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/
spello-aqueduct-dandelion-blow.jpg
Michelle Damiani

writing with Italy at heart

Gabe's Blog

As the world opens…

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/
March 06, 2022

Medieval People Were Wacky

March 06, 2022/ Gabe Damiani
Medieval People Were Wacky

Gabe’s final essay, focused on his admiration of medieval people’s customs and culture.

Read More
March 06, 2022/ Gabe Damiani/ Comment
blog, around-the-world, guest post
worldschooling
September 03, 2021

Learning a Language

September 03, 2021/ Gabe Damiani
Learning a Language

Gabe’s report of how he learned Italian. Twice.

Read More
September 03, 2021/ Gabe Damiani/ 1 Comment
blog, guest post
Italian, Gabe, village-school
April 12, 2021

A door in Venice

April 12, 2021/ Gabe Damiani
A door in Venice

What Gabe found behind an unassuming door in Venice.

Read More
April 12, 2021/ Gabe Damiani/ Comment
guest post, blog
Veneto
April 12, 2021

To Subasio!

April 12, 2021/ Gabe Damiani
To Subasio!

Gabe writes about what he learned on Monte Subasio.

Read More
April 12, 2021/ Gabe Damiani/ Comment
guest post
Spello, Monte Subasio
January 21, 2021

The Rising Tides of Venice

January 21, 2021/ Gabe Damiani
The Rising Tides of Venice

Gabe’s worldschooling project during our week in Venice.

Read More
January 21, 2021/ Gabe Damiani/ 4 Comments
blog, guest post
Gabe, Veneto, worldschooling
December 02, 2020

Why do olive trees live so long?

December 02, 2020/ Gabe Damiani
Why do olive trees live so long?

Gabe’s schooling continues as he answers the question: “Why do olive trees live so long?”

Read More
December 02, 2020/ Gabe Damiani/ Comment
guest post
worldschooling, Gabe, village-school
November 09, 2020

Letters from Etruria

November 09, 2020/ Gabe Damiani
Letters from Etruria

Gabe’s imagining of a correspondence between Etruscan and Greek potters.

Read More
November 09, 2020/ Gabe Damiani/ 4 Comments
guest post
October 06, 2020

Scopa

October 06, 2020/ Gabe Damiani
Scopa

From retired-fishermen’s social clubs to any piazza’s stone table, you’ll find scopa played throughout Italy. You can join the fun, with these instructions for how the game is played in Spello, written by Gabe.

Read More
October 06, 2020/ Gabe Damiani/ 5 Comments
entertainment
Gabe
July 02, 2019

Lithuani-what?

July 02, 2019/ Gabe Damiani
Lithuani-what?

Gabe writes about discovering a love for Lithuania.

Read More
July 02, 2019/ Gabe Damiani/ 6 Comments
blog, guest post
Gabe, Lithuania, Global Year
  • 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!

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
What I didn’t expect about hiking in the Dolomiti in the summer is that ski resorts become paradises of outdoor fun. We rode individual bobsleds through alpine meadows, mountain carts (a three wheeled, low riding bike with no pedals and respons

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”