Blog Update January 2010

Filed under Blog by on January 7, 2011 at 8:59 am {2 comments}

A word of advice for fellow blog-owners out there: don’t do what I did and update your theme without checking it out first. Bone-headed mistake on my part.

Since the inception of Dreaming in Italian, I had been using the Swift theme, and was generally happy with it.

Recently, I saw that an update to Swift was available, and I ran the update without thinking about. Due to laziness and time constraints, I didn’t check the front-end site to make sure the update didn’t mess anything up. I only realized today that my Google Analytics code was no longer working, and when I checked the front-end of the website, everything was gone (my old design that I had spent a lot of time tweaking).

There’s no one to blame but myself, and I apologize for not realizing earlier that the design of Dreaming in Italian was totally messed up. The bottom line is that it’s time for a total redesign. I’ve learned a lot about web design and WordPress since I originally set this website up, so I think I can make a lot of improvements.

My goal over the next week is to develop and unveil a new design for the website, hopefully one that will be a big improvement over the last design. I also have some plans to update the blog more frequently, including some new content ideas.

So the bottom line is that some very overdue changes are in line for Dreaming in Italian. If the design, navigation, or other aspects of the site don’t seem to be working during the next week or so, I apologize, but the new and improved version of Dreaming in Italian will be available soon.

Thanks for reading!

Why I fell in love with Italy

Filed under Blog by on December 5, 2010 at 10:03 am {6 comments}

Back in 2000, I was a freshman in college. I remember coming back home for Thanksgiving, sitting in my old room after everyone else in the house had gone to sleep (I have always been a night owl), and wanting something that I couldn’t quite identify at the time.

I was craving more of the freedom and independence that I had recently obtained being on my own for the first time. More than that, I was craving adventure. Adventure, mystery, and the exotic. It was a funny feeling that I couldn’t get rid of.

As I was sitting there, a memory came to mind, and I pulled out my literary anthology from one of my high school English classes. I flipped to a short story I remembered by Ernest Hemingway. I remembered that the story took place in Africa and had to do with safaris. It seemed that such a story might satisfy the craving for adventure I had, so I sat there and reread the story.

The story was “The Short, Happy Life of Francis Macomber.” It did satisfy that weird craving for adventure I had, and I was intrigued. I thought to myself, I get this. A dude has no self-confidence, can’t stand up for himself, and let’s his wife walk all over him. He finally decides to stand up for himself, and he feels like a new man. Then his wife offs him because she doesn’t like the change. I get that. It was one of the first times I really connected with a piece of literature.

The next day, I went to the book store and bought a few of Hemingway’s other books. It was like I had discovered a new world, and I was enthralled. And then I read The Sun Also Rises Why I fell in love with Italy, and everything changed.

sun also rises Why I fell in love with Italy Why I fell in love with Italy

At that point in my life, the only places I had been to outside the U.S. were Canada and Japan. Europe seemed like a mystery, and all of the sudden Hemingway shed a little light on that mystery for me, just enough to get me hooked on the idea.

The Sun Also Rises Why I fell in love with Italy intrigued me immediately. Cafés in Paris, the Spanish countryside, bull fights, raucous partying: this was the adventure I was looking for. I wanted to know more. I was hooked, and I hadn’t even been to Europe before.

Luckily enough, after the school year ended, we took our first family trip to Europe, a 10-day jaunt through London, Venice, Florence, and Rome. I became convinced more than ever that I wanted to do a study abroad program, but I still didn’t know where.

We had dinner in Florence one night, and as we were sitting there on the banks of the Arno watching the sunset colors wash over the Tuscan hillside, that was when I knew: this is where I want to study. I want to learn Italian, and I want to experience and learn about everything I can in this country. I fell in love with Italy right then and there.

We came back to the states, and I signed up for Italian class when the next school year started, and the rest is history. I did do a study abroad program (in Verona), I kept taking the Italian classes, and eventually I moved to Milan for nine months. And everything stemmed from that one magical dinner on the banks of the Arno in Florence.

So that is why I fell in love with Italy, and I have Ernest Hemingway and The Sun Also Rises Why I fell in love with Italy to thank for that.

What about you? What made you fall in love with Italy?

Announcing How To Say In Italian!

Filed under Blog by on August 20, 2010 at 1:20 pm {2 comments}

After developing Dreaming In Italian and the italian slang dictionary, I have again moved on to a new area, and I just launched How To Say In Italian.

