The Bittersweet Life

Two countries, six years, 300 episodes! On this week's episode, The Bittersweet Life podcast reaches a major milestone!

To commemorate this important number, we look back on 300 episodes: highlights, bloopers, tears (mostly Katy's), laughter, our most famous young guest, and a few of the best Aurelio appearances. This week we not only a look back at some of our best episodes, but we also offer a peek behind the curtain.

Don't miss this super-special episode.

Want to listen to the full episodes excerpted on this episode? Find them below:

Episode 142: HAT BOX

Episode 46: GOODBYE

Episode 158: GRIEF

Episode 178: DAD

Episode 278: LISTENER

Episode 51: CROWS

Episode 200: LIVE!

Episode 100: MILESTONE

Episode 84: CITIZEN

Episode 111: GOALS, Part 1

Bittersweet Moment #42: ROMAN HOROSCOPES (bloopers!)

Bittersweet Moment #13: TEMPIETTO (with Aurelio)

Bittersweet Moment #7: KIDS (with Aurelio)

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ADVERTISE WITH US: Reach expats, future expats, and travelers all over the world. Send us an email to get the conversation started.

BECOME A PATRON: Pledge your monthly support of The Bittersweet Life and receive awesome prizes in return for your generosity! Visit our Patreon site to find out more.

DONATE: Prefer a one-time donation? Click here to send financial support via PayPal. (You can also find a Donate button on the desktop version of our website.) The show needs your support to continue.

JOIN THE CONVERSATION: If you have a question or a topic you want us to address, send us an email here. You can also connect to us through Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Tag #thebittersweetlife with your expat story for a chance to be featured!

NEW TO THE SHOW? Don't be afraid to start with Episode 1: OUTSET

SUBSCRIBE: Subscribe to the podcast to make sure you never miss an episode. Click here to find us on a variety of podcast apps.

WRITE A REVIEW: Leave us a rating and a written review on iTunes so more listeners can find us.

BOOK: Want to read Tiffany's book, Midnight in the Piazza? Learn more here or order on Amazon.

TOUR ROME: If you're traveling to Rome, don't miss the chance to tour the city with Tiffany as your guide!

Visit Rome in the footsteps of Raphael, just in time for the 500th anniversary of his death. Many art historians date the unofficial end of the Renaissance as 6 April 1520, the day the great Raphael Sanzio left the earth. He was only 37 years old.

But despite his short life, he had a massive artistic output. A whopping 100 of his works (paintings and sketches) will be on display at a once-in-a-lifetime exhibit at Rome's Scuderie del Quirinale starting next month, but there are many works in the city that can't be included in the exhibit, simply because they are frescoes or architectural projects that physically can't be moved.

On this mini-episode, Tiffany leads you around Rome to some of Raphael's most glorious permanent works.

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ADVERTISE WITH US: Reach expats, future expats, and travelers all over the world. Send us an email to get the conversation started.

BECOME A PATRON: Pledge your monthly support of The Bittersweet Life and receive awesome prizes in return for your generosity! Visit our Patreon site to find out more.

DONATE: Prefer a one-time donation? Click here to send financial support via PayPal. (You can also find a Donate button on the desktop version of our website.) The show needs your support to continue.

JOIN THE CONVERSATION: If you have a question or a topic you want us to address, send us an email here. You can also connect to us through Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Tag #thebittersweetlife with your expat story for a chance to be featured!

NEW TO THE SHOW? Don't be afraid to start with Episode 1: OUTSET

SUBSCRIBE: Subscribe to the podcast to make sure you never miss an episode. Click here to find us on a variety of podcast apps.

WRITE A REVIEW: Leave us a rating and a written review on iTunes so more listeners can find us.

BOOK: Want to read Tiffany's book, Midnight in the Piazza? Learn more here or order on Amazon.

TOUR ROME: If you're traveling to Rome, don't miss the chance to tour the city with Tiffany as your guide!

Italy is a historically corrupt country, so much so that many Italians roll their eyes at anyone naive enough to trust their own government. Is that where the US is heading?

On this episode, Tiffany and Katy discuss how a country can begin a slow slide into corruption, what it looks and feels like, and what (if anything) can be done to stop it. Tiffany also shares her worry (for the first time ever) that her vote won't be counted.

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ADVERTISE WITH US: Reach expats, future expats, and travelers all over the world. Send us an email to get the conversation started.

