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

"I am reading six books at once, the only way of reading: since, as you will agree, one book is merely a note to another book" - Virginia Woolf

Today I share some beautiful moments while reading a few books on my table that have given much pause for thought. So I open a few on the fly and chat about the book, the author and what I Loved about the pages....

Teach Us To Sit Still by Tim Parks

A Place in the World by Frances Mayes

Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim 

Diary of a Tuscan Bookshop by Alba Donati

Intermezzo by Michelle Johnston (August Release)

Image - 6th Arrondissement Paris & Me (or it could have been heaven)

Enjoy, 

Michelle x

Shownotes 

A Writer in Italy Instagram

Substack - At My Table

Michelle’s Books

Musical Scores by Richard Johnston

A White Chalk Production

A Writer in Italy is about travel and life. A place to share the beautiful travel journeys and the discoveries along the way. 

Italy has many attractions - art, design, architecture, history and the wonderful food culture. Michelle shares her love of books on Italy and the places and regions that have inspired her along the way.

Michelle started 'A Writer in Italy Podcast’ to share personal stories and the love of books on Italy that would lead to beautiful conversations with people and like minded souls who share a deep love affair with Italian Culture and the country as a place of beauty and spiritual renewal.

Michelle Johnston lives in Australia with her family.

A Writer in Italy Podcast respectfully acknowledges that this work is created on the country of the Ngambri peoples and culture, and pays respects to their Elders, past and present.

© 2026  A Writer In Italy - travel, books, art and life
Music Composed by Richard Johnston © 2026

Support the show

"A soul's journey through this uniquely itchy epoch requires a far more nourishing approach" - Sarah Wilson, This One Wild and Precious Life 

Sometimes you cannot see the forest for the trees, but that is the writers life. It is a process. And maybe it will all work out in the end. And if it doesn’t work out, well I guess, it is not the end.

Today I share some of my trials and tribulation of the creative life and committing to the crazy idea to write a book (another book). Somehow talking about it I come out the other side with a fresh perspective. I also had a nice epiphany straight after so really, thanks for being here!

And please feel free to share with me if this episode resonated with you. I am here for the connection 

Michelle x

Enjoy,

Shownotes

A Writer in Italy Instagram

Substack - At My Table

Michelle’s Books

Musical Scores by Richard Johnston

A White Chalk Production

A Writer in Italy is about travel and life. A place to share the beautiful travel journeys and the discoveries along the way. 

Italy has many attractions - art, design, architecture, history and the wonderful food culture. Michelle shares her love of books on Italy and the places and regions that have inspired her along the way.

Michelle started 'A Writer in Italy Podcast’ to share personal stories and the love of books on Italy that would lead to beautiful conversations with people and like minded souls who share a deep love affair with Italian Culture and the country as a place of beauty and spiritual renewal.

Michelle Johnston lives in Australia with her family.

A Writer in Italy Podcast respectfully acknowledges that this work is created on the country of the Ngambri peoples and culture, and pays respects to their Elders, past and present.

© 2026  A Writer In Italy - travel, books, art and life
Music Composed by Richard Johnston © 2026

Support the show

 “The large paintings envelop the viewer and invite him or her in, it is an invitation to a self contained world where one can lose oneself and perhaps in the process find oneself. And for all their grandest of scale it is an intimate experience, a world unique to that particular encounter” - Christopher Rothko, Mark Rothko and the Inner World

Welcome to Episode #140:

In Italy, Mark Rothko (1903-1970) found what he was looking for. 

On a long voyage in Europe in 1950 with his wife, Rothko found himself in Florence, in the cradle of the Italian Renaissance - Today I share the story about this encounter and the shift in perspective that occurred for his painting, and the places in Italy that opened a new dialogue, a liberation of colour.

Mark Rothko is currently on exhibit at the Palazzo Strozzi in Florence. There are three site specific places to see this exhibition including the Laurentian Library (Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana) and the Museum of San Marco (Museo di San Marco) in Florence.

Mark Rothko is most known for his colour field paintings, the great abstract artworks that have become iconic in modern art. Today I share about his life, the influence of Italy, and the experience of seeing a Rothko artwork in person (think rapture meets a direct experience of a unified colour field) and why you should go if you can.

