If learning to speak Italian spontaneously sounds like something you’d like to do, grab my free course here. Not into the language, but would love to discover my region? Here’s my exclusive guide: Discover Le Marche Region Unplugged

Today, I’m so happy to share this conversation with Renee, the founder of Renee | Dream Plan Experience .

Renee and I met here on Substack and discovered we have different things in common. One of them, of course, is the idea that slow travel is, for us, the only way to approach travelling. Then there are also other things, but maybe this is not very interesting for others, lol.

I like so much her approach to travel, with a rare kind of attention: not as a checklist of places to see, but as a way of learning how to be present in the world. Through her work, she invites people to slow down, to move more intentionally, and to leave space for the unexpected moments that often become the most meaningful ones.

What I love about Renee’s perspective is that she speaks about travel almost as a form of relationship: with places, with people, and even with ourselves. In a world that often pushes us to consume destinations quickly, she reminds us that the most memorable experiences usually happen when we stop trying to “do” everything.

In this conversation, Renee and I wander together through the meaning of slow travel, the beauty of ordinary moments, and the quiet richness of places that exist outside the classic itinerary. We speak about morning rituals in small Italian towns, conversations with strangers, local traditions, and the difference between visiting a place and truly experiencing it.

We also reflect on inland Italy (especially Le Marche & Tuscany ;)), on the communities that still preserve strong ties to memory and seasonality, and on how travellers can approach these places with curiosity, respect, and humility rather than urgency.

Perhaps slow travel is not only about moving slowly, but also about learning how to pay attention.

This conversation is one of a series of interviews that now live on Time to Be Italian, my podcast dedicated to the people, stories, and flavours that make Italy impossible to forget. You can listen on Substack or on your favorite platform. If you enjoyed it, I’d love to know!

If learning to speak Italian spontaneously sounds like something you’d like to do, grab my free course here. Not into the language, but would love to discover my region? Here’s my exclusive guide: Discover Le Marche Region Unplugged

Today, I’m delighted to share this conversation with Wendy Holloway, the voice behind Flavor of Italy.

Wendy came to Italian food the way the best things come to us: sideways, through life. Long before she ever imagined herself living in Rome, she was a child with her own vegetable garden, baking yeast breads at ten years old while her parents were out for the evening. The passion was always there. Italy gave it a home.

Her path to Rome wasn’t a romantic escape but a deliberate choice: as a vice president at PNC Bank, she proposed opening an office there so she could be where her future husband was. Once she arrived, her Italian mother-in-law, her neighbours, the markets… they all became her teachers. She learned recipes, and beyond that, a whole philosophy of eating: seasonal, local, rooted in place.

Today, with nearly 300 podcast episodes behind her, Wendy has become one of the most curious and wide-ranging voices on Italian food culture.

She doesn’t limit herself to the obvious. She goes looking for the bells behind the bells: the history of macaroni and cheese, the blue crabs arriving in ballast waters and upending an entire coastal ecosystem, the women of Puglia gathering burnt scraps from harvested fields and turning them into pasta out of sheer necessity.

In this conversation, Wendy and I wander together through fava beans and baccalà, through the hidden food treasures of Le Marche, through what it means to be an insider-outsider in a food culture that is constantly changing, even as it insists it never does.

Because if there is one thing Italian food teaches us, it is this: every dish carries a story. And the story is always longer than the recipe.

This conversation is one of a series of interviews that now live on Time to Be Italian, my podcast dedicated to the people, stories, and flavours that make Italy impossible to forget. You can listen on Substack or on your favorite platform. If you enjoyed it, I'd love to know!