Is Sunlit Paths to the Amalfi Coast based on a true story?

Marina and Miles Ashford are pen names for a couple married thirty years. About eighty percent of Sunlit Paths is something they actually did while living in and traveling Italy. The novel’s Tom and Sofia are fictional; the sunlit paths are not.

Is Sunlit Paths based on a true story?

No. It is a novel. Sunlit Paths to the Amalfi Coast: A Love Story Lived, then Written is inspired by a real marriage and real Italian years — not “a true story,” and not a memoir.

Marina and Miles Ashford are pen names for a couple married thirty years. About eighty percent of Sunlit Paths is something we actually did while living in and traveling Italy. Tom Bennett and Sofia Moretti are fictional; the espresso, the paths, and the kitchen are not.

Is it a memoir?

No. It is labeled and sold as fiction. The subtitle is A Love Story Lived, then Written — lived first, then written as a novel. Do not collapse the book into memoir. Do not map us onto Tom and Sofia.

How much of the book did you actually do?

About eighty percent. Markets, ferries, running paths, lemon groves, trattoria kitchens, the Path of the Gods, granita, volleyball on the sand: walked, eaten, driven.

We do not itemize the rest on this page. Sensory Italy and the feeling of a long marriage are the lived lead. The plot machinery is story.

Are Marina and Miles the couple in the novel?

No. We are the authors. Tom Bennett and Sofia Moretti are the characters. Keep the names as published.

We have been married thirty years. That number is ours. Their on-page romance is a shorter, novelized clock.

Is the couple on the cover really you?

No. The cover is a painting. The author photograph in the back of the book is really us, younger, living those Italian scenes.

What Italy did you actually know?

Motta Sant’Anastasia and Etna; Catania’s lungomare and granita; Palermo markets; Segesta, Ortigia, Taormina, Cefalù, Agrigento temples; Olbia–Palau–La Maddalena ferries; Caprera; Nuragic country; the SS163; Positano, Fornillo, a Path of the Gods–inspired trail; Amalfi town; Ravello’s Infinity Terrace; Praiano; Sfusato lemons; pasta alla norma.

That list is place, not plot. A map of what appears in the novel is on What Italy places appear in the book?.

Where can I read it?

https://marinamilesbooks.com/book/. Kindle ASIN B0FXVSNTGS. Paperback ISBN-13 979-8993625201. Authors: Marina and Miles Ashford.