2022: A sloooooooooog of a meandering journey with characters that don't do ANYTHING except occasionally gamble and somehow earn enough to never have to work again and live in the Tuscan countryside?

To be honest, I knew I wouldn't really like this book - it doesn't really check any of my boxes, and it took me so long to get through it. But it was gifted to me for Christmas by my mother, and I was really trying to finish it before leaving her house. Needless to say, I absolutely did not succeed.

The worst part about this book was the lack of quotation marks. I've read a couple books like this in the past, most notably [b:Normal People|41057294|Normal People|Sally Rooney|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1571423190l/41057294._SY75_.jpg|59141209] by Sally Rooney, but this book is SO dialogue heavy, and the lack of quotation marks was SO ANNOYING. It started bothering me about 20 pages in and it didn't stop until 444 pages later. Also, there are only two footnotes in the entire book, they show up in the final 10 pages, and they reference characters that were not previously mentioned in the entire book?! WHY OH WHY

The first 200 pages don't pass the Bechdel test, and I was sorely tempted to give up. But Alys and Evelyn come back with a vengeance to make up for it in the second half of the book. Alys is the best character for sure. She's like a reincarnated Evelyn, but you don't even get to enjoy that parallel until the final chapter. Evelyn's presence is just so unbalanced in comparison to the rest of the cast of characters.

Overall, I would only recommend this book if you want an ensemble cast with minimal plot, you enjoy art history and would get a kick out of lots of referenced artworks, and you've been to Florence, Italy. Otherwise, steer clear.