Michelle Damiani
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Michelle Damiani
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Michelle Damiani

writing with Italy at heart

Around the World

Michelle Damiani
  • Buy my books/
  • Blog/
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    • Spello
    • Visiting Umbria
    • Travel in Italy
    • Around the World
  • What I Love/
    • Books and Movies
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    • Italian Cats and Hidden Madonnas
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October 04, 2016

Southeast Asia Pries Open our Horizons

October 04, 2016/ Michelle Damiani
Southeast Asia Pries Open our Horizons

How a trip to Asia can redefine your boundaries, and your understanding.

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October 04, 2016/ Michelle Damiani/ Comment
travel
Thailand, Laos, Vietnam
October 03, 2016

Markets in Thailand, Vietnam, and Laos

October 03, 2016/ Michelle Damiani
Markets in Thailand, Vietnam, and Laos

Exploring the markets in Bangkok, Hanoi, and Luang Prabang

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October 03, 2016/ Michelle Damiani/ Comment
travel
Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, markets
October 09, 2015

Normandy, France

October 09, 2015/ Michelle Damiani
Normandy, France

Normandy is burnished like copper, like calvados in a glass, like sedge wound around a ripened round of Livarot. Simple in appearance, but sfumato in resolution. It is no wonder Monet painted in Normandy.

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October 09, 2015/ Michelle Damiani/ Comment
travel
France
October 09, 2015

Pre-Paris

October 09, 2015/ Michelle Damiani
Pre-Paris

Sometimes the universe messes with the best laid of plans.

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October 09, 2015/ Michelle Damiani/ Comment
travel
France
October 09, 2015

Tapas, Tapas, Tapas

October 09, 2015/ Michelle Damiani
Tapas, Tapas, Tapas

I'll be quite frank. Tapas are really one of the best parts of visiting Sevilla. Because they are tasty, sure, but also because of how marvelous the experience is.

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October 09, 2015/ Michelle Damiani/ Comment
travel
spain
October 09, 2015

Flamenco! in Sevilla

October 09, 2015/ Michelle Damiani
Flamenco! in Sevilla

Andalusia is the birthplace of flamenco music and dance, and therefore going to see flamenco was a priority for our trip to Sevilla.

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October 09, 2015/ Michelle Damiani/
travel
October 09, 2015

Savoring Sevilla

October 09, 2015/ Michelle Damiani
Savoring Sevilla

Sevilla is a moveable feast, a feast for the senses. The air smells of oranges and incense and garlic, and something indefinable that is probably tapas cooking at the neighborhood bar—tapas that you can purchase with just the change in your pocket.

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October 09, 2015/ Michelle Damiani/ Comment
travel
spain
October 09, 2015

History in Andalusia

October 09, 2015/ Michelle Damiani
History in Andalusia

Besides tapas and wandering and churros and wandering, we also enjoyed some historical sites during our stay in Spain. It's interesting to me how some of those really spoke to me, to all of us, and some were interesting but did not move us at all.

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October 09, 2015/ Michelle Damiani/ Comment
travel
spain
October 09, 2015

Three Days in Brussels

October 09, 2015/ Michelle Damiani
Three Days in Brussels

Three days in Brussels is simply not enough.

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October 09, 2015/ Michelle Damiani/ Comment
travel, Around the World, blog
belgium, Travel, Food
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    • Travel in Italy
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    • Italian Cats and Hidden Madonnas
  • Coaching/
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Michelle Damiani

Website for Michelle Damiani, author of Il Bel Centro: A Year in the Beautiful Center, the funny and heartfelt memoir of an American family living in Spello, as well as Santa Lucia, a page-turner set on the Umbria border. 

Rumors. Romance. And more than a little espresso.

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I love my “job”.
I snapped this photo of my daughter in Arezzo, after she spent two weeks there taking Italian lessons as a 16 year old (I wrote a post about why you should send your teen to language school which I’ll link to in my stories). Gabe’s WashU
If there’s an art to saying goodbye, I haven’t mastered it. Certainly remembering the midwife who birthed one of my children telling me “life opens up in front of you, too” helped. The kind messages I’ve gotten from frie
Five years ago today we returned to Spello after the pandemic tossed aside our year-around-the-world plan like a house of cards in a tempest. We were able to hard-pivot thanks to my husband’s clear-sighted pursuit of Italian citizenship by desc
How is it possible we’re moving this tater tot into college in 2 weeks?
Matera: Italy’s comeback queen.

Once called “the shame of Italy” for its cave homes and crushing poverty, Matera is now a UNESCO World Heritage site with boutique hotels tucked into stone grottoes and aperitivo bars where donkeys u
Twelve years ago we were preparing to leave Spello. Lunch with friends, a swim and spontaneous dinner with our landlord’s family, one more reveling at the beauty of the life we built in our medieval village.
As promised, I’m back in Aramezzo! And just came up with the most fun, totally Italian clue! I wonder if you’ll be able to spot it when you read “Making a Killing in Aramezzo” in the fall 🇮🇹 Speaking of, for my Book Club wit

A trip to Italy is better with language basics! Here’s my recommended course to learn Italian and make your trip fantastico!


Festival participant, speaking about “Il Bel Centro: A Year in the Beautiful Center”

Festival participant, speaking about “Il Bel Centro: A Year in the Beautiful Center”

Featured speaker on panel discussing Romance for “Santa Lucia”

Featured speaker on panel discussing Romance for “Santa Lucia”