"Rothko’s art is an invitation. It is a doorway and really demands that you pay attention" - Michelle Johnston

Visit: Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi 

"Rothko’s first encounter with Florence dates to 1950, during a trip to Italy with his wife Mell. He was deeply moved by Fra Angelico’s frescoes at the Convent of San Marco and by Michelangelo’s architectural vision in the Vestibule of the Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, which would inspire the Seagram Murals painted in the late 1950s—a dialogue that Rothko further developed during his second visit to Florence in 1966. In some of his more delicate works, one can also perceive the influence of fifteenth-century Italian art and, in particular, of Angelico’s fresco technique. Rothko and Angelico shared a desire to evoke a sense of transcendence, a dimension at once distant and profoundly familiar. While Angelico achieved this through the emotional resonance of divine figures in dialogue with earthly reality, Rothko created color fields capable of accompanying viewers into different emotional depths, challenging accepted notions of abstraction and color theory" - Palazzo Strozzi, Florence

Enjoy, 

Michelle x

Shownotes 

A Writer in Italy Instagram

Substack - At My Table

Michelle’s Books

Musical Scores by Richard Johnston

A Writer in Italy is about travel and life. A place to share the beautiful travel journeys and the discoveries along the way. 

Michelle Johnston lives in Australia with her family.

A Writer in Italy Podcast respectfully acknowledges that this work is created on the country of the Ngambri peoples and culture, and pays respects to their Elders, past and present.

© 2026  A Writer In Italy - travel, books, art and life
Music Composed by Richard Johnston © 2026

Support the show

"Fortunately for us art and travel lovers, science has caught up with what we have felt inside, what we have experienced" - Michelle Johnston

In more recent years the science of ‘neuro-aesthetics’ has given us much to ponder in terms of understanding the importance of art and beauty in our lives. I share my personal experience and sound research on the positive side effects that seeking art, travel and beauty in our lives has on our mental health, neuro-plasticity and longevity. 

This is a broad topic yet I cite recent book publications and examples on the importance of art, creativity and travel and how there are many positive flow on effects in our lives. 

Enjoy, Michelle x

Shownotes 

A Writer in Italy Instagram

Substack - At My Table

Michelle’s Books

Musical Scores by Richard Johnston

A White Chalk Production

A Writer in Italy is about travel and life. A place to share the beautiful travel journeys and the discoveries along the way. 

Italy has many attractions - art, design, architecture, history and the wonderful food culture. Michelle shares her love of books on Italy and the places and regions that have inspired her along the way.

Michelle started 'A Writer in Italy Podcast’ to share personal stories and the love of books on Italy that would lead to beautiful conversations with people and like minded souls who share a deep love affair with Italian Culture and the country as a place of beauty and spiritual renewal.

Michelle Johnston lives in Australia with her family.

A Writer in Italy Podcast respectfully acknowledges that this work is created on the country of the Ngambri peoples and culture, and pays respects to their Elders, past and present.

© 2026  A Writer In Italy - travel, books, art and life
Music Composed by Richard Johnston © 2026

Support the show

"Everything had been made honestly, quickly, without frills, but as it should be. It was wholesome, life giving...We had eaten well; we felt well. As we sat in the piazza inhaling our black half inches of double espressi, I felt very happy" - Sybille Bedford, Pleasures and Landscapes

Welcome to Episode #138:

Today I share some gastronomic highlights from the table in Italy. Italian food has so much to offer, and is a wonderful portal into the culture and the regional dishes. You do not want to miss the opportunity to discover new flavours and specialities of the place you are visiting while traveling.

I love the excitement of ordering the cucina classica or something off the daily menu when I travel. Here are a few of many glorious moments that I have savoured along the way...

Enjoy,

Shownotes - All Places / Restaurants mentioned for today's podcast are here!

A Writer in Italy Instagram

Substack - At My Table

Michelle’s Books

Musical Scores by Richard Johnston

A White Chalk Production

A Writer in Italy is about travel and life. A place to share the beautiful travel journeys and the discoveries along the way. 

Italy has many attractions - art, design, architecture, history and the wonderful food culture. Michelle shares her love of books on Italy and the places and regions that have inspired her along the way.

Michelle started 'A Writer in Italy Podcast’ to share personal stories and the love of books on Italy that would lead to beautiful conversations with people and like minded souls who share a deep love affair with Italian Culture and the country as a place of beauty and spiritual renewal.

Michelle Johnston lives in Australia with her family.

