Aperilife featuring Sam Rich I try to have one-on-one relationships, and I encourage them, because caring about a person and being kind is what I needed when I first came here because I was unsure. I fell in love with an Italian and I had to fall in love with Italy, with the good and the bad. Sam Rich When I met Sam a few months ago at an event I cornered her, told her how much of a fan I am, and she, with her signature grace and kindness, happily accepted my invitation to be on the podcast and ...
Jun 20, 2025•1 hr 12 min•Season 4Ep. 20
In this episode, we’re invited into the warm, magical and delicious world of Carlotta Conti, a gifted cooking instructor who originally hails from Ravenna in Emilia-Romagna and who now welcomes guests into her home in the hills just outside of her Florence. Carlotta doesn’t just teach recipes, she offers a rare opportunity to live and experience Italian culture from the inside. Her bespoke cooking classes unfold in her own kitchen, nestled among olive groves and rolling Tuscan hills, where guest...
Jun 13, 2025•30 min•Season 4Ep. 19
An Epic Ride featuring Emma Boutcher “When you're thinking about moving to a place it’s the people, that’s the most important thing. You get to see how they live, what it actually means to live there versus just staying on the surface. I was drawn to the beauty of this place and then had this immediate sense of what a community here is like.” Emma Boutcher Emma Boutcher is a young U.S. expat and engineer who decided to take the leap and make the move to Italy just about a year ago. I was lucky e...
Jun 06, 2025•54 min
In this special episode, we dive into the heart of American football in Italy with Estra Guelfi Firenze, one of the premier teams in the Italian Football League. Founded in 2000, the Guelfi have become a powerhouse in the growing European football scene, known not just for their grit on the gridiron, but also for their deep ties to the local community. To celebrate their 25th anniversary and a spectacular season thus far, I sat down with with the team’s General Manager, Edoardo Cammi, Captain Gi...
May 30, 2025•51 min•Season 4Ep. 17
SHARING SECRETS featuring Elia Nichols “I would say that after I did my TED talk in August my life did change in some ways because I think it's about changing the energy. You put yourself out there, you create new work, and you get seen by different people. You bring different energy to yourself and immediately I got a lot of people contacting me for new work or for different types of work.” Elia Nichols on the reaction to the recent release of her TEDx talk, The secret to looking more confident...
May 23, 2025•50 min•Season 4Ep. 16
Catching up with Girl in Florence featuring Georgette Jupe Season 4, Episode 15 “At the time I really felt like I was living my best life in that sense. I was meeting people, I loved Italy, the chaos, the food, and being pushed out of my comfort zone. In the US, I think sometimes especially where I grew up, you can live in a bubble. You're in your car, in your neighborhood, you don't see a lot of different realities that aren't your own unless you ask for and go purposely for them.” Georgette Ju...
May 16, 2025•58 min•Season 4Ep. 15
Minobossi: Made in Florence with Love featuring Monica Bonaiuti “It’s important to give possibilities for conscious buying because nowadays people know very well what's behind an object and they don’t buy it because of a logo but because they want to know what's really behind these two, three pieces of leather. There must be something that gives the buyer a sense of fairness, of being happy to say they bought something which really has value.” Monica Bonaiuti In 1979 two lifelong best friends re...
May 09, 2025•45 min•Season 4Ep. 14
Time, Again: A digital detox story - and a new way of being for solopreneurs, leaders, and seekers featuring Sandrine Kom Last month I participated in a retreat led by Sandrine Kom that aimed to transform stressed out superwomen into Zen superwomen. I embraced the opportunity, shut off my phone, and spent a glorious weekend free of it and my other devices. In this week’s episode Sandrine interviews me about how I was feeling before and during the retreat and the many ways the experience impacted...
May 02, 2025•57 min•Season 4Ep. 13
A lot of people say, I want to go to Italy, I want to go to Tuscany, I want to live there and then they get here and they're like, oh, I didn't realize it was going to be so hard. Yes it is hard, and a lot of times I just trudged along anyway and I did it and I think it was just the pure positive energy of I'm going to get this done . Donna Scharnagl What happens when you truly stumble upon your destiny, when life gives you an opportunity, you seize it and end up somewhere you never imagined you...
Apr 25, 2025•1 hr 1 min•Season 3Ep. 12
Writing Florence featuring Lori Hetherington and Monica Sharp, The Florence Literary Society The real value of the Literary Society is that information exchange and sharing. When you sit down at your computer or with your notepad or notebook, it’s a solitary activity,but so many other aspects of writing involve others. Whether it's brainstorming an idea, getting feedback on a first draft, finding a beta reader, or later, when you do move into the publishing sphere, an agent, someone who can help...
Apr 18, 2025•50 min
What I look for in my street photography is the expression of people in everyday situations, their stories, something that's got a little twist to it, that's open-ended, so that people can step into a space and finish the story. Louise Olko Join me and this week’s guest, Louise Olko, photographer, figurative painter, and sculptor who took the leap just over a decade ago and decided to live out her dream of being an artist in Italy. What has Louise found in Florence? How did she pivot from a care...
