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
  • Coaching
  • 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/
kenny and friends ilb.jpg
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 09, 2023

Corn Nuts at the Cultural Center

July 09, 2023/ Michelle Damiani
Corn Nuts at the Cultural Center

My quest for Italian citizenship begins with the B1 language exam at the Italian Cultural Society. There were a few, er, hurdles. Some of them crunchy.

Read More
July 09, 2023/ Michelle Damiani/ 10 Comments
blog
language, citizenship
September 14, 2020

Village-Schooled

September 14, 2020/ Michelle Damiani
Village-Schooled

Our kids are getting an education the likes of which we dared not dream.

Read More
September 14, 2020/ Michelle Damiani/ 12 Comments
Family, blog
language, art, kids, Spello
October 11, 2018

Top 10 Reasons to Send Your Teen to Language School

October 11, 2018/ Michelle Damiani
Top 10 Reasons to Send Your Teen to Language School

When Siena returned from her two week stint at language school in Arezzo, I realized that what she got from the experience was far more than an increase in Italian knowledge.

Read More
October 11, 2018/ Michelle Damiani/ 15 Comments
blog, travel
Teens, language, travel, Tuscany, Italy
July 31, 2018

Spello è Sempre lo Stesso

July 31, 2018/ Michelle Damiani
Spello è Sempre lo Stesso

Our 2018 return to Spello, and the changes we found there.

Read More
July 31, 2018/ Michelle Damiani/ 14 Comments
blog, travel
Spello, children, language, party, neighbors
April 08, 2018

Learning Italian. Again.

April 08, 2018/ Michelle Damiani
Learning Italian. Again.

Ideas for language training on your own.

Read More
April 08, 2018/ Michelle Damiani/ 8 Comments
blog
language, travel
  • 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.

Get Santa Lucia, a novel set in Italy, FREE by signing up for my monthly newsletter, The Grapevine. Recipes, travel tips, and free wanderlust stories delivered right to your inbox.

get book!


Follow me on Instagram!

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”