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

writing with Italy at heart

Spello

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/

Step into Spello, the Umbrian hilltown that reshaped my family and still shapes my writing. These reflections come from years of living among its olive groves, cobblestones, and fiercely kind neighbors—stories of belonging, blunders, beauty, and how a place can change you if you let it. For more tales from life in Umbria, join The Grapevine, where new chapters of this ongoing love story always land first.


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/ 22 Comments
travel
Spello, Umbria, restaurants
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/
    • 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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Funny that as many posts I see about Japan, few mention the jaw-dropping, staggering beauty of the countryside. If you want views for days, Nagano prefecture is worth considering. Plus, a guy from New Zealand I ran into at the convenience store told
Arrived at Shibu Onsen, a hot springs town where you can buy eggs cooked in the hot springs water. More importantly, a stay gets you a key to the nine public bathhouses. You can buy a towel for a few dollars that you stamp at each of the nine bathhou
Scenes from a morning in Nagano 🇯🇵
I’ve already started eating all the things 😂🇯🇵😂 Picked up this bento box at the train station for less than $7 USD and happily ate on the train to… well, you’ll see tomorrow!
Tokyo bound 🇯🇵
Photos from our 2016 family trip to Asia. I have a feeling next week’s photos will be quite different. Check stories for a link to my post about how to survive a long haul flight. I know I’ll be revisiting those tips!
When I moved to Italy, I had to relearn the calendar — not by months, but by vegetables.
Somewhere along the way I’d convinced myself artichokes were a summer thing (why? who knows). And then February arrived and the markets exploded with
A year ago we toasted Valentine’s Day with this view, our feet plunged in warm sand after swimming around enormous starfish and before kayaking to a bioluminescent bay under a canopy of stars. This year we’re surrounded by the dregs of la
🙋🏻‍♀️Raise your hand if Angelo is your favorite “character” in my memoir of living in Italy. PS, did any of you note the dedication in my last book? I can’t wait to bring it to him in October ❤️ PS check out the video in my st

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”