici was Murdered

I am the author of “Dreaming Sophia” and “Waking Isabella.” I am also the “Studentessa Matta.” In Italian, that means “crazy student.” For the past seven years, I have been writing a dual language blog in Italian and English to promote the study of the language and culture. My new novel “Waking Isabella,” takes place in the small Tuscan town of Arezzo. The story begins, however, in Cerreto Guidi in the Hunting Lodge in Tuscany to the west of Florence, where Isabella de’ Medici was murdered by her husband, Paolo Giordano. Today I’d like to tell you about Isabella and my trip to visit the villa where the Renaissance princess spent her final hours.

Last June, after finishing up co-leading my June language immersion group in Lucca, I rented a car in Florence and drove west about an hour to  Cerreto Guidi. At that point, I had been writing my novel for several months, so of course, I wanted to visit the place the figures so prominently at the beginning of my story. Cosimo de’ Medici – Isabella’s father – built many hunting lodges all over Tuscany, they went there to shoot local game and entertain guests.

When the villa was built, it was in the middle of nowhere. Today, it’s not an easy place to reach for tourists…there isn’t a train or a regular bus. So it is a little deserted. It is a museum for hunting artifacts from the Renaissance. It was fascinating to wander through the villa, see the portraits of the Medici family and imagine my story. Like the book, I had a very attentive guard who followed me around, and we had a delightful conversation in Italian about Isabella.

Isabella was well educated and intelligent girl. Her father Cosimo I raised her to be independent and outspoken. When her mother Eleonora died, she rose to the position of being Florence’s leading lady, presiding over salons where the luminaries and intellectuals of European society gathered to debate all manner of things, including the Tuscan language and its influence on the Italian language.

But, her libertine lifestyle, which included a long-standing affair with her husband’s cousin, didn’t sit well with either Francesco her brother or for that matter, her husband. Isabella was an embarrassment to them both because she didn’t abide by their rules and made them both laughing stock in Florentine high society. It also didn’t sit well with Francesco that his sister continued to demand of him the inheritance their father had promised her. He preferred to keep the money to himself and for his mistress Bianca Cappello.

After the death of Cosimo I, without a protector, in an extreme play for power, Francesco hatched a plot to silence for good both Isabella and her best friend and cousin, Leonora. It is said on Francesco’s orders, on July 16, 1576, Isabella was murdered by her husband in her bedroom of Cerreto Guidi. A cord was lowered from a hole in the ceiling above her room, and she was hung. The men claimed Isabella had died while washing her hair and that her husband had found her laying on the floor upon his arrival.

Due to the mysterious circumstances of her death, the legend of Isabella’s ghost took hold, and people claim to have seen her ghost drifting about the villa and the surrounding grounds. The story caught fire when in 1950 a troupe of American actors filming at the villa claim to have seen Isabella, that the locals by that point had named the “White Lady.”

Standing in her bedroom was such an interesting experience…and looking up you can see the hole where the cord was inserted from the room above from which she was hung.  I can’t say I met Isabella’s ghost that day but I did feel a bit more of a connection with the Medici Princess. I knew I wanted to help tell her story, but not just concentrate on the ghost story, but to let people know what a strong, intelligent woman she was.

And now, I am happy to bring the Medici princess — also called the “Star of Florence”—  to your attention in my novel “Waking Isabella,” telling her story and playing my own small part in waking Isabella.

On the Studentessa Matta language learning site you can find lots of free ways to practice Italian. I write both in Italian and English so you can flex and improve your communication skills – for free. Each week I post about Italian language learning as well as fun and interesting stories about Italian culture. You can find all the videos from this channel on the blog as well, with transcripts and translations.

For those of you who want to dive in a little deeper into Italian language studies in Italy, I also organize small group language immersion programs. This year the programs will be held in Montepulciano and  Arezzo. I invite you to join me! Please visit the Studentessa Matta for more details.