Have you ever looked around online for a certain word or phrase in Italian and find yourself unsatisfied with what you’re finding? Maybe you saw the word in a dictionary, but you want to know more. Or you find something, but it doesn’t seem right or you’re not sure how to use it. Well, that’s happened to me a lot, and I decided to do something about it.

How To Say In Italian is a site dedicated to making it easy for people to find Italian vocabulary about a specific subject they are interested in. The goal is to give more context and a better understanding so you feel confident using your newly learned Italian vocabulary.

I only have two entries posted as of yet, about Italian text messages and saying I love you, but there will surely be more to come. If you have any ideas or subjects you want to know more about, let me know here in the comments. Grazie and I hope you visit and enjoy my new site!

Blog Update

Filed under Blog by on June 7, 2010 at 8:58 pm {4 comments}

Well, it’s been almost two months since I’ve posted anything here, and I’m sorry for that. I read an article a few weeks ago on blogging, and niche blogging in particular. The author argued that niche blogging is a difficult thing to do over time. You start out with a ton of ideas about your specific topic, you write about a lot of them, and then you either begin to move toward more general topics or you run out of steam. You basically run out of stuff to talk about, and that is what happened to me.

When I began this site, the idea was to discuss two things that I love: learning Italian and traveling in Italy. My goal was to write at least two posts a week, and I was able to do that for a while, but I simply ran out of steam. Other things got my attention, as I’m going to school full time, starting another business, and working on some other projects. But the thing that really got me, the thing that started to bother me subconsciously and contributed to my writer’s block, was the traveling in Italy part of the site. I had covered my favorite cities and places in Italy, and there are some other places and areas I could write about, but I knew that pretty soon I would run out of places I had actually been to, and I can’t write about a place I haven’t been to.

So I’m announcing a change here. I want to start this site up again, but the focus will be a little different; it will be more on learning Italian. I have always loved learning other languages, particularly Italian, so I don’t think motivation will be an issue. I plan on posting more lyrics to Italian music videos because I enjoy the music and the lyrics and sharing music with others, and I also want to write more posts that hopefully will help people learning Italian. I may still post occasionally on traveling in Italy, but only when something catches my interest.

So for people who were reading Dreaming In Italian regularly, I apologize for the time off. Hopefully, you’ll still enjoy the content here as the focus shifts a little bit. I’ve met some really cool people in the short time I’ve been doing this, and I hope to continue that. Thanks for reading.

Blogs about Italy II

Filed under Blog by on April 10, 2010 at 12:37 pm {2 comments}

This is the second post in my series on blogs about Italy. Click here to see the first post in the series.

I continue to stumble across great blogs about all things Italy seemingly everyday. One of the best ways to do so and to join the growing community of Italy-bloggers and other Italy-lovers is on Twitter. If you haven’t joined up yet or are new to Twitter, check out my Italy list to find people who tweet about Italy. And you can find my Twitter page here. Also, as I mentioned in my first post on blogs about Italy, Italy Tutto’s list of Italy blogs also has links to the bloggers’ Twitter accounts where applicable.

These three Italy blogs, however, have been on my follow list for a while now, and I enjoy reading all three. Hopefully you will too icon smile Blogs about Italy II

Italofile is a “labor of love” run by Melanie, whom you can read more about here. Melanie is the author of The Unofficial Guide to Central Italy and she has contributed to a number of guidebooks on Italy. As an avid iPhone user, I particularly enjoyed her post on iPhone Apps for the Italophile. @italofileblog on Twitter

My Bella Vita is a blog on Calabria and Italy travel run by Cherrye, whom you can read more about here. From their home in Catanzaro in Calabria, Cherrye and her husband run a travel consultancy and Il Cedro Bed and Breakfast (in addition to the My Bella Vita website), all of which must keep her pretty busy icon smile Blogs about Italy II My Bella Vita is a great way to gain some insight on southern Italy and to learn about traveling in the region. @mybellavita on Twitter

Flip Florence is a unique site where the author, Jason, posts short videos he records throughout his home city of Florence. This is a great way to indulge yourself if you can’t stop daydreaming about returning to Firenze and to learn more about the city. Jason posts additional content at Flip Florence Out & About on Posterous. @FlipFlorence on Twitter

I hope you enjoy these great blogs about Italy!

