All Things Italy

May 2023 All Things Italy 

End of Year, End of Career?  Tulips outside the New York Public Library's Schwarzman Building May marks the end of the school year for many...

All Things Italy April 2023 What Palermo Promises

Dear Friends:  Last month I promised more insights from my time in Sicily—specifically, Palermo and its surroundings. Then, last week I shared on social media...

All Things Italy March 2023 Is the Jet Lag Worth It?

Sunrise over the sea at Siracusa, Sicily, March 1. Rising at this hour, around 7, and to this beauty, is more feasible for me than...

All Things Italy February 2023

Time Warp and Culture Waves  Not far from Rome's colosseum, a skateboard park constructed for a 2022 competition bustles with activity on a winter Sunday...

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 Neighborhood House, Cambridgeport, Massachusetts. Fuller lived her during her early years.

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....
Tilar J. Mazzeo's bestselling story of Irena Sendler's work with Polish children in Warsaw's ghetto during Hitler's regime

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,...