italy

#43 The magic of Ischia (English)

It’s Sunday morning, just after seven. It’s raining cats and dogs in Rome, a typical summer shower after months of drought. Nothing better than waking up like this while I can still feel the sun that seems to have gotten under my skin, and find the grains of sand still in my hair. Could this …

#43 The magic of Ischia (English) Read More »

#42 Real men (English)

That life in Italy isn’t dolce all the time is something I knew already of course, because the truth is that no matter where in the world you are, there will always be things that are less pleasant. However, the slightly traumatic experience of two weeks ago I hadn’t seen coming at all. While my cousin Tahnee, …

#42 Real men (English) Read More »

#41 In ferie (English)

Rome is empty. Under the burning sun, the Italian capital feels quiet and deserted, the streets abandoned. When I took my cousin – who had been here in Rome with me for a few days to have a taste of la dolce vita – to the train station last Friday around five o’clock in the afternoon, this …

#41 In ferie (English) Read More »

#39 My Rome (English)

Last Wednesday I was out with two Italian friends. After a very nice dinner we went to Hotel Butterfly, which with its trees full of thousands of lights seemed to come straight out of a fairy tale. Around two o’clock – when this placed under the stars shut down – we got in the car to go home. At least that’s …

#39 My Rome (English) Read More »

#38 Dolce far niente (English)

I’ve been back in Rome for almost three weeks now. Three weeks in which temperatures kept rising, I visited the beaches near Rome, I saw old friends again (some after months and some even after four years!) and I also got to meet new people. Three weeks in which a special day happened to take …

#38 Dolce far niente (English) Read More »

#37 Friday the seventeenth (English)

Last week, it was Friday the seventeenth, the Italian equivalent of our Friday the thirteenth. That’s right, in Italy the unlucky number is seventeen instead of thirteen. When flying with Alitalia you’ll notice there is no row seventeen and in most hospitals rooms with the number seventeen don’t exists. But what is it with that number that …

#37 Friday the seventeenth (English) Read More »

#36 In the heart of Venice (English)

When Lucas, one of my best friends and my regular travel buddy, suggested a couple of weeks ago to seize the unique opportunity to see Venice without the hordes of tourists, I got enthusiastic immediately. This was a once in a lifetime opportunity. Because what was it really like in Venice, where the crowds of …

#36 In the heart of Venice (English) Read More »

#35 That first gelato (English)

I’m back! Back in the land of la dolce vita, but also the land where corona struck so hard. At the end of February, when I decided to dedicate ‘one blog’ to that crazy corona virus that we perhaps should start taking more seriously, I had no idea the virus would be present in every single …

#35 That first gelato (English) Read More »

#34 Riva di Roermondo (English)

Last Thursday I suddenly found myself, together with my two daughters and husband, in a beautiful red Italian boat on one of the world-famous lakes in Northern Italy. But Loulou and Valentina, the two blond nine-year-olds in the back of the boat, were not really my children of course. Plus, I am also not married …

#34 Riva di Roermondo (English) Read More »