The food in Le Marche is outstanding. Even though most of the restaurants we frequent are modest and unassuming we've had so many stellar pasta dishes, and I always try to recreate them at home. Here are some of my recipes, along with the restaurants that inspired them.

My father lived to be nearly 101 years old. Though he was never able to visit our house in Italy, when I think back on his life, I see many similarities between my father's values and character, and the way of life we have come to love in Italy.

Italy is full of surprises that generally encompass great beauty. Here are some unforgettable moments that we've wandered into while traveling in Italy, from a tiny medieval town in Emilia Romagna, to Florence and Western Sicily.

Remembering a New Year's Eve in Italy with an international group of guests reminds us of the joys of knowing our neighbors --across the yard, across borders, hopefully, among nations. When abroad, I am proud to represent a country whose strength derives from the mixed heritage of its citizens.

The leisure-time options in small town Italy are rich and truly entertaining. With a healthy sense of humor and joy in tradition, there's plenty to do if you just look around you. There is the annual Castagnata, the Saint's Day, the Polentata, and much more.

It's always an adventure and a delight to cook in Italy. Everything is super fresh and interesting products add convenience and enhance flavors. For my first fall season in Le Marche, I found the pleasures of cooking and eating a comforting distraction from natural and manmade disasters. 

We were half awake at about 7:45 on Sunday morning when we heard a loud, deep rumbling. The house began to shake violently. The noise and shaking lasted about 30 seconds, which of course felt much longer. We quickly got dressed and made our way downstairs. Our house was still...

With centuries of traditional culture behind them, Italians have a gift for finding totally satisfying entertainment in simple pleasures, or just in the act of enjoying each other's company.  Move over, Netflix!

As foreigners visiting Italy every year, we find there are so many cultural idioms we will never understand, like the rules about when to sit at the dinner table or the no cappuccino after 11am unwritten law. But there are also so many traditions and habits that we find entirely...

Despite coming to Italy together as a family for some 13 years now, our language skills have improved very little. Our fumbling mistakes are a source of total hilarity to us. Italians, though, are tolerant and encouraging when foreigners clumsily try to speak their beautiful language