Italy grants citizenship to Under the Tuscan Sun author Frances Mayes
Cabinet ministers approved a proposal submitted by Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi to grant Mayes citizenship "for special merits," the government said in a statement on Friday.
Born in Georgia, Mayes, 85, currently divides her time between her home in Cortona, Tuscany, and North Carolina.
Her 1996 memoir recounts her purchase and renovation of a dilapidated villa in the hilltop Tuscan town.
The book was later turned into a film of the same name starring Diane Lane, who received a Golden Globe Award nomination for her performance.
Under the Tuscan Sun spent more than two years on the New York Times Best Seller list, and was a New York Times Notable Book of 1997.
As of 2016, it had been translated into 54 languages.
The government's move comes just weeks after it drastically tightened access to Italian citizenship by descent (or citizenship iure sanguinis).
The previous system placed no generational limit on applications, with people able to qualify for citizenship through an ancestor going all the way back to March 17th, 1861 – when the Kingdom of Italy was created.
But under new rules that took immediate effect on March 28th, only people with an Italian parent or grandparent born in Italy, or with an Italian parent who lived in Italy for at least two continuous years, now qualify for citizenship.
The move is believed to have stripped millions of people of Italian descent the right to apply for citizenship.
With reporting from AFP.
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