Apr 11, 2025•52 min•Season 4Ep. 10
The repetition of images creates a belief; the ensemble of beliefs creates the cultural DNA of our society. If we change the images we will change the culture. Chiara Tilesi I have long been a fan of Chiara Tilesi and her work and was honored to interview her about her tireless efforts to transform the outdated and discriminatory paradigms prevalent in today's media landscape by producing impactful films, documentaries, TV shows, and new media that empower women. In 2015 Chiara founded, We Do ...
Apr 04, 2025•54 min•Season 4Ep. 9
Bestselling author, podcast creator and award-winning journalist, Jo Piazza, on The Sicilian Inheritance Jo Piazza’s bestseller, The Sicilian Inheritance , comes out in paperback today and to mark the occasion, I interviewed her about the success of the novel, which has been inspiring readers to travel to Sicily and learn about their Italian roots. If you are looking for a magical, mysterious escape to this eternally enchanting island, look no further, this is the adventure you’ve been waiting f...
Apr 01, 2025•44 min•Season 4Ep. 8
I am in search of freedom, and it's led me to filmmaking, painting, singing. I've lived many lifetimes already in this lifetime and I'm in the pursuit of happiness, joy and freedom, and trying to understand what it means to be human and a woman and just to be, and sometimes I’ll create a fantastical, colorful, escapist world whether that's in painting or in filmmaking. Vittoria Colonna Occasionally I like to take the podcast to my guests, and I was overjoyed when multi-talented artist Vittoria C...
Mar 28, 2025•49 min•Season 4Ep. 7
“They share their lives, they go to school, do sports, and have experiences together. Ours learn the customs, traditions, and way of living in the States and theirs learn what we have in here in Italy and in Tuscany especially.” Rolando Galli on the annual student exchange program between sister cities Abetone, Italy and Aspen, Colorado. I have known and loved Abetone, a year-round mountain paradise in Tuscany’s highly poetic, Valley of Light – Val di Luce, since I moved permanently to Italy ove...
Mar 21, 2025•48 min
Italy in Vermont featuring Lisa DeNatale “A lot of Italian immigrants came to Vermont to work in the granite and marble quarries, and they were actively recruited because they were skilled stone cutters from Carrara and other parts of northern Italy, and they settled in Barre. Many other immigrants followed, and connections and businesses started. They came to work on the railroads, they were fruit and vegetable vendors, and then they opened stores.” I have long had a correspondence with this we...
Mar 14, 2025•43 min•Season 4Ep. 5
I don’t exaggerate when I refer to this week’s guest, Paola Vojnovic, as a Renaissance woman. In addition to being a Renaissance art historian and an authority on culture management, Paola embodies the very spirit of the Renaissance with everything she does, especially with her Studiolo. The studiolo was a sacred inner sanctum for study, contemplation, and discourse inside Renaissance palazzi, and a keystone in the culture of Renaissance humanism. Inspired by it, for the past five years, Paola h...
Mar 07, 2025•1 hr 2 min•Season 4Ep. 4
A SEAT AT THE TABLE featuring Catalin Varela I was studying how different cultures and countries approach gluten-free eating and what sort of impact that has on our quality of life, for example being able to socialize via food with other people. I felt more welcomed and included in Italy than I had ever felt anywhere else which was huge for me. Catalin Varela, The Celiac in Italy My guest this week, Catalin Varela, also known as The Celiac in Italy, has a riveting personal story, one so compelli...
Feb 28, 2025•54 min•Season 4Ep. 3
Season 4, Episode 2 An Extraordinary Life featuring Amira Makhlouf I want to talk to young women leaders, activists looking for their life purpose, women who are facing challenges, who want inspiration, or who are suffering from mental health issues. In this life we all need inspiration, we need tools. That’s why I’m doing this. Amira Makhlouf on the upcoming EXTRAORDINARY SPEAKERS Conference When you meet Amira Makhlouf it’s impossible not to be inspired by her story and moved to action by the ...
Feb 21, 2025•48 min
Season 4, Episode 1 It’s our pleasure! Meet La CLIT, Coffee Literature Inspiration & (sex) Toys featuring Giulia Heuser *Explicit language and content warning* “We need a place where we can evolve, first of all as people, as single individuals, then as a community. La CLIT is an individual journey which is becoming collective.” Giulia Heuser on La CLIT, Coffee Literature Inspiration & (sex) Toys Giulia Heuser and Francesca De Gaudio have been friends since childhood, they were even Girl ...