A Writer in Italy Podcast respectfully acknowledges that this work is created on the country of the Ngambri peoples and culture, and pays respects to their Elders, past and present.

© 2026  A Writer In Italy - travel, books, art and life
Music Composed by Richard Johnston © 2026

Support the show

"Happiness is a byproduct ultimately of being in right relationship with your own soul” - James Hollis

Welcome to Episode #137: 

There are places in Italy that are so beautiful they make you want to weep. When life occasionally does not go to plan, sometimes you just need to throw the cards in the air and do something for yourself. When circumstance and fate isn’t favoured, here and there it is best to make a distinct move that alters everything. This is for those needing a permission slip.

Italy changes you, opens you and makes life colourful. Travel is a marvellous gift to the self especially when you feel stuck or frustrated or burnt out from being on the wheel of life. Today is for the ones who need a permission slip or a reminder for the journey ahead. I like this quote by Frances Mayes, “Why not, in middle age, remember Dante’s dilemma: What now to do in order to grow?” - A Place in the World.

Enjoy, Michelle x

Shownotes 

A Writer in Italy Instagram

Substack - At My Table

Michelle’s Books

Musical Scores by Richard Johnston

A White Chalk Production

A Writer in Italy is about travel and life. A place to share the beautiful travel journeys and the discoveries along the way. 

Italy has many attractions - art, design, architecture, history and the wonderful food culture. Michelle shares her love of books on Italy and the places and regions that have inspired her along the way.

Michelle started 'A Writer in Italy Podcast’ to share personal stories and the love of books on Italy that would lead to beautiful conversations with people and like minded souls who share a deep love affair with Italian Culture and the country as a place of beauty and spiritual renewal.

Michelle Johnston lives in Australia with her family.

A Writer in Italy Podcast respectfully acknowledges that this work is created on the country of the Ngambri peoples and culture, and pays respects to their Elders, past and present.

© 2026  A Writer In Italy - travel, books, art and life
Music Composed by Richard Johnston © 2026

Support the show

"Italy, you win!" - J.J Martin, Mamma Milano

Welcome to Episode #136:

Today I share some inspiration from the book Mamma Milano by J.J Martin. 

J.J Martin is a visionary, creative and designer that lives in Milan. She moved to Italy many years ago and later started her fabulous fashion empire and lifestyle brand La Double J.  Today is just some musing over this beautiful book, making a life in Italy and her vibrant world of colour and flair. 

If in Milano you can visit her beautiful world on Sant’ Andrea in the Quadrilateral della Moda - the fashion zone of Milan. 

Enjoy, Michelle x

Image from the Book "Mamma Milano: Lessons from the Motherland"

Shownotes 

A Writer in Italy Instagram

Substack - At My Table

Michelle’s Books

Musical Scores by Richard Johnston

A Writer in Italy is about travel and life. A place to share the beautiful travel journeys and the discoveries along the way. 

Italy has many attractions - art, design, architecture, history and the wonderful food culture. Michelle shares her love of books on Italy and the places and regions that have inspired her along the way.

Michelle Johnston lives in Australia with her family.

A Writer in Italy Podcast respectfully acknowledges that this work is created on the country of the Ngambri peoples and culture, and pays respects to their Elders, past and present.

© 2026  A Writer In Italy - travel, books, art and life
Music Composed by Richard Johnston © 2026

Support the show

"In Milan, one feels at once the charm of a great city and the sweetness of Italian life" - Stendhal (Marie-Henri Beyle)

Welcome to Episode #134:

Today I share some fabulous things to do if you are on a budget or just a savy traveler and why Milano should not be ignored. It is one of the most charming and underrated cities in Italy and very beautiful too. So I want to share my favourite things to do for free and what to eat. There is so much to do and see, from the fabulous historic trams to wandering the Navigli Canals to hanging out on the high street in the fashion district, the 'quadrilateral della moda' in Milan just to appreciate the aesthetics on offer and the wonderful architecture. 

Milan is sophisticated and beautiful, yes, but it is not a gate keeper. It is a city of family's and students and has a great vibe. Is more casual than you think and I felt right at home there. The food is excellent and the aperitivo scene is all happening. Milan is vibrant, kind of cool and lots of fun and you should definitely make time to explore this great northern city of Italy.

