April 16, 2018

Il Bel Centro

April 16, 2018/ Michelle Damiani

A synopsis of the beloved tale of family transformation in an Umbrian hilltown. Available in e-book, print, and audiobook.

April 16, 2018

Editorial and Reader Reviews

April 16, 2018/ Michelle Damiani

See what people say about Il Bel Centro.

April 16, 2018

Book Club Questions

April 16, 2018/ Michelle Damiani

Questions to guide your book club reading of Il Bel Centro.

April 13, 2018

IBC around the Web

April 13, 2018/ Michelle Damiani

Find places Michelle has discussed IBC and expat life on other sites.

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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My book survived its next round of editing! So much fun to gab about Aramezzo while sipping coffee. Kris has loads of opinions about what she wants to happen, but I’m keeping mum 😊 Here’s her blurb: “Come sit at the town bar with a

There’s a common joke that calls Molise “Mol’isnt”. Or another one that refers to the Italian region as “Molise è niente” (Molise is nothing). But I gotta say, I had a smashing time in Termoli a few years ba

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 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

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”**

Featured speaker on panel discussing Romance for “Santa Lucia”