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

Visiting 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.


April 13, 2018

Pranzo in Trevi, Umbria

April 13, 2018/ Michelle Damiani
Pranzo in Trevi, Umbria

Trevi, Umbria: A little village with big atmosphere.

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April 13, 2018/ Michelle Damiani/ Comment
travel, dining
trevi, Umbria, restaurant
April 13, 2018

Assisi, Umbria

April 13, 2018/ Michelle Damiani
Assisi, Umbria

The birthplace of St. Francis.

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April 13, 2018/ Michelle Damiani/ Comment
travel, dining, umbria
italy, umbria
April 09, 2018

Serpillo, an Italian Gran Bouffet

April 09, 2018/ Michelle Damiani
Serpillo, an Italian Gran Bouffet

Not all buffets involve endless sneeze-guards and noodles congealing in cornstarch baths. Discover this gem tucked away in the hills above Bevagna, Umbria.

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April 09, 2018/ Michelle Damiani/ Comment
dining, travel
bevagna, Umbria, restaurant
April 01, 2018

Orvieto, on the other side of Umbria

April 01, 2018/ Michelle Damiani
Orvieto, on the other side of Umbria

Where to eat in Orvieto, Umbria

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April 01, 2018/ Michelle Damiani/ Comment
travel, dining
Orvieto, Umbria, Restaurant
March 28, 2018

Bevagna, Umbria

March 28, 2018/ Michelle Damiani
Bevagna, Umbria

A medieval town, not on a hill, renowned for its festival of medieval life.

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March 28, 2018/ Michelle Damiani/ Comment
travel, umbria, dining
travel, restaurant, umbria
April 13, 2017

Love in Bettona, Umbria

April 13, 2017/ Michelle Damiani
Love in Bettona, Umbria

A restaurant recommendation in Bettona, Umbria given with my whole heart.

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April 13, 2017/ Michelle Damiani/ Comment
travel, dining
Bettona, Umbria, restaurant
  • 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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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”