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
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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.


November 10, 2020

Second Wave

November 10, 2020/ Michelle Damiani
Second Wave

Italy’s second wave is upon us. Find out what that means.

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November 10, 2020/ Michelle Damiani/ 18 Comments
blog, pandemic
pandemic, Italy
September 08, 2020

An Italian village, sucker-punched by COVID

September 08, 2020/ Michelle Damiani
An Italian village, sucker-punched by COVID

The pandemic hit Spello in ways I hadn’t imagined.

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September 08, 2020/ Michelle Damiani/ 30 Comments
blog
pandemic, Spello, neighbors, Family
August 06, 2020

Flying to Italy in the Pandemic Era

August 06, 2020/ Michelle Damiani
Flying to Italy in the Pandemic Era

The road has been brutal. This was the final hurdle.

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August 06, 2020/ Michelle Damiani/ 25 Comments
blog, Around the World, travel
Italy, travel, pandemic
June 01, 2020

Chasing Open Borders

June 01, 2020/ Michelle Damiani
Chasing Open Borders

The book was going to be about how people open the day through breakfast, around the world. Now? It’s all about finding doors thrown open to welcome our family. So welcome to the working title of my next book.

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June 01, 2020/ Michelle Damiani/ 27 Comments
blog, Around the World, travel
Global Year, citizenship, Italy, kids, pandemic
April 26, 2020

Crumpling the Map

April 26, 2020/ Michelle Damiani
Crumpling the Map

Everybody’s favorite pandemic has screwed us again. Here’s how we might emerge with a year intact, if…different.

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April 26, 2020/ Michelle Damiani/ 11 Comments
Family, Around the World, blog, travel
kids, travel, pandemic
April 05, 2020

Coping with Quarantine

April 05, 2020/ Michelle Damiani
Coping with Quarantine

You’ve heard the typical advice. Now read eight new ways to keep steady in an unsteady world.

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April 05, 2020/ Michelle Damiani/ 2 Comments
blog
pandemic, coaching
April 05, 2020

Collecting Violets

April 05, 2020/ Michelle Damiani
Collecting Violets

Where nature and beauty and foraging and deliciousness meet.

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April 05, 2020/ Michelle Damiani/ Comment
Family, blog
recipe, pandemic, drink
March 22, 2020

When a Pandemic crushes your dream

March 22, 2020/ Michelle Damiani
When a Pandemic crushes your dream

I know you want to know.

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March 22, 2020/ Michelle Damiani/ 8 Comments
blog, Around the World, Family, travel
Global Year, pandemic
  • 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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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
So what’s your favorite gelato flavor?
After the Dolomiti, my family returned home and I continued on to Padua with a friend. What a find! Every corner revealed surprises—a sudden piazza filled with life, a painted arcade, a riot of color. I think many people give Padua a pass becau
I’ve shown you dramatic landscapes, fabulous meals, adventurous moments, the contrast between small charm and towering beauty…but maybe the most awe-inspiring aspect of our trip to the Dolomiti was that it happened at all. I am awash wit
You know a destination must be pretty incredible if it takes me this long to get to the food. Eating in the Dolomiti bears little resemblance to the rest of Italy, mostly because of the Austrian influence. It’s a funny thing about a country tha
I made some friends in the Dolomiti.
After a week of botanical drawing and painting in the Pyrenees earlier in the month, Keith and I felt inspired by the alpine flora of the Dolomiti. My daughter Siena as well, but she’s an artist, therefore inspired by a gum wrapper if the light

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”