Adeline is just over two months old and I finally feel like I can exhale and take a second to take it all in. How crazy was that birth? How fast did these first two months fly by? How many times has Adeline pooped today? All super important questions.  36: hours of contractions 3: epidural injections… Read more »

Enormous white columns curve out from the large domed cathedral like arms beckoning you into its embrace. The largest cathedral in the world and the seat of the Roman Catholic Church, St. Peter’s Basilica is impressive on first glance, and perhaps even more so inside. The enormous piazza, filled to the brim during papal audiences, is… Read more »

Before coming to Italy I went out and bought new, “Italy appropriate” clothes; I read about the culture, studied the language and devoured “insider’s tips” that promised to help me blend in with the Italians. I packed and repacked and imagined things I had yet to see. There’s always a certain amount of trepidation that… Read more »

There’s more to Lake Como than its namesake town or potential George Clooney sightings. The Lake itself is beautiful, with glistening blue water backdropped by the foothills of the Alps. The road that winds along the bank slices into and out of the mountains, disappearing before suddenly reemerging and founding cities along the way. Huge cyprus trees… Read more »

Italy had always felt like a dream, so it took some getting used to hearing again and again: Why would you leave America to come here?! Italians were incredulous, as if I had left the golden land for the desolate streets of insecurity and unemployment. Not realizing just how serious they were, my responses were usually flippant. In a… Read more »

I sat with three close Italian friends and my Italian husband as they, some quite literally, rolled with laughter. “And then, and then,” my friend Marco said, gasping for breath between laughs, “They cooked the pasta for TWENTY MINUTES!” “It’s like cooking it in a pressure cooker!” my husband agreed. “I’ve heard that they add pasta… Read more »

Whether religious or secular, Easter in Italy is worth experiencing. An overwhelmingly Catholic holiday – the most important of the Catholic calendar – the entire country goes all out to celebrate Easter in a festival of spring and light and renaissance.  Here spring arrives early. Many flowers are already in bloom by early March and mild temperatures mean… Read more »

It’s no secret Venice is sinking. Gorgeous, 5th century Venice with its Gothic spires, stolen religious relics, Byzantine mosaics and ridiculously narrow alleyways may someday simply not exist anymore. Imagine: all of Venice sinking beneath the lagoon like the lost city of Atlantis.  This is partly because it’s old, but it’s mainly because of us.  A 108-page paper… Read more »

Ever had a dream where you’re running and running but can’t seem to arrive anywhere? Your surroundings are as unclear as the reason that you’re running and the more you realize it, the more anxious you become, the more out of breath. That’s how trying to navigate the Italian visa system feels. Each and every North American… Read more »

I love northern Italy. I love the location: just two hours in any direction and you can move from plains to jagged Alps to warm sea. I love its mixed-breed history. I love the hardworking nature of the people, the efficiency, the food.  And while Milan and Venice are breathtaking, there are plenty of towns that don’t share the same… Read more »