Feb 14, 2025•59 min•Season 4Ep. 1
Travels in Hyper Reality (TV) featuring Fosca D’Acierno interviewed by Andrew Niklas Explicit language warning Today’s special bonus episode features yours truly being interviewed about my adventures in Italian reality tv land by Andrew Niklas, a friend, collaborator, filmmaker, and editor of this podcast. As many of you already know, I was cast on an Italian reality tv show, Best Weekend , produced by Banijay Italia, that aired last month here in Italy on a major network, NOVE. lt is currently ...
Dec 01, 2024•41 min•Season 3Ep. 26
“It was just a fascinating time, I was learning so much, and then my eyes were opened to the international side of it when I was working during the harvest in ‘97 at Kendall Jackson. I found out they had a winery in Tuscany and said, that's where I'm going, I'm going to have to try and go there.” Alyson Morgan This week’s special, full-length episode features Alyson Morgan, winemaker and manager at Podere Capaccia, a 13th century wine estate perched high upon a steep slope in a magical corner of...
Nov 22, 2024•57 min•Season 3Ep. 25
You have Time: Slow Life Lessons, Part 2 featuring Sandrine Kom “We need to change our relationship with time because we really see time as our enemy. It's never enough and sometimes we get angry because we know we don't have enough time. We would like to have 30 hours of time and not 16, there is always this frustration. What we can do is repeat to ourselves that we have time, and this daily slowness tool will help you do what you need to do and more.” Sandrine Kom In part two of my conversatio...
Nov 15, 2024•31 min•Season 3Ep. 24
You have Time: Slow Life Lessons, Part 1 featuring Sandrine Kom “We need slowness. We need it to enjoy our life, to enjoy the people who are around us, to avoid misunderstanding, to find harmony with ourselves, to take care of our values. And we also need slowness to take care of our deepest needs.” Sandrine Kom This week’s guest, Sandrine Kom, believes that slow life is quiet luxury. So much so that it's the motto of her company, SlowLife Coaching and SlowLife Yoga, which embodies an art of liv...
Nov 08, 2024•32 min•Season 3Ep. 23
“I think what’s most important is how you hold yourself. People make immediate assumptions based on it and keep them for a long time. That’s why I decided to do my TED Talk on some small tweaks that can radically change the way people view you and treat you.” Elia Nichols In this week’s episode with Elia Nichols, we speak at greater length about her recent TED Talk and what she was feeling as she prepared for this milestone event – after having professionally coached TEDx speakers for over two y...
Nov 01, 2024•33 min•Season 3Ep. 22
“Nowadays we have 7 seconds to get the audience’s attention. It used to be 5 minutes. With the advent of social media, with all the swiping, our attention span has gone down to 7 seconds. If you don't get your audience’s attention in 7 seconds, that's it, they're gone.” Elia Nichols Join me for the first part of my informative and lively chat with my charming guest, Elia Nichols, actress, public speaking and communication coach, TEDx speaker, and fellow US expat in Florence. We begin with Elia’s...
Oct 25, 2024•26 min•Season 3Ep. 21
Approaching Dante Inferno to Paradise, part 2 Featuring Riccardo Bruscagli “Dante addresses the core of our humanity and his message is your life matters. Take care of it. Your life matters .” Riccardo Bruscagli Last week Professor Riccardo Bruscagli delighted us with his reading of and reflections on The Divine Comedy , led us on a discovery of the poet’s masterpiece,and invited us into the world of the PBS two-part documentary film Dante: Inferno to Paradise directed by Ric Burns and co-writte...
Oct 18, 2024•36 min•Season 3Ep. 5
Approaching Dante Inferno to Paradise, part 1 Featuring Riccardo Bruscagli “Dante at a certain point wakes up, looks around, and doesn’t recognize the physical and the moral landscape around him. This is a moment of fracture in his existence, and it is a moment of fracture which implies naturally not only his private life, but the life around him, which makes no sense anymore.” Riccardo Bruscagli What a pleasure to sit down with Riccardo Bruscagli, Professor Emeritus of Italian Literature, Unive...
Oct 11, 2024•38 min•Season 3Ep. 19
“A bottle of wine represents culture and history and language and people, and my love affair for wine has come from getting to know the story behind every wine that I taste. I think that is just magic, that's the magic of wine.” Savannah Boylan This week’s episode takes us on an even more profound journey into the wonderful world of wine in the expert hands of Savannah Boylan and Ashwin Muthiah of unPINNED. In addition to speaking more about their innovative approach to wine education, they offe...
Oct 04, 2024•32 min•Season 3Ep. 18
Season 3, Episode 17 unPINNED! A Wine Revolution featuring Savannah Boylan & Ashwin Muthiah “Wine has brought people together since its invention 8,000 years ago. F*** the industry that’s using wine to drive people apart.” Ashwin Muthiah, unPINNED It’s the height of harvesting season here in Italy so what better time to tune in to my chat with Savannah Boylan and Ashwin Muthiah, who, with unPINNED, an unconventional wine course and innovative venture, are diffusing wine education and knowled...
Sep 27, 2024•30 min•Season 3Ep. 17
