I thought I'd focus on the random acts of kindness that made my 2020 just a little bit brighter.
No More Crying in Sweatpants | Goodbye 2020
Author: almostfiorentina
Originally from Canada and now living in Florence, Lisa-Marie Proteau writes about Italy, travel, lifestyle, home renovation and more. She loves a juicy book and a spritz. Catch her on Instagram @almostfiorentina
My House in Florence | Home Renovation Update
It’s been a hot minute since I’ve taken the time to sit down and write about how things have been going with my house renovation in Florence.
How I Found a Job in Italy
I’m going to be honest with you — I wouldn’t describe myself as ambitious. I know today’s society wants all of us to be job hungry and earning thousands per month, but that’s just not me. I want to get in, get out, get paid and pop open a bottle of red wine in the backyard at the end of the work day.
Pope Francis Loves The Gays And I Love Pope Francis
I know a lot of us expats post beautiful pictures on our Instagram grids about how much we lOoOoOoove Italy and we would probably lick the dirty cobblestone in our flowery dresses and espadrilles and ROLL AROUND NAKED IN FRESH GNOCCHI if Covid wasn’t heavily floating around the country, but the truth is, Italy has a lot of work to do.
Going to the Dentist in Italy
I usually have a glass of wine or four before writing on here so if this post is a little tame, it's because my creative juices have been RUDELY BLOCKED BY A ROUND OF ANTIBIOTICS. I, like most, am not a huge fan of the dentist. Having someone drilling, banging and renovating inside of my mouth [...]
7 Things You Need to Know Right Now About Buying a House in Italy
If you've been following my home buying journey (if you haven't, you can find out more here and here), the entire home buying process for me has been anything but easy. To be honest, it PULLED ME APART AT THE SEAMS, made me cry over melted gelato, inspired me to drink wine until I could [...]
BADASS WOMEN IN ITALY | Laura Manganaro
You know when you're on Instagram, and you're in so deep, like really deep, and you don't know how you got there? Yeah, that's what happened when I found Laura Manganaro one night. I had gone through I can't even tell you how many profiles, and scrolling down to like 2016 (DON'T ACT LIKE YOU [...]
Molise’s Small Town Magic | Morrone Del Sannio
The first time I fell in love with Italy — and with every 15-year-old Italian boy who said CIAO to me — was in 2005. I was 15 and my mom let me go on a 3-week summer trip to Morrone Del Sannio, the small — as in maybe 500 people live there full-time small — [...]
So Mary, let’s dance
My cousin Michael died yesterday. He was 38. He married his wife Rebecca less than two years ago. It was a perfect September day in Ontario. On the morning of the wedding, I was jet-lagged after flying in from Italy the night before and was already wide awake at 4 am.
Renovating my Home in Tuscany | An Honest Update
I would love to pretend this Italian home renovation process has been an incredibly inspirational and educational journey, sprinkled in silver linings and dipped in expensive Italian wine with a side of spicy pecorino cheese, but it's been anything but that and I REFUSE to pretend I'm over here in Tuscany living my best life. This whole house renovating thing has been really hard.
