Moving abroad is already a daunting experience at the best of times. Imagine doing it during a deadly pandemic. For this mini-interview we are joined by listener Gabriela Proietti who took the leap and moved to Rome this past January, only to be forced back home to the States when Coronavirus exploded in Italy in early March. But was she daunted? No! Hear her tell her story in her own words of how she defied her nay-sayers to move back to Rome in the midst of the pandemic. ----------------------...
Oct 08, 2020•10 min•Season 8Ep. 79
As devastating as this pandemic has been, to our lives, our loved ones, and our livelihoods, is there a silver lining? In the midst of the suffering and the uncertainty, sometimes you have to let yourself see the good too. Regular listeners will know that Tiffany is an eternal optimist. Today, she and Katy discuss the positive changes they have noticed in the world and their own lives in the past six months, from big-picture things like environmental improvements, to things as small and personal...
Oct 05, 2020•39 min•Season 8Ep. 336
It's a much-told legend that Michelangelo and Leonardo Da Vinci used to rob graves in order to dissect bodies in secret so they could achieve anatomical accuracy in their art. But is it actually true? On this mini-episode, we are joined again by curator Jennifer Dasal of the Art Curious podcast , and author of the brand new book, Art Curious: Stories of the Unexpected, Slightly Odd, and Strangely Wonderful in Art History . Listen in to find out the truth, which might just be more fascinating tha...
Oct 01, 2020•11 min•Season 8Ep. 78
Is the Mona Lisa in the Louvre fake? Was impressionist painter Claude Monet a radical? And was Caravaggio—our show's muse—murdered? Art history holds as many mysteries and baffling stories as it does masterpieces, and Jennifer Dasal, museum curator and host of the wildly popular ArtCurious podcast knows all the best ones. In this week’s episode we sit down with Jennifer to chat about her brand-new book, ArtCurious: Stories of the Unexpected, Slightly Odd, and Strangely Wonderful in Art History a...
Sep 28, 2020•36 min•Season 8Ep. 335
It's that time of year again, but this year everything is different. In Italy, kids are now back in the classroom full-time but the rules are complicated and very strict. In this mini-episode, Tiffany gives the low-down on what Italian schools are doing to keep kids (and their loved ones) safe in the time of corona, as well as her worries for the year ahead. Aurelio pops in to give his take too. --------------------------------------- ADVERTISE WITH US: Reach expats, future expats, and travelers...
Sep 24, 2020•15 min•Season 8Ep. 77
Ready or not, election season is upon us! And it's never been easier for Americans living abroad to vote—well, in some states. Tiffany is lucky as Arizona (where she's registered to vote) allows online voting through a secure portal. Other states have more complex and lengthy processes, but bottom line: no matter where you are registered to vote and no matter where you live now, all US expats can (and should!) vote from abroad! On this episode, Tiffany and Katy discuss the ins and outs of voting...
Sep 21, 2020•32 min•Season 8Ep. 334
Katy, and all of our fellow-West Coast listeners, are seeing massive tracts of their states destroyed, smoke blotting out the sun, and highly hazardous breathing conditions. If they couldn't go out to dinner or to a pub during lockdown, now they can't even take a walk around their block or sit in their backyard. But after filling listeners in on what's going on in her world, Katy is thrilled to dive back into the listener mail bag and read two extremely welcome pieces of good news. She shares th...
Sep 17, 2020•12 min•Season 8Ep. 76
From lucky and unlucky numbers to numbers that make almost magical equations, from significant date to the "perfect" numbers, this week's episode is all about, well, numbers. And the fact that this is Episode Number 333 may—or may not—have anything to do with this week's choice of topic. Perhaps most intriguing of all: did you know that numbers can have color? To Tiffany they do. --------------------------------------- ADVERTISE WITH US: Reach expats, future expats, and travelers all over the wo...
Sep 14, 2020•41 min•Season 8Ep. 333
Pompeii, an entire ancient city preserved exactly as it was when it was covered in lava and ash during the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD. Even for a seasoned traveler like Tiffany, the site inspires awe, wonder, and fascination. Come along as Tiffany visits this ancient city for the first time. --------------------------------------- ADVERTISE WITH US: Reach expats, future expats, and travelers all over the world. Send us an email to get the conversation started. BECOME A PATRON: Pledge your mon...
Sep 10, 2020•16 min•Season 7Ep. 75
Daily life during a devastating pandemic—something nearly no one alive has ever experienced before—is captured poignantly and artistically by Bill Hayes in his new book, How We Live Now: Scenes from the Pandemic . Today we catch up with the author and street photographer to learn about how the book was conceived, what inspired it, and how it was able to be published in record time. He and Katy discuss how the world changed almost overnight, and yet how, the early days of the pandemic already see...
