A Writer In Italy - travel, books, art and life

“We are all pilgrims who seek Italy” - Goethe

Have you ever dreamed of living in Italy?  The exciting news is that there is a wonderful opportunity for you to live your own La Dolce Vita and this episode is about making that dream real.
Nikki Taylor is giving away a property in Puglia and all you have to do is write a little letter of 30 words to enter the Competition.  Nikki is also on a mission to create a Guinness World Record so join in on the fun and begin a new adventure in Puglia Italy. 
We also chat about living in Italy, buying property with ease and living the good life in Bella Italia.

Enter the Competition:  https://italy-propertyconsulting.com/competition/

Visit:  Nikki Taylor

Please find all Show Notes and details mentioned at:
michellejohnston.life

Visit:  Michelle:  Instagram:  @awriterinitaly and @theyellowhouse__

© 2022 A Writer In Italy - travel, books, art and life

Music Composed by Richard Johnston, © 2022

Support the show

“Dolce Far Niente is about living in the present - savouring every moment as if it's the last - while remembering that life truly is beautiful. Let's never forget that" - Sophie Minchilli

This week I share a fun conversation with the author Sophie Minchilli.  We talk about her book:

The Sweetness of Doing Nothing: Live Life the Italian Way with Dolce Far Niente. 

We discuss the good life in Rome, discovering her path to becoming a professional pasta eater, slowing down, how to make the perfect Carbonara, and taking the time to write her book The Sweetness of Doing Nothing …..
Thank you Sophie.

Please find all Show Notes and details mentioned at:
michellejohnston.life
Visit:  Sophie on the Socials......Rome with Sophie and on Instagram @sminchilli
Visit:  Michelle:  Instagram:  @awriterinitaly and @theyellowhouse__

© 2022 A Writer In Italy - travel, books, art and life

Music Composed by Richard Johnston, © 2022

Endnote Cooking Moment in the background while I make Carbonara:  From the Film; 'No Reservations'   (The Soundtrack to the movie) .......

Support the show

“Italy became magical and mysterious beckoning me” - Susan Van Allen 

Welcome to Episode #40:  

I am most delighted to share this conversation with Susan Van Allen about her updated 10th Anniversary Edition, “100 Places in Italy Every Woman Should Go”.  

Susan is a Screen and Travel Writer, and an American Treasure.  Her many books on Italy give travellers the inside tips on the places one should visit that will create the most magical travel memories.  And truthfully, this book is for every one.  If you want to feel safe in your decision on where to go, read ‘100 Places in Italy Every Woman Should Go’.   Susan’s Golden Days will have you booking your tickets immediately.

Go ahead, perhaps just like Virgil randomly open the book anywhere.  Yes, that’s the place, wherever you place your finger.  Go, I dare you….

Please find all Show Notes and details mentioned at:
michellejohnston.life

Visit:  Susan Van Allen’s Italy

Instagram:  @awriterinitaly and @theyellowhouse__


© 2022 A Writer In Italy - travel, books, art and life

Music Composed by Richard Johnston, © 2022

Support the show

“The early-morning Easter Light, clean and clear as a polished sapphire, back-lit a ribbon of mist hovering over the Luberon plain. The almonds had burst into blossom and the cherries were hard on their tales’.   - Alex Dingwall-Main, The Luberon Garden 

Welcome to  Episode #39:

This weeks share is a day driving through the region of the Luberon Mountains in Provence.  A visit to Menerbes, the place of truffle and vin.  We enter the tree lined village to marvel at the plane trees and to wander the paths and streets of the medieval village. The views are magnificent from this grand location.  It is a day of beauty and vision taking in the rural atmosphere of cherry orchards and vines that are waiting to unfurl, and scenic drives in Lacoste, Bonnieux and Apt.  A beautiful prelude to the days ahead before the family catch the TGV to Paris for the finale of the journey from Padova Italy to Paris, France.

Padova, Italy to Paris, France Travel Podcast Series..... Part 15
MJ xo

© 2021 A Writer In Italy - travel, books, art and life

Music Composed by Richard Johnston, © 2021

Support the show

“My motive was simple and hedonistic: I was looking for beauty” -  Alain de Botton, The Art of Travel 

Welcome to another share of the travelogue series from Italy to France.  This day we find ourselves saying Au Revoir to beautiful Antibes on the French Riviera and heading onwards to Saint Paul de Vence to wander the historic medieval ramparts of the hill top village.  And then back on the road to make our way to the Luberon region in the department of Vaucluse where an 18th century house in the countryside awaits our arrival.

Also reflections on books and gardens that have inspired over the years....