BECOME A PATRON: Pledge your monthly support of The Bittersweet Life and receive awesome prizes in return for your generosity! Visit our Patreon site to find out more.

DONATE: Prefer a one-time donation? Click here to send financial support via PayPal. (You can also find a Donate button on the desktop version of our website.) The show needs your support to continue.

JOIN THE CONVERSATION: If you have a question or a topic you want us to address, send us an email here. You can also connect to us through Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Tag #thebittersweetlife with your expat story for a chance to be featured!

NEW TO THE SHOW? Don't be afraid to start with Episode 1: OUTSET

SUBSCRIBE: Subscribe to the podcast to make sure you never miss an episode. Click here to find us on a variety of podcast apps.

WRITE A REVIEW: Leave us a rating and a written review on iTunes so more listeners can find us.

BOOK: Want to read Tiffany's book, Midnight in the Piazza? Learn more here or order on Amazon.

TOUR ROME: If you're traveling to Rome, don't miss the chance to tour the city with Tiffany as your guide!

Sagittarius or Scorpio, Leo or Libra, visit Rome based on your sign.

In this mini-episode, Tiffany tells you what to see and do in Rome based on the traits of your zodiac sign.

**Links to some of the places mentioned in the episode:**

Rome's Michelin-starred restaurants

Leonardo Da Vinci Experience – Via della Conciliazione, 19

Alina Vicente FotoEmozioni (Rome-based family photographer)

Biblioteca Casanatense – Via di Sant'Ignazio, 52.

Biblioteca Angelica – Piazza di Sant'Agostino, 8.

Biblioteca dell'Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei – Via della Lungara, 10 (Palazzo Corsini)

Mithreum under San Clemente Church – Via Labicana, 95

Sunflyers – Parachuting

Colosseum – Official online ticket office

Vatican Museums – Official online ticket office

BioParco – Viale del Giardino Zoologico, 1

Palazzo Valentini – Foro Traiano, 85

Circus Maximus Experience

...or take a tour with Tiffany!

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ADVERTISE WITH US: Reach expats, future expats, and travelers all over the world. Send us an email to get the conversation started.

BECOME A PATRON: Pledge your monthly support of The Bittersweet Life and receive awesome prizes in return for your generosity! Visit our Patreon site to find out more.

DONATE: Prefer a one-time donation? Click here to send financial support via PayPal. (You can also find a Donate button on the desktop version of our website.) The show needs your support to continue.

JOIN THE CONVERSATION: If you have a question or a topic you want us to address, send us an email here. You can also connect to us through Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Tag #thebittersweetlife with your expat story for a chance to be featured!

NEW TO THE SHOW? Don't be afraid to start with Episode 1: OUTSET

SUBSCRIBE: Subscribe to the podcast to make sure you never miss an episode. Click here to find us on a variety of podcast apps.

WRITE A REVIEW: Leave us a rating and a written review on iTunes so more listeners can find us.

BOOK: Want to read Tiffany's book, Midnight in the Piazza? Learn more here or order on Amazon.

TOUR ROME: If you're traveling to Rome, don't miss the chance to tour the city with Tiffany as your guide!

Katy's father and sister join us this week to look back on their family travels to Southeast Asia, specifically Vietnam. Katy, who was not a travel-lover as a younger person, asks her dad if he invited her to join him on his trips there in order to expand her world through travel. His answer surprises her.

Dale Sewall explains why he's been drawn to Vietnam for more than half his life, and he describes the electrifying reaction he had the first time he touched down in the country.

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ADVERTISE WITH US: Reach expats, future expats, and travelers all over the world. Send us an email to get the conversation started.

BECOME A PATRON: Pledge your monthly support of The Bittersweet Life and receive awesome prizes in return for your generosity! Visit our Patreon site to find out more.

DONATE: Prefer a one-time donation? Click here to send financial support via PayPal. (You can also find a Donate button on the desktop version of our website.) The show needs your support to continue.

JOIN THE CONVERSATION: If you have a question or a topic you want us to address, send us an email here. You can also connect to us through Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Tag #thebittersweetlife with your expat story for a chance to be featured!

NEW TO THE SHOW? Don't be afraid to start with Episode 1: OUTSET

SUBSCRIBE: Subscribe to the podcast to make sure you never miss an episode. Click here to find us on a variety of podcast apps.

