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/
P1070200.jpg
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.


May 03, 2021

Bucatini alla Amatriciana (the real kind)

May 03, 2021/ Michelle Damiani
Bucatini alla Amatriciana (the real kind)

The secret to much of Italian cooking is pork fat, and that is particularly true for this storied pasta dish.

Read More
May 03, 2021/ Michelle Damiani/ 4 Comments
recipe, food
pasta, recipe, food, Umbria, primi
  • 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.

Get Santa Lucia, a novel set in Italy, FREE by signing up for my monthly newsletter, The Grapevine. Recipes, travel tips, and free wanderlust stories delivered right to your inbox.

get book!


Follow me on Instagram!

🍷 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
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.

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”