A Writer In Italy - travel, books, art and life

“How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world” - Anne Frank Welcome to podcast #46 and my conversation with Allison Zurfluh. Allison is a woman of many layers, a Translator of Classical Music, an Author, Travel Consultant, Painter and at heart an Artist.   Allison has lived all around the world, yet found her true home on the Venetian Lagoon on the...

"First we eat, then we do everything else" - MFK Fisher Welcome to Episode #45 and a lovely chat with Wendy from the Flavor of Italy Podcast. Recently Wendy launched her 100th Episode at Flavor of Italy.  Wendy is devoted to the world of Italian food, sharing recipes and travel itineraries for the savy traveler who enjoys a culinary adventure in Italy.  Wendy has lived in Lazio for forty...

“Italy as destination was lodged in my imagination and in my future”  -  Helen Barolini Their Other Side: Six American Women and the Lure of Italy  Welcome to Episode 44 and my 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....

“Who has not dreamed of going forth to meet the unknown in some new land, and thus in oneself” -  Helen Barolini, Their Other Side: Six American Women & The Lure of Italy” Have you ever thought of starting all over again in a new country and making your dreams real?   Nikki was burnt out and disillusioned by all she had achieved living in London and in Sydney.   Nikki made the decision to move...

“We are all pilgrims who seek Italy” - Goethe Have you ever dreamed 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 write a little letter of 30 words to enter the Competition.  Nikki is also on a mission...

“Dolce Far Niente is about living in the present - savouring every moment as if it's the last - while remembering that life truly is beautiful. Let's never forget that" - Sophie Minchilli This week I share a fun conversation with the author Sophie Minchilli.  We talk about her book: The Sweetness of Doing Nothing: Live Life the Italian Way with Dolce Far Niente.  We discuss the good...

“Italy became magical and mysterious beckoning me” - Susan Van Allen  Welcome to Episode #40:   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...

“The early-morning Easter Light, clean and clear as a polished sapphire, back-lit a ribbon of mist hovering over the Luberon plain. The almonds had burst into blossom and the cherries were hard on their tales’.   - Alex Dingwall-Main, The Luberon Garden  Welcome to  Episode #39: This weeks share is a day driving through the region of the Luberon Mountains in Provence.   A visit to Menerbes, the pl...

“My motive was simple and hedonistic: I was looking for beauty” -  Alain de Botton, The Art of Travel  Welcome to another share of 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 the hill top village.  And then back on the road t...

"On the pleasant shore of the French Riviera, about half way between Marseille and the Italian Border, stands a large, proud, rose-coloured hotel.  Deferential palms cool its flushed facade, and before it stretches a short dazzling beach"...F.Scott Fitzgerald - Tender is the Night Welcome to Episode #37 Padova, Italy to Paris, France Travel Podcast Series..... Part 13 The grand adventure...

“The glinting Mediterranean stretched off in the distance, and now the palm trees, beaches, and over built coastline of the Côte d’Azur loomed suddenly into view: Cannes…Juan-les-Pins…Antibes…and then Nice” - Provence 1970 by Luke Barr…. Welcome to Episode #36 Padova, Italy to Paris, France Travel Podcast Series..... Part 12 A Travel Share on the history of train travel on the French Riviera and b...

“My library is an archive of longings” - Susan Sontag Welcome to Episode #35 This weeks offering is a combination of the Good Life, Books, Food and More.  The Italian Affair continues…. Happy Adventures to you, MJ xo See you next episode with the travel adventure to Nice and Monaco Part 12 of the Padova, Italy to Paris, France Travel Podcast Series..... © 2021 A Writer In Italy - travel, books, ar...

"In food there are memories" - Paola Bacchia Welcome to Episode #34: There are 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...

"When a painter is obsessed by a view or an idea, no wind, no elements can stop him" - Gustave de Stael Welcome to Episode #33 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 th...

“You may have the universe if I may have Italy”           Giuseppe  Verdi, Composer Welcome to Episode 32: 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, to experience a culture that shows us a beautiful way to live.   It is a sensual life that is deeply lay...

“We do not remember days, we remember moments” - Diary Entry, 28th July… Cesare Pavese   -  This Business of Living, A Diary - 1935-1950 Welcome to Episode 31: This is a lovely chat with Cinzia about life and her love of books and life in Italia.  Her love of language is at the forefront of her world as she shares the joys of reading in Italian and English and the path she followed to become a Tea...

"When I realised that each morning I would see this light again, I could not believe my luck" Henri Matisse, 1917 Welcome to Episode #30, Antibes, France On the 13th March 2019, a family of five traveled from Genova Piazza Principe Station on the 11.43 to Ventimiglia in the province of Liguria, Italy.  At 13.03 they entered a train with the white sign Region:  Provence - Alpes - Cote d’A...

"After all it is the adventure that counts" - Gertrude Stein, The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas Welcome to Episode #29  Genova, Liguria The family trip continues after a too short stop over in Genova, we get ourselves ready to part with Italy and move onto France.  In the meantime a wonderful morning is had walking the old town of Genoa in the Piazza La Maddelena and Piazza San Luca,...

“There is already a tantalising sense of escape - of slipping beneath the radar of modern life"                          - Tom Chesshyre 'Slow Train to Venice' Welcome to Episode #28  Genova, Liguria One of things I adore about this whole Italian adventure is just how many doors Italy has to offer.  Open one or two in you are in for a treat.  Books, art, food and everything else.  T...

"Enchantment - a useless thing, but as dispensable as bread" - Gio Ponti Welcome to Episode #27 Pisa, Tuscany.... I have always been a little intrigued about Pisa.  Wondering to myself what it was all about, so much so I thought we better go.  And it is a curious place, a Tuscan city not far from the sea, a maritime power in its hey day.  The city was built on the legacy of trade and its...

“The rain was coming down in what seemed solid sheets. But it was Italy. Nothing it did could be bad”                               - Elizabeth Von Armin ‘Enchanted April’ Welcome to Episode #26 Join me for a little Italian Joy and the delights of an afternoon wandering the Tuscan town of Lucca.  The beauty of travel to me is leaving one molto bella historic city for another.  An hour and a half o...

"Thy light alone - Gives grace and truth to life's unquiet dream'    -  Percy Bysshe Shelley Welcome to Episode #25....... Sometimes you just need to start in the middle, and somehow you find the beginning and the end.  That is how this episode came about.  There is always the attention to the inner calling to do the work, to make way, to make hay while the sun shines.  This episode...

“To make time to eat as Italians still do is to share in their inexhaustible gift for making art out of life”                                          -  Marcella Hazan                      ‘The Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking  Welcome to Episode #24 Join me for the final episode for 2020 as I make a Spritz Prosecco Cocktail and share my last podcast for the year with Christine from Italian...

“Italy, like the olive tree, is ever-green”                                      - Lina Waterfield, ‘Castle in Italy’ Welcome to Episode #23....... I begin with a light serenade to December 2020 sitting out in the morning sun and then share the fifth installment of The Family Trip in Italy.... Part 2 Florence, Tuscany....Firenze and the travel adventure continues.  Enjoy, See You Next time with Ch...

“These trains have eaten into my mind and my writing”    -   Tim Parks ‘Italian Ways:  On and Off the Rails from Milan to Palermo’ Welcome to Episode #22....... This an excerpt from the journey, the little adventure from Padua in Italy to Paris, France.... Next stop - Florence, Tuscany....Firenze is one of those places that you can just wander and there is something wonderful around every corner. ...