The Brilliant, Bloody Borgias are Back
Dear Blog Readers, Last week I took a break from some of the usual news stories I do– Vatican, Politics, Strikes etc, to do a feature story for our entertainment department on the TV series “Borgia”. They were filming scenes for the second season in the little Italian town of Sermoneta. I went with a […]
The Pope’s Butler Takes the Stand
He once poured red wine for a Pope dressed from head to toe in white, careful not to spill a drop…but while impeccable in his table service, the Pope’s butler was spilling much more, delivering private documents from the Papal apartments directly into the hands of an Italian investigative journalist. The Pope’s butler, Paolo Gabriele, […]
Elizabeth the Brave
Dear Blog Readers– We are now in the Dog Days of Summer and I am sitting in Rome a sweaty, soggy mess. Not good for writing interesting blog posts. So I’ve decided to post a short story I wrote for young adults years ago and then never had time to hunt for a publisher. It […]
A Peek at Turkish Women
Visiting Istanbul for a few days does not put me in a position to make any reliable conclusions about Turkish women, so instead I want to share some photos and impressions. I was intrigued by the chic use of the hijab headscarves with rather glamorous long trench coats cinched in at the waist with a […]
Istanbul Diary
Dear Blog Readers—I am on a three day trip to Istanbul and although it is a bit of a divergence from my Italy and Mothering themes, I would like to share a few thoughts on one of my favorite cities in the world, and a few comments on Turkey in general. I do not profess […]
Teetering on High
I’ve been writing for nearly a year now about how hard it is for an American Mamma to reach the looks standards of the Italian women. Women in Italy are style-conscious and impose high standards on themselves in terms of physical looks and dressing. I have written about my desperate attempts to have luscious legs, […]