It’s impossible to fully understand pregnancy until you’ve been pregnant. We all have an idea, but beyond that there’s really no preparing. I spent hours with my £36 What to Expect When You’re Expecting book shipped from the UK to my otherwise-Italian speaking home, desperately searching for answers. Is that normal? What about that? Holy hell what… Read more »
Search for “most romantic places in Italy” and the lists seem endless. There are the perennial favorites: Rome, Venice, Verona, Tuscany bla. bla. bla. Sometimes a smaller, lesser known location will stick out with a beautiful photo and intriguing location. From tip to toe Italy is full of incredibly romantic cities, towns and villages. All of Italy is romantic, because… Read more »
I’ve officially been in Italy for five years! In the past five years I’ve graduated college, found and changed and negotiated jobs, lived in an apartment and moved into our home, married, traveled and passed nearly a year with our beautiful baby girl. It’s been a whirlwind. Looking back, I can still understand the small… Read more »
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 »
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 »
Nothing embodies the unknown like a new baby. From the moment of conception it’s the most remarkable miracle in all of humankind, and the scariest moment in the universe. The change that comes with pregnancy is constant and inevitable. My stomach becomes sensitive, my head becomes fuzzy, my appetite and taste changes. My will hardens as my body grows… Read more »
Walking in the woods up by Lago Maggiore our friend was showing us the national park that borders his property. The problem, he said, are the wild boars. They come down to root and eat and end up creating a mess. Plus there’s the problem of stumbling upon one while hiking the area. You can’t imagine the… Read more »
It’s no secret that I’m a list person. That’s proven on this blog again and again and again. Yet the day before my 25th birthday, I can’t help being a bit haunted by the “25 Things Anyone Who is Even Remotely Successful and Worthy of Living On This Planet Must Do Before 25” type of lists. I know… Read more »
We often talk about our lives as a journey. “Enjoy the journey,” they tell us, “Happiness is in the journey.” As an American with a very linear perspective of time, I identify with this idea. For those of us who are always thinking of the next step, it’s a good way to try and remember the present. That said,… Read more »
It’s gray where I live. In the autumn and winter it’s usually misting, if not pouring down rain, resembling London more than the fertile hills of Brianza. It’s not necessarily beautiful. I drive parkway past large gray warehouse-style buildings. The gray paint even darker from years of soot, fumes from the cars passing, the weather. In the spring, when the temperature might warm abruptly,… Read more »
