Michelle Damiani
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  • Spello Visiting Umbria Travel in Italy Around the World
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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
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    • Gabe's Blog
    • Italian Cats and Hidden Madonnas
  • Coaching/
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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/
September 03, 2021

Learning a Language

September 03, 2021/ Gabe Damiani
Learning a Language

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

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September 03, 2021/ Gabe Damiani/ 1 Comment
blog, guest post
Italian, Gabe, village-school
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.

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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?”

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December 02, 2020/ Gabe Damiani/ Comment
guest post
worldschooling, Gabe, village-school
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.

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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.

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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.

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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”