Sep 07, 2020•35 min•Season 7Ep. 332
Monday's Conversation Starters episode just didn't cover all the things we want to know about each other! In today's mini-episode we continue the question-and-answer drill to delve deep into what makes us us...and we get lost in several tangents along the way. --------------------------------------- ADVERTISE WITH US: Reach expats, future expats, and travelers all over the world. Send us an email to get the conversation started. BECOME A PATRON: Pledge your monthly support of The Bittersweet Lif...
Sep 03, 2020•19 min•Season 7Ep. 74
Whether you're looking for a great question to break the ice on a first date or just want to get to know your best friend, parent, or spouse even better, today we ask each other odd and unusual questions that cause us to reflect on our own lives, desires, and idiosyncrasies. In this episode, we prove that even after 30 years of friendship, there are still new things you can learn about a person...if you ask them. Play along with us! --------------------------------------- ADVERTISE WITH US: Reac...
Aug 31, 2020•36 min•Season 7Ep. 331
When our listeners reach out to us to share how we've inspired them, delighted them, challenged them, or simply kept them company—well, it doesn't get much better than that for a podcaster. On this week's mini-episode, Katy shares some of our most heart-warming recent listener mail. And we always look forward to receiving more. Write us, or send us a voice memo, and maybe we'll turn the 'mail bag' into a regular feature. --------------------------------------- ADVERTISE WITH US: Reach expats, fu...
Aug 27, 2020•15 min•Season 7Ep. 73
A record number of Americans—42%—now hold passports (up from 27% in 2007) but much good it will do them. In the wake of this unprecedented pandemic, there are only a handful of countries in the entire world that are welcoming Americans with no quarantine requirement. As a result, most US residents have traded in their passports for camping gear this summer. On this episode, we chat about how travel-lovers are handling these new restrictions on their movement, as well as the other side of the coi...
Aug 24, 2020•29 min•Season 7Ep. 330
Tiffany is 19 and desperate to meet up with her boyfriend in Italy in the final weeks of summer before heading back to university in the fall. She's worked all summer and saved enough for the flight. She's got the tickets and a place to stay... what could possibly go wrong? Five flights, a bus ride, two train rides, and a taxi later... Suffice it to say, back then she was not yet the expert travel planner she would become. She made a lot of mistakes that trip, but it made for a voyage she'll nev...
Aug 19, 2020•16 min•Season 7Ep. 72
The uncertainty of the expat life is magnified by life during a devastating global pandemic. But how often to you get to hear from the same person, just before and then during a major catastrophe that touches virtually every person in the world? Today we're joined by Stephanie Fuccio, Italian-American long-term expat (mostly in Asia), and host and creator of the Geopats podcast network . Through the magic of radio we hear from Stephanie, first back in January, days before she moved from Shanghai...
Aug 17, 2020•37 min•Season 7Ep. 329
A lot of us are walking more these days, in some cases, around and around the same neighborhood. On today's mini-episode, Katy takes us outside to the blocks around her Seattle home, exploring and commenting on the tiny little creative things that are happening in her neighborhood. --------------------------------------- ADVERTISE WITH US: Reach expats, future expats, and travelers all over the world. Send us an email to get the conversation started. BECOME A PATRON: Pledge your monthly support ...
Aug 13, 2020•18 min•Season 7Ep. 71
Sometimes you just need to tune out the cacophony of terrifying news and the anxiety over an uncertain future, and play a silly game. Don't you agree? This week, Katy and Tiffany take a much-needed break from the craziness that is life in 2020 to play an old favorite: This or That? And in this case, it's a summer themed version! Find out Tiffany and Katy's preferences on all things summer, and see if you can guess what they'll say. --------------------------------------- ADVERTISE WITH US: Reach...
Aug 10, 2020•41 min•Season 7Ep. 328
On a magical summer evening in Rome to celebrate her birthday, Tiffany has a sudden revelation. She shares it—and what Christian Dior's cologne Fahrenheit has to do with it—on this week's mini-episode. --------------------------------------- ADVERTISE WITH US: Reach expats, future expats, and travelers all over the world. Send us an email to get the conversation started. BECOME A PATRON: Pledge your monthly support of The Bittersweet Life and receive awesome prizes in return for your generosity!...
Aug 06, 2020•16 min•Season 7Ep. 70
Is Rome back to normal? Is that "new normal" what we expected it to be? This week's topic was sparked by an article in Esquire Magazine, "Things Are Not As Expected": Inside Rome's New Normal . We dissect the writer's claim that the only people who go out are teenagers and that the city's police are taking advantage of new-found powers to constantly harass anyone who dares to go out. Maybe, in reality, "normal" just a matter of perspective that depends on your personality and habits? Tiffany rea...
