Michelle Damiani
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Michelle Damiani
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Michelle Damiani

writing with Italy at heart

Blog

The journey continues.

Michelle Damiani
  • Buy my books/
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    • Spello
    • Visiting Umbria
    • Travel in Italy
    • Around the World
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    • Books and Movies
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    • Italian Cats and Hidden Madonnas
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Chronicling our return home from a year in Umbria and the preparations for our around-the-world journey.


September 16, 2020

Wild Asparagus and Me

September 16, 2020/ Michelle Damiani
Wild Asparagus and Me

How a single stalk of wild asparagus can be ever so much more than that.

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September 16, 2020/ Michelle Damiani/ 2 Comments
blog
Spello, food, neighbors
September 14, 2020

Village-Schooled

September 14, 2020/ Michelle Damiani
Village-Schooled

Our kids are getting an education the likes of which we dared not dream.

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September 14, 2020/ Michelle Damiani/ 12 Comments
Family, blog
language, art, kids, Spello
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
September 06, 2020

What can I say?

September 06, 2020/ Michelle Damiani
What can I say?

No, really. I find myself with writer’s block about how to tell you about our release from quarantine.

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September 06, 2020/ Michelle Damiani/ 2 Comments
blog, Family
Spello
August 19, 2020

Italian Quarantine, week 2

August 19, 2020/ Michelle Damiani
Italian Quarantine, week 2

9 lessons I learned in Italian “quarantena”

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August 19, 2020/ Michelle Damiani/ 8 Comments
Family, blog, Around the World
Spello, quarantine, Family, Il Bel Centro
August 12, 2020

Italian Quarantine, week one

August 12, 2020/ Michelle Damiani
Italian Quarantine, week one

tl;dr: It’s pretty freaking amazing.

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August 12, 2020/ Michelle Damiani/ 16 Comments
blog, Family
Spello, 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
July 05, 2020

Who said it would be easy?

July 05, 2020/ Michelle Damiani
Who said it would be easy?

We decided we’d swap our year around the world for a more pandemic-compliant year based in Spello and then the virus ground in deeper and the EU said, “thanks but no thanks.”

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July 05, 2020/ Michelle Damiani/ 4 Comments
blog, Around the World, travel
Spello, Global Year, citizenship
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
May 17, 2020

How to Wait

May 17, 2020/ Michelle Damiani
How to Wait

In which Nicolas, at age 14, writes about his misadventures on our Spello stoop.

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May 17, 2020/ Michelle Damiani/ Comment
blog, Family
kids, Il Bel Centro, Spello
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
February 02, 2020

Bothy or Bust!

February 02, 2020/ Michelle Damiani
Bothy or Bust!

Really hope planning the rest of this year abroad is not this challenging.

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February 02, 2020/ Michelle Damiani/ 2 Comments
travel, Around the World, blog, Family
Scotland, worldschooling, travel, Global Year
January 21, 2020

The Itinerary, Take Two

January 21, 2020/ Michelle Damiani
The Itinerary, Take Two

What’s that thing God does when you make a plan? Oh, right, maniacal laughter ensues.

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January 21, 2020/ Michelle Damiani/ 12 Comments
Around the World, blog, travel
travel, worldschooling, Global Year, Balkans, citizenship
January 19, 2020

The Refusal

January 19, 2020/ Michelle Damiani
The Refusal

What happened at the French Embassy. Spoiler alert. There were no pastries offered or eaten.

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January 19, 2020/ Michelle Damiani/ 8 Comments
blog, Around the World
citizenship
January 08, 2020

Am I French?

January 08, 2020/ Michelle Damiani
Am I French?

My quest for French citizenship may be near its end.

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January 08, 2020/ Michelle Damiani/ 2 Comments
blog, Around the World
citizenship, travel
July 21, 2019

What's Balkan-ier than the Balkans?

July 21, 2019/ Michelle Damiani
What's Balkan-ier than the Balkans?

Will our search for a Balkan destination lead us…out of the Balkans?

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July 21, 2019/ Michelle Damiani/ Comment
Around the World, blog, travel
Balkans, Global Year, history
July 01, 2019

How a Yelp Event Changed My Life

July 01, 2019/ Michelle Damiani
How a Yelp Event Changed My Life

And that’s only kind of hyperbole.

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July 01, 2019/ Michelle Damiani/ 6 Comments
blog, Around the World, travel
Global Year, books
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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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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?
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

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”