Dear Blog Readers – Italian Astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti, certainly one of the most extraordinary and awe-inspiring woman I have ever met, spoke to journalists from Rome’s Foreign Press Association this week about her experiences during nearly seven months in space from November 2014 to June 2015. Forty-year-old Cristoforetti—known to many as Astro-Samantha– gave birth to …
Dear Blog Readers – It has been a rocking and rolling week in Italy as the new populist government decided to take a tough stand on migration or “raise our voice” according to Italy’s new Interior Minister Matteo Salvini. The new policy is to block any ships that are not Italian from disembarking migrants in …
Working in the news business I feel so bombarded by news events that, sadly, I sometimes turn off and become indifferent to it all – earthquakes, planes crashes, floods, bombs, terror attacks, ships sinking… Then there is a news story that unexpectedly jumps out and hits me…the death this week of Sudan, the last male …
Dear Blog Readers, I have been working for months on a long story for AP on the tens of thousands of Nigerian girls who are victims of sex trafficking to Italy. AP finally came out with the story for International Women’s Day on March 8th. Here are the links: TV VERSION: https://vids.press/ap-archive/only-on-ap-italy-failing-to-help-migrants-trafficked-as-sex-slaves/ WIRE VERSION: https://www.apnews.com/df4b0f007cd7475e90754e99189f5572 …
Dear Blog Readers, Tiffany Parks, my fellow Roman-American blogger Mamma buddy, has just written a marvelous new mystery for 8-12-year-olds about one of my favorite fountains in Rome, the Turtle Fountain in the Jewish Ghetto. The protagonist is a 13-year-old American girl named Beatrice Archer who moves to Rome from Boston with her historian father …
Dear Blog Readers, Over the years I have been known to complain once in a while about being a working mother of three, juggling the demands of my job and the needs of my kids. Well, no more. Now that I have heard about the demands on Barbara, I will be quiet. Think about this: …
Dear Blog Readers, Ok, I admit it. I needed an excuse to get out of Rome and be distracted. I got a nasty flu after Christmas and at the last minute had to back out of going on the Papal Trip to Chile and Peru. That was a big, important trip and I missed it. …
Dear Blog Readers, This week, Rome’s most famous tea rooms, Babingtons, celebrated their 125th anniversary at Villa Wolkonsky, the British Ambassador’s residence. For those who have never heard of Babingtons, it is a Tea Room that serves a proper English Tea with scones, cakes and biscuits just at the foot of Rome’s Spanish Steps. On …