Benvenuti al mio blog!

Ciao a tutti!
I am boldly entering the world of blogdom, inspired by one of my very best friends as well as passionate fan of Rome, Jessica. It seems I am boldly entering many new worlds lately. This month I had my last day in my job as director of a busy study abroad center here in Rome, to build a business managing four incredible vacation apartments for tourists, in what I think is hands down the most beautiful and charming neighborhood in all of Rome: Trastevere. It was with some sadness that I left my great company after more than 3 years, but the opportunity to work from home and share my love of Rome with visitors to this wonderful city was definitely too good to pass up!

My hope on this blog is to give you a little peek into my adopted home (going on 5 years now)—in all its beauty and even its flaws. The idea isn't to paint a gooey picture like Under the Tuscan Sun; no offense of course, but I think anyone who has had to interact at all with the Rome bureaucracy could tell you, those novels certainly don't paint the whole picture! Life in Rome, and especially Trastevere, is "La Bella Vita" in many ways...but sometimes even its "dark underbelly" can provide some interesting (and amusing) tidbits...and I hope to share that all with you here. And, hopefully you'll walk away having a new understanding of the phrase "When in Rome..." —and then you can come stay in my apartments and experience it for yourself. (There will be many shameless plugs in my blog.)

For now I will leave you with a couple of pictures from my kitchen window. I live on the 3rd floor in the same building as two of the apartments we rent (there are only three apartments in our building—a real rarity in this city of over 3 million residents). We live above a restaurant that used to be run by my fianceè's grandfather and father.


Next time, you will have your first lesson in becoming an adopted Roman citizen: how to make the perfect Italian espresso (without the fancy-shmancy espresso equipment!)

I am going to be out of town next week, so, ci vediamo la prossima settimana (see you next week)...