Enjoy, Michelle x

Shownotes 

A Writer in Italy Instagram

Substack - At My Table

Michelle’s Books

Musical Scores by Richard Johnston

A Writer in Italy is about travel and life. A place to share the beautiful travel journeys and the discoveries along the way. 

Italy has many attractions - art, design, architecture, history and the wonderful food culture. Michelle shares her love of books on Italy and the places and regions that have inspired her along the way.

Michelle started 'A Writer in Italy Podcast’ to share personal stories and the love of books on Italy that would lead to beautiful conversations with people and like minded souls who share a deep love affair with Italian Culture and the country as a place of beauty and spiritual renewal.

Michelle Johnston lives in Australia with her family.

A Writer in Italy Podcast respectfully acknowledges that this work is created on the country of the Ngambri peoples and culture, and pays respects to their Elders, past and present.

© 2026  A Writer In Italy - travel, books, art and life
Music Composed by Richard Johnston © 2026

Support the show

"Italians strongly believe that being surrounded by beauty is beneficial to a happier life" - Riccardo Illy

Welcome to Episode #135,

Milan is a city of Art, Design, Architecture, Innovation and Commerce. It is full of great art and history. And a wonderful place to discover more about Italian culture. 

Here is Part 2 on some of the fabulous places you can visit in Milan Italy - Da Vinci’s Last Supper and suburb Museums & Villas. I also include some history and detail about the many places to visit while in the city of Milan.

Enjoy, Michelle x

Shownotes 

A Writer in Italy Instagram

Substack - At My Table

Michelle’s Books

Musical Scores by Richard Johnston

A Writer in Italy is about travel, art and life. A place to share the beautiful travel journeys and the discoveries along the way. 

Italy has many attractions - art, design, architecture, history and the wonderful food culture. Michelle shares her love of books on Italy and the places and regions that have inspired her along the way.

Michelle started 'A Writer in Italy Podcast’ to share personal stories and the love of books on Italy that would lead to beautiful conversations with people and like minded souls who share a deep love affair with Italian Culture and the country as a place of beauty and spiritual renewal.

Michelle Johnston lives in Australia with her family.

A Writer in Italy Podcast respectfully acknowledges that this work is created on the country of the Ngambri peoples and culture, and pays respects to their Elders, past and present.

© 2026  A Writer In Italy - travel, books, art and life
Music Composed by Richard Johnston © 2026

Support the show

"All I wanted was time" - Tracey Emin, Strozzi Gallery Documentary

Welcome to Episode #133

Today I share a travel story for International Women’s Day about a glorious art and life moment in Florence from 2025.  

There are beautiful things that happen along the way that stay with you. I reflect on my experience and joy while walking in the Centro Storico of Florence and discovering that there was an exhibition of Tracey Emin's work on that week at the Palazzo Strozzi. It had been a long time since I had seen her work and remembered her brilliant exhibition in Sydney in the early 2000s. 

Today I honour Women and Art and the creative genius of Tracey Emin. I describe the effect of seeing her work in real life as "subtle and profound" and always significant. When you see Emin's work in real life you don't forget. You remember everything.

These days the Palazzo Strozzi has some wonderful exhibitions - Mark Rothko opens next week and more recently there was Fra Angelico.  So make time to see what is happening at The Strozzi Gallery if you visit Firenze.

And they have a nice cafe downstairs too that you can enjoy in the renaissance court yard. 

Enjoy, Michelle x

A Florentine Cafe & Musings on Women and Art in Italy

Shownotes 

A Writer in Italy Instagram

Substack - At My Table

Michelle’s Books

Musical Scores by Richard Johnston

A Writer in Italy is about travel and life. A place to share the beautiful travel journeys and the discoveries along the way. 

Italy has many attractions - art, design, architecture, history and the wonderful food culture. Michelle shares her love of books on Italy and the places and regions that have inspired her along the way.

Michelle started 'A Writer in Italy Podcast’ to share personal stories and the love of books on Italy that would lead to beautiful conversations with people and like minded souls who share a deep love affair with Italian Culture and the country as a place of beauty and spiritual renewal.

Michelle Johnston lives in Australia with her family.

A Writer in Italy Podcast respectfully acknowledges that this work is created on the country of the Ngambri peoples and culture, and pays respects to their Elders, past and present.

© 2026  A Writer In Italy - travel, books, art and life
Music Composed by Richard Johnston © 2026

Support the show