Blogs about Italy

Filed under Blog by on March 29, 2010 at 11:30 am {10 comments}

I decided to start Dreaming In Italian on a whim. It wasn’t until after the first post was up that I started looking around for other people blogging about Italy, and I was surprised (though I probably shouldn’t have been) to find that there is a large, vibrant community of Italy bloggers. Some have followed their dreams and are now living the expat life in Tuscany or southern Italy, some fell under the spell of Italy while traveling there and now blog about it from home (I’m in this category), some write blogs on Italian food and wine, and some blog about their quest to learn the Italian language.

Regardless of where they are now or what their goals or interests are, the state of the Italy blogosphere is strong and it continues to grow. I’d like to start a new series of posts profiling some of these Italy bloggers to help others discover these great Italy blogs, and this is the first post of the series.

A good place to start would be Italy Tutto, run by SC Parry. She has created the ultimate list of people blogging from Italy, sortable by region and with links to the bloggers’ Twitter pages, as well as a list of Italy photoblogs and a list of food and wine blogs from Italy. Every week, she puts out a list of her top 10 posts from bloggers in Italy, which is a great way to find new, interesting articles on Italy. Italy Tutto on Twitter

One of the first Italy blogs I started following is Bleeding Espresso by Michelle Fabio, whom you can read more about here. Michelle moved to her family’s ancestral home in Calabria (“the toe of Italy’s boot”) and is now the matriarch of a family of dogs, goats, and other animals. She wrote about her decision to move to Italy here, and I saw a lot in common with my decision to move to Milan a few years ago. Michelle on Twitter

If you are planning a trip to Italy, you should definitely check out Jessica’s WhyGo Italy site, under the BootsnAll umbrella. This is a very thorough travel guide for Italy, and you can find pretty much anything you need to know. Like me, Jessica blogs about the wonders of Italy from the confines of the rainy Northwest (Portland, OR in her case). If you’re learning Italian, be sure to check out Jessica’s list of her 8 favorite Italian swear words! Italylogue on Twitter

There are so many blogs about Italy that I’m sure I will have no problem turning this into a regular series. Stay tuned!

Just Do It: Moving to Italy

Filed under Blog by on February 23, 2010 at 5:16 pm {3 comments}

I recently came across this blog post by Michelle at Bleeding Espresso about her decision to move to Italy, and I also wanted to share the theme here as it played a role in my decision to move to Italy.

The travel bug is an interesting phenomenon. For some people, they travel to somewhere new, enjoy themselves and create some good memories, but they are content to go back home and settle back into their lives. For other people, after their first few travel experiences, something changes within them and they are not the same. They will feel restless the longer they stay at home, and there will always be a desire, even if it is deeply buried, to go out, explore new places, and try new things.

I am definitely in the second category. In high school, I spent some time in Japan and absolutely loved it. During my freshman year of college, I read The Sun Also Rises Just Do It: Moving to Italy by Ernest Hemingway, and I caught the “expat” bug. Europe was my new intrigue, and I knew that at some point in time, I would have to experience living somewhere in Europe. The idea was so deeply ingrained in my head that it was a virtual certainty.

A few years later, at the age of 23, I got my chance. I was one year out of college, had just left my first job, and had no idea what to do with myself. Somewhere in the back of my mind was the idea of moving to Italy, but it didn’t seem like a serious possibility at first and I spent some time looking at various career options. As time went by and I remained ambivalent about getting a new job, the idea of moving to Italy continued to grow. And at a certain point, I simply decided that that was what I was going to do. My friends and family questioned the idea, but I was certain it was the right thing to do.

So I just did it. I moved to Milan, even though the only time I had been there was traveling through the train station and I didn’t know anyone there. I spent nine months studying Italian at a language school, getting to know the city, and exploring. And I have no regrets.

duomo rain 225x300 Just Do It: Moving to ItalyFollowing dreams in Milan

Writing this post, I wondered what life would have been like if I had simply moved on to the next job. I would have missed out on a lot. Here are some of the things I got to do simply because I made the decision to take a chance: I went to the Winter Olympics in Torino. My Italian is much better than it would have been otherwise. I got to know people from all over the world at my language school. I bonded with an Egyptian pizza-maker over being a foreigner in Italy and visiting New York. I got to know a real (non-tourist-filled) Italian city. And I realized my dream of experiencing the expat lifestyle in Europe. I wouldn’t have been able to do any of these things if I had decided to stay at home.

