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/
    • Gabe's Blog
    • Food and Drink
    • Books and Movies
    • Italian Cats and Hidden Madonnas
  • Coaching/
  • About/
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Michelle Damiani

writing with Italy at heart

Spello

Umbria

Michelle Damiani
  • Buy my books/
  • Blog/
  • Travel/
    • Spello
    • Visiting Umbria
    • Travel in Italy
    • Around the World
  • What I Love/
    • Gabe's Blog
    • Food and Drink
    • Books and Movies
    • Italian Cats and Hidden Madonnas
  • Coaching/
  • About/

Here’ll you find insights into Umbria, culled from living in Spello for two years, as detailed in my memoir Il Bel Centro: A Year in the Beautiful Center, which you can download right here or at your preferred marketplace here or you can find it on Amazon here. Buy it now to read about how our family of five abandoned life in the United States to clink glasses with local communists and join the village all-nighter decorating cobblestone streets with flower petals. You’ll also read about embarrassing language minefields and a serious summons to the mayor’s office. Ultimately, though, Il Bel Centro is the story of how travel can change you if you let it.

July 03, 2024

How to Visit Spello

July 03, 2024/ Michelle Damiani
How to Visit Spello

Your guide to a legendary vacation in Spello, Umbria, including practical information to help you get your feet planted quickly.

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July 03, 2024/ Michelle Damiani/ 20 Comments
travel
Spello, Umbria, restaurants
January 12, 2022

Bread and Oil

January 12, 2022/ Michelle Damiani
Bread and Oil

Umbria is as ordinary, and extraordinary, as bread and oil. Let me tell you what I mean.

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January 12, 2022/ Michelle Damiani/ 24 Comments
umbria, spello, travel
olive oil, food
August 01, 2021

Where to Stay in Spello

August 01, 2021/ Michelle Damiani
Where to Stay in Spello

Your guide to accommodations in Spello.

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August 01, 2021/ Michelle Damiani/ Comment
travel
Umbria, Spello, accommodations
July 31, 2018

Along the Aqueduct

July 31, 2018/ Michelle Damiani
Along the Aqueduct

There are many walking paths through the groves that surround Spello. The aqueduct walk is our family favorite. This post is particularly special because Siena took all the photos, surprising us and also herself with her unerring eye.

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July 31, 2018/ Michelle Damiani/ Comment
travel, umbria
Umbria, Spello
April 19, 2017

L'Oro di Spello

April 19, 2017/ Michelle Damiani
L'Oro di Spello

A photoessay of the celebration of olive oil in Spello, Umbria. 

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April 19, 2017/ Michelle Damiani/ 5 Comments
travel, umbria
spello, festival, Umbria, olive oil
April 13, 2017

La Bottega degli Intrecci

April 13, 2017/ Michelle Damiani
La Bottega degli Intrecci

When visiting Spello, don't miss this unique shop to bring home souvenirs to wear and love.

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April 13, 2017/ Michelle Damiani/ Comment
travel
spello, shopping, Umbria
  • Buy my books/
  • Blog/
  • Travel/
    • Spello
    • Visiting Umbria
    • Travel in Italy
    • Around the World
  • What I Love/
    • Gabe's Blog
    • Food and Drink
    • Books and Movies
    • 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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Traffic jam, Pyrenees style.
Big news, friends — I’m swapping out my original idea for a travel writing tour in Puglia and leaning into something I’m even more excited about: Book Club with a View! Picture this: a week of book discussions under the sun of
I wanted to break out my new European passport for the first time on Italian soil, but maybe it was good and right that first use happened in Paris, my mothers birthplace.
What is it about cats and Italy? Even an American cat in Italy, wondering how to run amok over those terra cotta rooftops.
We weren’t sure if we’d walk out with one, two, or three Italian passports. So imagine our delight when the kids’ renewals and my application were easily processed! Okay, the family wasn’t nearly as delighted as they were the
Thursday was your culmination of 13 school years: One in Italian public school, 7 at Peabody, one of pandemic unschooling in Spello, 4 at CHS, plus courses at UVA, PVCC, and schools I don’t know because you enrolled in on-line classes & inf
Happy anniversary to a man who can build a pizza oven with his own two hands, designs a cover for that pizza oven with an image from the flower carpet our family worked on for Spello’s Infiorata (a peak experience for the five of us), arranges

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”