Michelle Damiani
  • Buy my books
  • Blog
  • Spello Visiting Umbria Travel in Italy Around the World
  • Books and Movies Food and Drink Gabe's Blog Italian Cats and Hidden Madonnas
  • Coaching
  • About
Michelle Damiani
  • Buy my books/
  • Blog/
  • Travel/
    • Spello
    • Visiting Umbria
    • Travel in Italy
    • Around the World
  • What I Love/
    • Books and Movies
    • Food and Drink
    • Gabe's Blog
    • Italian Cats and Hidden Madonnas
  • Coaching/
  • About/
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Michelle Damiani

writing with Italy at heart

Blog

The journey continues.

Michelle Damiani
  • Buy my books/
  • Blog/
  • Travel/
    • Spello
    • Visiting Umbria
    • Travel in Italy
    • Around the World
  • What I Love/
    • Books and Movies
    • Food and Drink
    • Gabe's Blog
    • Italian Cats and Hidden Madonnas
  • Coaching/
  • About/

Chronicling our return home from a year in Umbria and the preparations for our around-the-world journey.

December 05, 2024

Travel & Writing in Liguria with Ciao Andiamo

December 05, 2024/ Michelle Damiani
Travel & Writing in Liguria with Ciao Andiamo

I had no idea how much teaching writing in Italy would deepen my love of both writing and Italy.

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December 05, 2024/ Michelle Damiani/ Comment
liguria, italy, blog, Piedmont, travel
travel, blog, Piemonte, PIedmont
October 27, 2024

The 2024 Gift Guide for Italy-Lovers

October 27, 2024/ Michelle Damiani
The 2024 Gift Guide for Italy-Lovers

Your guide for how to give the gift of Italy this season.

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October 27, 2024/ Michelle Damiani/ 4 Comments
Gift Guide, italy
Italy, Gift Guide, gifts, books, Food
September 20, 2021

I'm Back.

September 20, 2021/ Michelle Damiani
I'm Back.

You’ve got questions about my return to American life—the reverse culture shock, the grief of leave-taking. The answers may surprise you.

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September 20, 2021/ Michelle Damiani/ 2 Comments
blog, italy
Spello, reverse culture shock
June 24, 2021

This is Cinque Terre

June 24, 2021/ Michelle Damiani
This is Cinque Terre

It took me 30 years to return to Cinque Terre. Here’s what I discovered.

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June 24, 2021/ Michelle Damiani/ 2 Comments
travel, liguria, italy, blog
Cinque Terre, Liguria, Travel
  • Buy my books/
  • Blog/
  • Travel/
    • Spello
    • Visiting Umbria
    • Travel in Italy
    • Around the World
  • What I Love/
    • Books and Movies
    • Food and Drink
    • Gabe's Blog
    • Italian Cats and Hidden Madonnas
  • Coaching/
  • About/

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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My book survived its next round of editing! So much fun to gab about Aramezzo while sipping coffee. Kris has loads of opinions about what she wants to happen, but I’m keeping mum 😊 Here’s her blurb: “Come sit at the town bar with a
There’s a common joke that calls Molise “Mol’isnt”. Or another one that refers to the Italian region as “Molise è niente” (Molise is nothing). But I gotta say, I had a smashing time in Termoli a few years ba
Draft of the upcoming installment of my “Murder in an Italian Village” series is now with editors! And it’s about time, too, as the zillions of piles of dirty and clean laundry have blurred into one mega-pile screaming for attention
🍷 If you love wine, you may have heard of Montefalco, the Umbrian city famed for growing Sagrantino grapes. But unless you live in central Virginia, you probably haven’t heard of Montifalco. A name that made me chuckle for years. The owners&rs
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?

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”