So the point is, if you’re one of those people who harbors a secret desire to experience life in a different country, to borrow a famous marketing slogan, just do it. Life isn’t going to wait around and hand you your dreams on a silver platter. Sometimes you have to make things happen. And sometimes it comes down to making a simple decision.

And one more thing: I know a lot of people run into resistance when proposing an idea like this to people they are close with. Some people are cynical and negative. Some people are simply worried about you. I was lucky in that my parents were supportive, but it did take some convincing. If other peoples’ reactions are the only thing holding you back, don’t give up. It takes courage to do something like this, but the rewards are so much greater than the risks. And no one is going to make it happen for you expect you.

So what are you waiting for? Just do it!

My First Trip to Italy

Filed under Blog by on February 22, 2010 at 3:03 am {2 comments}

Since I just started this site, I thought it might be helpful if I talked about my first trip to Italy and the effect it had on me, as a way of setting the stage for what this site is all about. During the summer between my freshman and sophomore year in college, my parents took me and my cousin to Italy for the first time. The itinerary was straight out of a standard tourist guidebook, a seven-day trip through Venice, Florence, and Rome. My initial impressions of these three great cities have pretty much remained intact since the first visit.

Venice is the most unique city in the world, in my opinion. However, as I learned on that first trip, it’s best to stay away from the crowds in the main piazzas, especially if you visit in the summer, as we did. My favorite thing to do in Venezia is to basically get lost on purpose and explore all of the side-walkways and canals. Since the city is surrounded by water, it’s not like you’re going to get terribly lost and end up miles away, and you get to see up close what truly makes this place so unique.

Florence is a beautiful city, but I find that my appreciation of its beauty has always been dampened by my lingering frustration whenever I visit. Yes, there are great museums and plenty of interesting things to see. But as someone who wants to speak Italian with Italians, I get so frustrated when I say something in Italian to a shop owner, waiter, clerk, etc. and the response always comes in English, no matter how much I try to use proper grammar and pronunciation. I know I look like an American and you have to speak English to hundreds of tourists everyday, but come on, throw me a bone here! This wasn’t a problem on this first trip because I didn’t speak a word of Italian yet, but it bugs me now whenever I go. With that said, I can still see why so many people absolutely love Firenze.

Florence italy duomo 300x198 My First Trip to ItalyFlorence: Enchantment and Frustration all in one

And finally, Rome, the eternal city. There’s something so strange and curiosity-stimulating about the juxtaposition of ancient ruins in the middle of a modern city. I loved Rome as soon as I got there, and I still do. If anything, my appreciation has grown. If you haven’t been there, go.

So my first trip to Italy was a success, even though we didn’t stray far from the standard tourist fare. And despite my ambivalent feelings toward Florence, the city did play a key role in my enchantment with Italy, which is the main reason why this site is here today. In college, I knew I wanted to do a study abroad program, but I didn’t know where. I had studied Japanese in high school and had spent a bit of time in Japan, but I was ready for something new. And it was sitting on the banks of the River Arno in Florence, enjoying a delicious dinner with my family while watching the sun set over the surrounding hillside, that I knew that this was where I wanted to be. When I got back to school in the fall, I started taking Italian classes and ended up studying Italian for two years, spending six weeks in Verona during an awesome, life-changing study abroad program, and eventually living in Milan for nine months.

So grazie, Firenze, for opening up the Italian world to me. But would it kill you to answer me in Italian?

Welcome to Dreaming In Italian!

Filed under Blog by on February 12, 2010 at 6:44 pm {no comments}

Benvenuto! My name is ER, and I love Italy. I love learning and speaking the Italian language and I love traveling around in Italy. If you’re here, that means that you just might as well. I have traveled to Italy multiple times, I have studied Italian at the university level for over two years, and I lived in Milan for nine months.

italian flag21 Welcome to Dreaming In Italian!

I want to share my interest in all things Italian with those who feel the same, and that is why I created this site. Here you will find tips for traveling in Italy, articles on the best places to see, and articles and tips on learning Italian. And be sure to sign up for my free newsletter! (Opt out at any time; your email will never be shared with anyone else. I hate spamming as much as you do). If you have any questions, comments, or concerns, feel free to contact me at er(AT)dreaming-in-italian(DOT)com.

Viva Italia!


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