title: Eight Days, Seven Nights
author: Faass, Josephine S.
description: Having given up on passion, Lydia Russo is plodding through life. Stranded and lonely, at 30 years old, she's made an uneasy peace with her decisions to remain in academia; and with a man who needs, more than loves her. Even her best friend, a sardonic, foul-mouthed tax attorney, has little to offer beyond exasperation with Lydia's situation. A trip home for the holidays only seems to confirm her status as a complete and utter failure; but luckily for Lydia, Christmas morning brings a gift that will change everything: a trip to Italy with Tiziano tours. Initially thrilled to arrive in the country she's dreamed of her whole life, Lydia's enthusiasm soon wanes when she finds herself the lone thirty-something on a tour where everyone else shops the AARP-approved section at Sears. It doesn't take long, however, before the charms of Italy, and of Maurizio Greco, the young assistant tour guide, begin to work their magic. Over the course of the next eight days and seven nights, Lydia narrowly escapes a band of theiving gypsy children, loses her way in an M.C. Esher print, chops off her hair alla Wynonna Ryder, meets the Circe witch of Ulysses legend, rides across the Italian countryside on a giant wasp, and plays an impromptu virtuoso piano performance; all in the company of the most amazing man she's ever met. This Italy -- the real Italy -- isn't the country of cathedrals and great works of art Lydia expected to find. It is emotional, frenetic, and alive. And Maurizio isn't the man she expected to find herself drawn to. He is as at home swapping Italian curses for American ones, or whipping up a tiramisu, as he is behind the wheel of a tour bus. So at a time when all of life's doors seemed to have slammed in her face, in this Italy -- his Italy -- Lydia discovers a window that's worth crawling through no matter how small or inconvenient it maybe: a window that leads to true love, and back to her true self.