Padova, Italy to Paris, France Travel Podcast Series..... Part 14

MJ xo

© 2021 A Writer In Italy - travel, books, art and life

Music Composed by Richard Johnston, © 2021

Support the show

"On the pleasant shore of the French Riviera, about half way between Marseille and the Italian Border, stands a large, proud, rose-coloured hotel.  Deferential palms cool its flushed facade, and before it stretches a short dazzling beach"...F.Scott Fitzgerald - Tender is the Night

Welcome to Episode #37

Padova, Italy to Paris, France Travel Podcast Series..... Part 13

The grand adventure continues on the French Riviera as we take a day to relax and explore Antibes, Juan les Pins, in the heart of the old port town, Vieille Ville.  And then onto Cannes for a drive to the beautiful sea....

MJ xo

© 2021 A Writer In Italy - travel, books, art and life

Music Composed by Richard Johnston, © 2021

Please find all Show Notes and details mentioned at:
michellejohnston.life

Instagram:  @awriterinitaly and @theyellowhouse__

Support the show

“The glinting Mediterranean stretched off in the distance, and now the palm trees, beaches, and over built coastline of the Côte d’Azur loomed suddenly into view: Cannes…Juan-les-Pins…Antibes…and then Nice” - Provence 1970 by Luke Barr….

Welcome to Episode #36

Padova, Italy to Paris, France Travel Podcast Series..... Part 12

A Travel Share on the history of train travel on the French Riviera and beyond.   

The grand adventure continues down the coastline of the French Riviera as we take a day to explore Monaco and the Promanade des Anglais in Nice.  

MJ xo

© 2021 A Writer In Italy - travel, books, art and life

Music Composed by Richard Johnston, © 2021

Please find all Show Notes and details mentioned at:
michellejohnston.life

Instagram:  @awriterinitaly and @theyellowhouse__

Support the show

“My library is an archive of longings” - Susan Sontag

Welcome to Episode #35

This weeks offering is a combination of the Good Life, Books, Food and More.  The Italian Affair continues….

Happy Adventures to you,

MJ xo

See you next episode with the travel adventure to Nice and Monaco Part 12 of the Padova, Italy to Paris, France Travel Podcast Series.....

© 2021 A Writer In Italy - travel, books, art and life

Music Composed by Richard Johnston, © 2021

Please find all Show Notes and details mentioned at:
michellejohnston.life

Instagram:  @awriterinitaly and @theyellowhouse__

Support the show

"In food there are memories" - Paola Bacchia

Welcome to Episode #34:

There are many layers to this conversation with Cookbook Author and Photographer Paola Bacchia.  Place, identity, home, migration, culture, food, tradition, displacement, loss, family and ultimately celebration.  This is an Istrian story, an Australian story and an Italian story.  This episode weaves the many layers of these themes with the love of food and the threads of family and memories at the centre of Paola’s cooking.  

Paola’s connection to place and the history of her family are the foundation for her new book Istria: Recipes and Stories from the Hidden Heart of Italy, Slovenia and Croatia.  It is a deeply personal story and one that I am honoured to share on the podcast. 

Thank you Paola.

Instagram:    @italyonmymind
Website:       Italyonmymind.com.au

© 2021 A Writer In Italy - travel, books, art and life

Music Composed by Richard Johnston, © 2021

Please find all Show Notes and details mentioned at:
michellejohnston.life

Instagram:  @awriterinitaly and @theyellowhouse__

Support the show

"When a painter is obsessed by a view or an idea, no wind, no elements can stop him" - Gustave de Stael

Welcome to Episode #33

This little foray into the south of France was a delight to write up once the writing process began. I couldn’t hold back but take a deep dive into the French Riveria and its artistic legacy which indeed is quite vast. When I discovered a few years back that the Picasso Museum was on the train line somewhere between Nice and Marseille in France well it was a given.  There is much to say that is undoubtable and there a number of directions one could go in.  In truth Antibes, Juan Les Pins came on my radar over the past few years after reading about Pablo Picasso and Francoise Gilot. 

Later I discovered the writings of Picasso’s biographer John Richardson and the film Surviving Picasso.  This particular share is full of Art and Life, mine and theirs,  and of course the joy of a family day free to travel in the delightful city of Antibes on the Cote D’Azur; something I would recommend to any one who loves a deep blue sky and a seascape that travel dreams are made of.

© 2021 A Writer In Italy - travel, books, art and life

Music Composed by Richard Johnston, © 2021

Please find all Show Notes and details mentioned at:
michellejohnston.life

Instagram:  @awriterinitaly and @theyellowhouse__

Support the show