Michelle Damiani
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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

Food and Drink

Recipe and menu suggestions to experience Italy wherever you are.

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/

Here’ll you find recipes from my travels in Italy and around the world. If you want new delicious recipes (plus travel tips and stories) delivered to your email inbox once a month, make sure you sign up for my newsletter, the Grapevine. As a special welcome gift, I’ll send you an e-copy of my bestselling novel, Santa Lucia. Imagine that! In a few keystrokes, you’ll be transported to the landscapes, the cities, and the beauty of Italy. No passport required.


December 12, 2023

Chocolate, orange, and hazelnut biscotti

December 12, 2023/ Michelle Damiani
Chocolate, orange, and hazelnut biscotti

My three favorite flavors, in one swoon-worthy cookie.

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December 12, 2023/ Michelle Damiani/ 2 Comments
food, recipe
food, recipe, cooking, Italy
December 05, 2021

Holiday Cookies with Wanderlust Flair

December 05, 2021/ Michelle Damiani
Holiday Cookies with Wanderlust Flair

Searching to jazz up your holiday cookie platter with global flavors? Look no further.

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December 05, 2021/ Michelle Damiani/ Comment
food, recipe
cooking, recipe
October 20, 2020

Riso con sugo

October 20, 2020/ Michelle Damiani
Riso con sugo

Think of it as a tomato risotto, but it’s ever so much more.

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October 20, 2020/ Michelle Damiani/ 6 Comments
food, recipe
recipe, food, cooking
September 16, 2020

Bitter Greens

September 16, 2020/ Michelle Damiani
Bitter Greens

I used to hate greens, now I can’t get enough of them.

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September 16, 2020/ Michelle Damiani/ Comment
recipe, food
cooking, recipe
September 07, 2017

"A Kitchen with a View" Cookbook Review

September 07, 2017/ Michelle Damiani
"A Kitchen with a View" Cookbook Review

Looking for a cookbook about Umbrian cuisine?

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September 07, 2017/ Michelle Damiani/ Comment
food
cooking, food
June 23, 2017

Rhubarb Jam

June 23, 2017/ Michelle Damiani
Rhubarb Jam

Sometimes a flavor can dog your culinary footsteps. Rarely does that dogging lead to this kind of triumph.

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June 23, 2017/ Michelle Damiani/ Comment
food, recipe
food, cooking
  • 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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This week’s post about vibe struck a chord—so many of you shared the places you’ve felt it. Sometimes in places others would swan right past. This is true of the the town that stole my heart (more on that later). I can’t imagi
✨The question filling my inbox lately…✨

As I’ve been posting details about our hunt for a new Italian town, I can feel your confusion through the screen.

Why not Spello?

After all, I basically wrote a 300-page love letter to that hill
This trip to Italy’s Piedmont helped us clarify what we want in a new home. The problem? What we want is hard to articulate—vibe.

So, what is vibe? Well, people make a vibe. We visited tons of towns that looked perfect on paper, only to
How lucky was I to arrive in the Piedmont during chestnut season? I love the smell of roasting chestnuts, I love the fun of watching them toss and spin over fire, and I love peeling each one loose from its shell to pop it in my mouth for a hit of ear
I’m interrupting my tour of Piemonte destinations to talk about the food because this simple plate of tajarin (the local egg-yolk pasta sliced into thin ribbons) with butter and shaved white truffles so blew my mind I can hardly think about any
Next Piedmont destination for your consideration: Pinerolo. Like Ivrea, Pinerolo has a lovely “modern” (like 1800s) area at the foot of the city and the medieval part rises behind it. When you step onto those medieval cobblestones, it&rsq
Last week was a whirlwind of introductions to towns in the Piedmont, wandering each one and wondering “could we live here?” For instance, meet Ivrea, on the north end of the Piedmont, at the entrance of the valley that leads to Aosta. Cou
Today we went off the map. Literally. Google maps ends right around here, in these mountains between France and Italy. We pressed on. Partly because of the thrall of this gnomes cap of a mountain and also because… don’t we all need to fr
Are we excited, I think we are! Or at least I am! The last week has been so incredibly packed I haven’t given a thought to the fact that TOMORROW WE’LL BE IN ITALY UNTIL LITERALLY THIS MOMENT. I wonder what our first meal will be? Knowing
One of the great joys of my life is watching my adult kids play together with the same ease and joy as when they were small (in yesterdays post). I’m unsure if it’s because my eldest set the tone and loved making up games or if it’s

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”