As long time fans of Maria Pasquale, we were both so excited to chat with her in this week's episode. Maria is born in Melbourne to Italian parents and grew up with a very strong connection to her Italian heritage. Her connection to Italy is so strong that she decided to move to Rome over 10 years ago where she is now based. She has established herself as an award winning international food and travel journalist, her lifestyle blog HeartRome has readers in over 100 countries. She has also created an Instagram page HeartRome which shares an insiders view of Rome. During this time she has also published 4 cookbooks, these books are more than recipes, they include stories, history and beautiful images. See the link below for more details on Maria's work and to purchase her books.

In our chat Maria told us about her story, her decision to move to Rome and we loved hearing about her most recent book- Mangia: How to eat your way through Italy. We enjoyed our light hearted discussion about the differences between life in Italy and life in Australia including the beach and somehow we even ended up discussing fast food in Italy! It was such a pleasure to chat with Maria and hope to enjoy a gelato with her in Rome someday soon.