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

Blog

The journey continues.

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/

Chronicling our return home from a year in Umbria and the preparations for our around-the-world journey.


July 05, 2020

Who said it would be easy?

July 05, 2020/ Michelle Damiani
Who said it would be easy?

We decided we’d swap our year around the world for a more pandemic-compliant year based in Spello and then the virus ground in deeper and the EU said, “thanks but no thanks.”

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July 05, 2020/ Michelle Damiani/ 4 Comments
blog, Around the World, travel
Spello, Global Year, citizenship
June 01, 2020

Chasing Open Borders

June 01, 2020/ Michelle Damiani
Chasing Open Borders

The book was going to be about how people open the day through breakfast, around the world. Now? It’s all about finding doors thrown open to welcome our family. So welcome to the working title of my next book.

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June 01, 2020/ Michelle Damiani/ 27 Comments
blog, Around the World, travel
Global Year, citizenship, Italy, kids, pandemic
March 22, 2020

When a Pandemic crushes your dream

March 22, 2020/ Michelle Damiani
When a Pandemic crushes your dream

I know you want to know.

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March 22, 2020/ Michelle Damiani/ 8 Comments
blog, Around the World, Family, travel
Global Year, pandemic
February 02, 2020

Bothy or Bust!

February 02, 2020/ Michelle Damiani
Bothy or Bust!

Really hope planning the rest of this year abroad is not this challenging.

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February 02, 2020/ Michelle Damiani/ 2 Comments
travel, Around the World, blog, Family
Scotland, worldschooling, travel, Global Year
January 21, 2020

The Itinerary, Take Two

January 21, 2020/ Michelle Damiani
The Itinerary, Take Two

What’s that thing God does when you make a plan? Oh, right, maniacal laughter ensues.

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January 21, 2020/ Michelle Damiani/ 12 Comments
Around the World, blog, travel
travel, worldschooling, Global Year, Balkans, citizenship
July 21, 2019

What's Balkan-ier than the Balkans?

July 21, 2019/ Michelle Damiani
What's Balkan-ier than the Balkans?

Will our search for a Balkan destination lead us…out of the Balkans?

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July 21, 2019/ Michelle Damiani/ Comment
Around the World, blog, travel
Balkans, Global Year, history
July 01, 2019

How a Yelp Event Changed My Life

July 01, 2019/ Michelle Damiani
How a Yelp Event Changed My Life

And that’s only kind of hyperbole.

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July 01, 2019/ Michelle Damiani/ 6 Comments
blog, Around the World, travel
Global Year, books
May 30, 2019

We have a plan!

May 30, 2019/ Michelle Damiani
We have a plan!

Romance, danger, neon lights, sandy vistas—this trip is turning into something infinitely more evocative than any fiction I could write.

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May 30, 2019/ Michelle Damiani/ 4 Comments
Family, Around the World
travel, Global Year
April 23, 2019

Hold the telefono

April 23, 2019/ Michelle Damiani
Hold the telefono

I’m having second thoughts.

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April 23, 2019/ Michelle Damiani/ 10 Comments
blog, Around the World, Family
kids, travel, Global Year, Italy
December 06, 2018

Oh, the Places We'll Go

December 06, 2018/ Michelle Damiani
Oh, the Places We'll Go

How we decided on our next adventure and what we’re envisioning as we hatch our plans.

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December 06, 2018/ Michelle Damiani/ 20 Comments
blog, travel, Family
Global Year, worldschooling
  • 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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First stop in Italy…Venice! My husband, eldest, and I flew from Bordeaux and waited for my youngest’s flight from Dublin (my daughter arrived the next day from Houston, for our family trip to the Dolomiti), then we dashed to our Venice a
Last photo from France before we hop over to Italy (but I do have a reel coming about epic seafood experiences centered on Île de Ré). I wonder if you’ll miss my French photos as much as I’ll miss posting them?
The nice thing about needing a stopover somewhere in France to break up a drive between two friends’ homes is it allows you to discover gems like Cahors, a medieval market town with great food, a great market, and great life. See my stories for
When you speak twenty words of a language, it’s a major triumph when you crack a joke. At this tucked away restaurant in Cahors, I decided on the menu shown, awed that the meal would cost as much as a sandwich back home. When Keith ordered, he
You can imagine the dreams I had the night we spent in this castle.
Do I love a market? Mais oui.
Just two cozy mystery writers wandering Narbonne, plotting murders while choosing cheese to refill the supply I already depleted.
If a trip to Pau is in your future (and it should be, this city at the feet of the Pyrenees has a worn-in elegance and unstudied grace that makes it a total winner), stop in at the tourist office for Pass Gourmand tickets. With the tickets you get a
Traffic jam, Pyrenees style.

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”