All Things Italy

All Things Italy January 2023
Something old, something new . . . The Rotunda under winter morning fog, University of Virginia Dear Friends, “Something old, something new” rings of weddings...

All Things Italy December 2022 19th-C. Asks from Italy Pre-date Giving Tuesday
Dear Friends, This issue of All Things Italy pushes into the past as well as across the Atlantic as I consider end-of-year giving and its...

All Things Italy November 2022 Where is Home?
Rome's cimitero acattolico, or non-catholic cemetery With the fall of leaves, the slant of the sun, holidays like All Saints Day, and other holidays ahead,...

All Things Italy March 2022
Visions of gardens like this one in Fiesole entice many to travel to Tuscany and elsewhere in Italy Dear Friends: I’ve finally done it. I’ve...

Good News about Engaging Italy! Hey, friends. Happy Friday! Surely as we head into Super Bowl and Valentine's Day weekend you can find a reason...

Writing Places & Bagni di Lucca, Italy
Bagni di Lucca, Italy, on the Lima River in Tuscany (Photo Credit: By Keith Ruffles, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=53034692) Six years ago this week, I...

Margaret Fuller: Writing and Social Activism in Massachusetts and Italy
Margaret Fuller Neighborhood House, Cambridgeport, Massachusetts. Fuller lived here during her early years. Fireflies, Fourth of July, fireworks, family reunions--the month has flown by--with lots of U.S. memories-in-the-making for me....

Mothers Without Borders: A Tribute to Surrogacy
Today I’m thinking of all those who “mother” -- beyond those who have born biological children. Think Mother Teresa, for example, or Mother Ann Lee,...

After Pasqua and Pasquetta . . . Liberation Day
Pasquetta--one Italian spring tradition I wish we could import to the US--blurs sometimes into another holiday, Liberation Day. Pasquetta, or “Little Easter” (since Easter is...

Utopian and Dystopian Visions: Sicily and Engaging Italy
Monte Argentario, off the coast of southern Tuscany Emeralds in a sea of sapphire—gems among gemstones—to a romantic dreamer. To those...