Aug 03, 2020•34 min•Season 7Ep. 327
In response to a listener question, Katy talks about what she's doing during the pandemic and the ensuing lockdown to keep her spirits up and get through the day. On this intimate and personal mini-episode, Katy shares the books she's been reading, the podcasts she's listening to, and the writing projects she's working on. She even shares the opening of an essay she wrote the last time she was in Rome, juxtaposing the languishing demise of poet John Keats with the sudden death of a close friend....
Jul 30, 2020•15 min•Season 7Ep. 69
What's the difference between having fun and having a happy life? This week's guest, award-winning journalist and author Diane Cardwell, tackles this and many other life questions when she joins us for our latest author interview. After ending her marriage and giving up her attempts to have a child, Cardwell realizes that the thing that was missing from her life was the last thing she would have expected: surfing. Rockaway: Surfing Headlong into a New Life is a "stirring story of inner salvation...
Jul 27, 2020•29 min•Season 7Ep. 326
Tiffany finds herself just outside the walls of Vatican City on a summer morning and marvels at the dramatic change in the neighborhood. In an area that once fed almost exclusively off of tourist dollars, from cafes to restaurants, from souvenir shops to tour agencies, even now, the dearth of tourists is disconcerting—and it's not clear how the area's businesses will survive. The biggest shock for Tiffany is that for the first time ever, she can walk around the area without being asked if she wa...
Jul 23, 2020•9 min•Season 7Ep. 68
If you tuned in last week, you heard us commiserate about the awful and sometimes destructive teachers of our past. If that episode left a little blue (it did us!), then take heart because today we're talking all about the best teachers we ever had (and there are a lot more of them!) From teachers who made us believe in ourselves, to teachers who inspired us to consider a profession we'd never imagined, to the kind and wonderful teachers of our youth whom we will never forget, decades later. ---...
Jul 20, 2020•28 min•Season 7Ep. 325
Today Katy looks at collections, and the people who keep them. What makes people collect things—or not? After asking our listeners to write in about their own personal collections, she realized that unprecedented time we are living through might be more conducive to letting things go rather than collecting them. Nevertheless, she talks about her collections, both permanent and fleeting, and we hear from her nephew about the odd things he likes to collect. --------------------------------------- ...
Jul 16, 2020•10 min•Season 7Ep. 67
We all remember our favorite teachers, but what about the horrible ones? The ones who crushed our ambitions, treated us unfairly, or were just plain mean. Tiffany tells the story of her abusive voice teacher in grad school, an experience that may have changed the trajectory of her entire life, and Katy talks about the high school biology teacher who carelessly quashed a beloved career dream. (Don't worry if this topic sounds dire—next week we'll be talking about the amazing teacher who inspired ...
Jul 12, 2020•33 min•Season 7Ep. 324
Have you noticed the birds more during lockdown? If your lockdown is over, do you find you're more aware of them than you were before? On this mini-episode, Tiffany and Aurelio stop to watch (and listen to!) the birds, and Tiffany takes the opportunity to talk a little bit about one of her favorite places in Rome: Villa Doria Pamphilj, a massive public park that once belonged to a single family, and happens to be a wonderful place to see what the birds are doing. --------------------------------...
Jul 08, 2020•11 min•Season 7Ep. 66
Has anything traumatic ever happened to you when you were traveling—a natural disaster, a personal tragedy, or maybe even a global pandemic—and as a result you never want to go back there? Today we hear from a listener who had an encounter with a traumatized young student as she was "evacuating" Italy back in March at the outbreak of Covid-19. And that got us thinking about how places can sometimes become tainted if we have bad experiences there. But is that enough of a reason to never return? -...
Jul 04, 2020•34 min•Season 7Ep. 323
Do podcasts put you to sleep? Well, there's one out there that aims to do just that, Drew Ackerman's Sleep With Me podcast. Sleep with Me tells "bedtime stories to help grown ups fall asleep in the deep, dark night," perfect for podcast-lovers who are also insomniacs. This week, Drew put his own sleepy spin on our recent episode, Virtual Tour of Rome . Make sure you check it out to hear our audio walk through Rome translated into something designed to lull you to sleep. On this week's mini-episo...
Jul 02, 2020•24 min•Season 7Ep. 65
We all think we know if we're an introvert or an extrovert. But what does it really mean? On this episode, we dig into the true meaning of these pervasive personality types, and they might not mean exactly what you think they mean. We also explore how the Covid pandemic and its resulting quarantine might have changed your personality type, or at least brought out another aspect to it. And we ask ourselves, is it really true that introverts are forced to live in an extroverted world? And has the ...
Jun 28, 2020•33 min•Season 7Ep. 322
