Hmmm …

When DID My Bella Vita really start?

Did it start with my first blog post in June ’06?

Probably not.

Did it start when I worked in Paris, met a charmingly attentive southern Italian, fell in love and moved across the globe to the Bel Paese?

I’m not sure.

Maybe it started when I took that first intercontinental voyage back at the turn of the millennium and decided I wanted to write about it.

Yea … maybe it was then.

But more likely My Bella Vita started years before, when I would run home from school to join my parents as they diligently worked – typing articles, interviewing leads, and literally cutting and pasting their weekly newspaper to meet their Friday afternoon deadline.

“It’s in your veins,” they told me.

And apparently they were right.

Since 2006, My Bella Vita has grown from a update-it-when-you-can online journal for stateside friends to an interactive blog where readers find Italy travel tips, Calabrian destination highlights, recipes and a hodgepodge of Calabrian tales.

My husband and I remodeled his childhood home and opened Il Cedro Bed and Breakfast - right here in Catanzaro. So we talk about that sometimes, too.

The latest edition to the My Bella Vita family is Bella Vita Travel Services, a travel consulting business that offers custom itineraries, consults and group tour planning for Calabria and southern Italy.

And oh yea, I still do personal updates. They have now taken the form of Questo Mese in Italia-a newsletter sent six times a year that features personal stories, recipes and little-known facts about Calabria and southern Italy, or you can subscribe to Calabria Close-Up, a monthly snippet about various Calabrian cities and villages.

Thank you for stopping by My Bella Vita. You can grab my feed, follow me on Twitter or chat with me over at Facebook.

I hope to hear from you soon …

Buon Viaggio!