Expat Nationality

American / Italian

Expat for

40 years

I lived in Italy for

40 years

When friends/family visit I like to

Where to find the best street art & food and pizza in Rome

What best describes you?

Lateral-thinker, curious, flexible, alternative

Pet-lover: dogs, cats, horses

Favorite music/movies

Jazz, opera, chamber, Fellini, Sorrentino

In my free time I like

Nordic walking, hiking, urban adventuring, museums, read, films

General about

Interested in sharing contemporary Italy beyond the guidebooks, NYT articles, Rick Steves etc…

Born & raised in the Bay Area of California into a Sicilia-American family with many relatives going back & forth to Italy, my first visits were as a teenager along with cousins. That decided it: I would move to Italy permanently at some point in my life. That happened in 1981 with my husband, who had grown up for a period of his childhood in Florence. We were both doctoral students on Fellowship from UC Berkeley and have never looked back. Our first stop was, in fact, Florence where we settled for 10 years – while I taught Italian literature/culture and comparative literature for several American universities – before moving to Rome where I’ve continued teaching, translating, researching in archives, designing tours & itineraries, and more (for instance, raising 2 children).

I speak Italian, English, French and a smattering of others, and particularly love sharing (in person or via recommendations) new approaches to the well-known and the lesser-known cultural, historical & gastronomic wonders of Italy. Let’s say the material you do and don’t find in the guidebooks. In short, I love sharing Italy in all its facets.