As I say on the last page of my book,
“It had not been domestication where I had thrived. It had been the call of exploration like wild geese, the call of the world with its history, its stories, its secrets.”
Welcome!
I’m here to share my thirty-five years of Italy experience and expertise with you.
I’ve been going to Italy since the 1980s, when I first went at age 19 on a ten-dollar-a-day backpacking trip. By the next year I was living there, learning the language. By the 1990s I was leading teenagers on summer abroad trips to Italy.
After creating my own wedding in Italy in 1998, I started a business organizing weddings in Italy for foreigners. And since 1998 I’ve continued planning trips in Italy for clients on the side.
After six years running the wedding business, I realized I was not as interested in weddings as I was in Renaissance history, so I went back to university to get a master’s in that subject.
Soon after that, I walked Italy’s pilgrimage route solo. This is great way to get off the beaten path in today’s world of over-tourism. Check out my memoir about it.
In 2017, I moved to Italy for the third time. (I had two prior iterations living in Italy). And, I made it through (and passed) the challenging (understatement 😅) guide course, and I’m now a licensed guide to Florence’s museums.
Recently I went through a very interesting process buying an apartment in Florence and spending a few years remodeling it and boy, did I learn a lot. 😉
My aim is to help you become more savvy about your trip or your move to Italy! I advocate slow travel, and authentic experiences—always hoping to nudge tourists away from selfie-obsessed hit & run tourism.
What will you find on my site?
- My tour offerings in Florence, from art and history to markets, gardens and hikes.
- The low-down on the permesso process for anyone who is not EU and doesn’t have Italian relatives but wants to move to Italy.
- Press (interviews with me)
- Articles I’ve written
- Videos of my experiences remodeling an apartment in Florence– the complete low down–the good, the bad, and the insane!
- Trip planning services: I have created over a hundred trips in Italy for happy clients. Get a taste of my services via my testimonials.
- For articles on moving to Italy, buying property in Italy, my mini guides to historic centers of Italy’s most popular cities, my recommended places to eat, and more insider info, sign up for my Substack here.
Go here for information about hiring me