WRITE A REVIEW: Leave us a rating and a written review on iTunes so more listeners can find us.

BOOK: Want to read Tiffany's book, Midnight in the Piazza? Learn more here or order on Amazon.

TOUR ROME: If you're traveling to Rome, don't miss the chance to tour the city with Tiffany as your guide!

Michigan, Minnesota, Montana... oh my!

Katy's sister and father have lived, respectively, in some of the snowiest places in the US. What do they think about the snow nostalgia that plagues so much of the non-snowy world?

Do they agree with the theory that people who are "dreaming of a white Christmas" or joyfully singing "Let it Snow" are actually people who've never had to deal with the grim reality of constant snow? Tune in to find out.

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ADVERTISE WITH US: Reach expats, future expats, and travelers all over the world. Send us an email to get the conversation started.

BECOME A PATRON: Pledge your monthly support of The Bittersweet Life and receive awesome prizes in return for your generosity! Visit our Patreon site to find out more.

DONATE: Prefer a one-time donation? Click here to send financial support via PayPal. (You can also find a Donate button on the desktop version of our website.) The show needs your support to continue.

JOIN THE CONVERSATION: If you have a question or a topic you want us to address, send us an email here. You can also connect to us through Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Tag #thebittersweetlife with your expat story for a chance to be featured!

NEW TO THE SHOW? Don't be afraid to start with Episode 1: OUTSET

SUBSCRIBE: Subscribe to the podcast to make sure you never miss an episode. Click here to find us on a variety of podcast apps.

WRITE A REVIEW: Leave us a rating and a written review on iTunes so more listeners can find us.

BOOK: Want to read Tiffany's book, Midnight in the Piazza? Learn more here or order on Amazon.

TOUR ROME: If you're traveling to Rome, don't miss the chance to tour the city with Tiffany as your guide!

Most people either love snow or hate it. How much of that depends on where you live and how much snow you see in a typical year?

Or maybe our love of snow is determined by how much it gets in the way of our day-to-day lives?

A recent snowstorm hitting Seattle—a city that doesn't see snow often and is ill-equipped to handle it—inspired this episode that looks at the fluffy white stuff, and why people feel so differently about it.

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ADVERTISE WITH US: Reach expats, future expats, and travelers all over the world. Send us an email to get the conversation started.

BECOME A PATRON: Pledge your monthly support of The Bittersweet Life and receive awesome prizes in return for your generosity! Visit our Patreon site to find out more.

DONATE: Prefer a one-time donation? Click here to send financial support via PayPal. (You can also find a Donate button on the desktop version of our website.) The show needs your support to continue.

JOIN THE CONVERSATION: If you have a question or a topic you want us to address, send us an email here. You can also connect to us through Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Tag #thebittersweetlife with your expat story for a chance to be featured!

NEW TO THE SHOW? Don't be afraid to start with Episode 1: OUTSET

SUBSCRIBE: Subscribe to the podcast to make sure you never miss an episode. Click here to find us on a variety of podcast apps.

WRITE A REVIEW: Leave us a rating and a written review on iTunes so more listeners can find us.

BOOK: Want to read Tiffany's book, Midnight in the Piazza? Learn more here or order on Amazon.

TOUR ROME: If you're traveling to Rome, don't miss the chance to tour the city with Tiffany as your guide!

There's nothing like curling up in your favorite armchair and traveling the world via an amazing book. But what about when the shoe is on the other foot? What about the writers who must craft stories that bring these exotic cities and countries to life? How do they go about it?

On this week's mini-episode, Katy interviews Jess Walter, best-selling author of Beautiful Ruins and We Live in Water: Stories, about how travel influences his writing, whether its Italy's famed Cinque Terre or his own hometown of Spokane, Washington. He also explains why the memoir of Gabriel Garcia Marquez has him dreaming of a trip to Bogota, Colombia, and shares a sneak peek of his forthcoming book, The Cold Millions.

Find Jess at on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or at his website.

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ADVERTISE WITH US: Reach expats, future expats, and travelers all over the world. Send us an email to get the conversation started.

BECOME A PATRON: Pledge your monthly support of The Bittersweet Life and receive awesome prizes in return for your generosity! Visit our Patreon site to find out more.

DONATE: Prefer a one-time donation? Click here to send financial support via PayPal. (You can also find a Donate button on the desktop version of our website.) The show needs your support to continue.

