Florence Finds: Three Spaces Worth Discovering

• Small and impactful: how La Città dei Lettori proves that when it comes to cultural value, size doesn’t matter. • Creative regeneration: The Square as a case study in how former industrial sites can become vibrant cultural hubs. • Adaptive reuse: the Goldoni → FitActive transition as a reflection

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My Favorite Things (about the holidays in Italy)

I won’t be in Italy for the holidays this year which is a little unusual. Since Giada was little, I’ve preferred to stay in Florence. I’m not a big fan of traveling when everyone else does, and I love spending time in a cozy, decorated house cooking and baking to

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Unanchored

Is Florence still my home? Of late, I wake several times a night, gripped by something I’m still unable to name. Is it solitude? Worry? Fear? Regret? Restlessness? I look out my window and stare at the darkness, hopeful for answers that never come. If I’m lucky, I get a

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We Need Romcoms Now More than Ever

Market Research I began binging romcoms and romances set in Italy in the name of market research as soon as I finished writing my first novel, a nostalgic, sexy, coming-of-age romp through 1995 Florence (for anyone who’s reading this, I’m seeking representation and think it would make a great movie

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Beyond the Sea

On Italian Beach Culture Italian beach culture can be a bit of a mystery for first time visitors. There are, of course, free beaches (usually you pay for parking only), but many beachgoers across the peninsula opt for the comfort of stabilimenti balneari, beach resorts, or at least they did

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Turning Points: On Raising a Bicultural Child

When I moved definitively to Italy at the age of 28 I wasn’t really thinking about having a baby. I was in love and trying to find gainful employment which was as hard then as it is now. I got married a year later, we bought our first apartment, and

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Summer (mostly) in the City

It’s been a while since I’ve spent the better part of the summer in Italy and for most of it I’ll be in Florence. This year is quite unusual and dictated primarily by my daughter’s eighteenth birthday which falls smack in the middle of the summer. Turning eighteen is a

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Oxygen

I just got back from a digital detox weekend in Tuscany where I spent 48 blissful, device-free hours. The ultimate goal of this particular retreat was to transform six stressed superwomen into zen superwomen. Sound like a mission impossible? Well, I thought so, too. Fortunately Sandrine Kom is persistent —

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