Ciao From Italy and Welcome to Podcast #47,

After a few days in Venice and a few days wandering around in Milan I made the sweet decision to stop and share a little podcast from the edge of the Grand Canal. What a beautiful thing to do…..

Welcome to Episode 46 and a wild and beautiful conversation with Conservationist and Artist Allison Zurfluh. Allison lives part time in Burano on the Venetian Lagoon, in Northern Italy and in Switzerland. Every now and then you have the opportunity to meet and share a conversation that brings home all of the things you feel most passionate and curious about. We discuss painting, the lagoon, art, life, legacy, conservation and conscious travel with sustainability at its heart….

One of the things that has kept me sane over the previous months (or dare I say years) has been the world of Italian Cuisine. There is much to learn and appreciate from Italian culture and certainly the art of coming together to eat, and the attention to ingredients has been a tremendous inspiration for me. Enjoy this conversation with Wendy Holloway……

Welcome to Episode 44 and a wonderful conversation with Evelyn Hill about her journey from Vermont in America to Rome to study at the American University. We chat about moving to Italy, studying, creating a new life, living in Rome, Milan and Turin.

Ten years later Evelyn made the region of Piedmont her home with her partner enjoying trips to the mountains and the relaxed lifestyle. We talk the ups and downs of obtaining the Permesso di Siggiorno and how Italy has allowed her to slow down and actually enjoy life the Italian Way……

Living the dream is not always what it is cracked up to be. It takes grit and fortitude to stay on track and keep on searching. Nikki’s story of finding her own La Dolce Vita is a great tale of exploring, making changes and never giving up. These days Nikki lives in Puglia with her husband and two children and enjoys the wonderful life style in Puglia. Nikki runs her own Buying Property in Italy Business and continues to explore new ways of sharing her love of living in Italy.

The exciting news is that there is a wonderful opportunity for you to live your own La Dolce Vita and this episode is about making that dream real. Nikki Taylor is giving away a property in Puglia and all you have to do is enter the Competition. Nikki is also on a mission to create a Guinness World Record so join in on the fun and begin a new adventure in Puglia Italy…..

We discuss the good life in Rome, discovering Sophie’s path to becoming a professional pasta eater, slowing down and enjoying the details of life, how to make the perfect Carbonara, and taking the time to write her book, ‘The Sweetness of Doing Nothing’ that was released earlier in 2021.

I am most delighted to share this conversation with Susan Van Allen about her updated 10th Anniversary Edition, “100 Places in Italy Every Woman Should Go”. Susan is a Screen and Travel Writer, and an American Treasure. Her many books on Italy give travellers the inside tips on the places one should visit that will create the most magical travel memories……

This weeks share is a day driving through the region of the Luberon Mountains in Provence. A visit to Menerbes, the place of truffle and vin. We enter the tree lined village to marvel at the plane trees and to wander the paths and streets of the medieval village. The views are magnificent from this grand location. It is a day of beauty and vision taking in the rural atmosphere of cherry orchards and vines that are waiting to unfurl, and scenic drives in Lacoste, Bonnieux and Apt. A beautiful prelude to the days ahead before the family catch the TGV to Paris for the finale of the journey from Padova Italy to Paris, France.

Welcome to another share on the travelogue series from Italy to France. This day we find ourselves saying Au Revoir to beautiful Antibes on the French Riviera and heading onwards to Saint Paul de Vence to wander the historic medieval ramparts of this beautiful hill top village in France. And then back on the road to make our way to the Luberon region in the department of Vaucluse where an 18th century house in the countryside awaits our arrival.

At 4.58 we carefully motor along Rue de la Verrerie and what a scene it is, the clouds are floating above the mountain regions beyond Cannes, the sea is still, the light is glazed with a pearlescent shine. The sun cracks through the clouds here and there, lighting up the whole coastline, it is magnificent, just magnificent. We see parking on the side of Boulevard du Midi Louise Moreau, we are looking ahead to see the seaside and the people wandering along the side of the road on a promenade of sorts…..

The grand adventure continues down the coastline of the French Riviera as we take a day to explore the world of Monaco and later in the day the Promanade des Anglais in Nice. It’s a big day, but a great adventure. Enjoy the Podcast Share……

This weeks offering is a combination of the Good Life, Books, Food and More. The Italian Affair continues….

There are so many layers to this conversation with Cookbook Author and Photographer Paola Bacchia. Place, identity, home, migration, culture, food, tradition, displacement, loss, family and ultimately celebration. This is an Istrian story, an Australian story and an Italian story. This episode weaves the many layers of these themes with the love of food and the threads of family and memories at the centre of Paola’s cooking…..

This little foray into the south of France was a delight to write up once the writing process began. I couldn’t hold back but take a deep dive into the French Riveria and its artistic legacy which indeed is quite vast. When I discovered a few years back that the Picasso Museum was on the train line somewhere between Nice and Marseille in France well it was a given. There is much to say that is undoubtable and there a number of directions one could go in. In truth Antibes, Juan Les Pins came on my radar over the past few years after reading about Pablo Picasso and Francoise Gilot……

We are not the first and we will not be the last. The magnetic forces of Italy are powerful luring us from the comfort of our own homes and countries to dream, to ponder, to move, to see and to experience a culture that shows us a beautiful way to live.

It is a sensual life that is deeply layered. Many of us would like a taste of it, a few weeks, a few months, perhaps a lifetime. Italy is a beacon, a radiant beauty that has many of us within its grasp…..