JOIN THE CONVERSATION: If you have a question or a topic you want us to address, send us an email here. You can also connect to us through Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Tag #thebittersweetlife with your expat story for a chance to be featured!

NEW TO THE SHOW? Don't be afraid to start with Episode 1: OUTSET

SUBSCRIBE: Subscribe to the podcast to make sure you never miss an episode. Click here to find us on a variety of podcast apps.

WRITE A REVIEW: Leave us a rating and a written review on iTunes so more listeners can find us.

BOOK: Want to read Tiffany's book, Midnight in the Piazza? Learn more here or order on Amazon.

TOUR ROME: If you're traveling to Rome, don't miss the chance to tour the city with Tiffany as your guide!

Most book-lovers would agree that reading is the best way to travel without leaving the comfort of your favorite armchair.

This week, Katy sits down with librarian and world-famous book expert Nancy Pearl to discuss what makes a book a great armchair travel read, as opposed to simply a book set in an unfamiliar place.

Listen all the way to the end to hear Nancy's scandalous and controversial strategy for dealing with the weight of too many books while traveling. Also, discover the one setting Katy avoids when it comes to travel reads.

Nancy Pearl's top armchair reads:

Non-fiction:

The Great Railway Bazaar by Paul Theroux

Dark Star Safari: Overland from Cairo to Capetown by Paul Theroux

Between Terror and Tourism by Michael Mewshaw

The Oregon Trail: A New American Journey by Rinker Buck

Fiction:

The Memory of Love by Aminatta Forna

Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

The Woman who Lost Her Soul by Bob Shacochis

The Towers of Trebizond by Rose Macaulay

Birds Without Wings by Louis de Bernieres

The Raj Quartet by Paul Scott

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ADVERTISE WITH US: Reach expats, future expats, and travelers all over the world. Send us an email to get the conversation started.

BECOME A PATRON: Pledge your monthly support of The Bittersweet Life and receive awesome prizes in return for your generosity! Visit our Patreon site to find out more.

DONATE: Prefer a one-time donation? Click here to send financial support via PayPal. (You can also find a Donate button on the desktop version of our website.) The show needs your support to continue.

JOIN THE CONVERSATION: If you have a question or a topic you want us to address, send us an email here. You can also connect to us through Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Tag #thebittersweetlife with your expat story for a chance to be featured!

NEW TO THE SHOW? Don't be afraid to start with Episode 1: OUTSET

SUBSCRIBE: Subscribe to the podcast to make sure you never miss an episode. Click here to find us on a variety of podcast apps.

WRITE A REVIEW: Leave us a rating and a written review on iTunes so more listeners can find us.

BOOK: Want to read Tiffany's book, Midnight in the Piazza? Learn more here or order on Amazon.

TOUR ROME: If you're traveling to Rome, don't miss the chance to tour the city with Tiffany as your guide!

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So you set yourself a bunch of New Year's resolutions and now you're on your way to Rome. How in the world are you going to keep them? Do you even want to try?

Well, we've got good news for you! This week's mini-episode is all about how to keep your New Year's Resolutions while in Rome! Want to save money? Eat healthy? Get active? Learn a new language? You've come to the right place.

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ADVERTISE WITH US: Reach expats, future expats, and travelers all over the world. Send us an email to get the conversation started.

BECOME A PATRON: Pledge your monthly support of The Bittersweet Life and receive awesome prizes in return for your generosity! Visit our Patreon site to find out more.

DONATE: Prefer a one-time donation? Click here to send financial support via PayPal. (You can also find a Donate button on the desktop version of our website.) The show needs your support to continue.

JOIN THE CONVERSATION: If you have a question or a topic you want us to address, send us an email here. You can also connect to us through Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Tag #thebittersweetlife with your expat story for a chance to be featured!

NEW TO THE SHOW? Don't be afraid to start with Episode 1: OUTSET

SUBSCRIBE: Subscribe to the podcast to make sure you never miss an episode. Click here to find us on a variety of podcast apps.

WRITE A REVIEW: Leave us a rating and a written review on iTunes so more listeners can find us.

BOOK: Want to read Tiffany's book, Midnight in the Piazza? Learn more here or order on Amazon.

TOUR ROME: If you're traveling to Rome, don't miss the chance to tour the city with Tiffany as your guide!