Your Opinion Matters! Take My Poll
Dear Subscribers,
Thank you so much for supporting me in this new endeavor. I can see immense value in Substack as compared to other platforms. When I use Mailchimp for my newsletter, that platform was static— no one found me there and my subscribers couldn’t interact with me there. Substack is interactive. It creates community.
(And I sure appreciate community, as I have zero family members in the two countries where I spend time—Italy and the U.S.).
Below are my plans for what I want to offer you as I curate my Substack. I have included a poll so you can tell me which of the following topics you’re most interested in. I’m excited to hear from you about this!
a) My expertise is Renaissance History (particularly 15th century Florence) and I will start adding content related to that topic.
b) I receive questions frequently about moving to Italy, so I like to offer posts on that topic, and since everyone already has the romantic version in their heads thanks to Hollywood, I figure the most helpful thing I can do is not shy away from some of the nitty gritty realities.
c) I’m a “foodie” and love talking about eating and drinking in Italy. Does “foodie” sound pretentious? Let’s say I’m an appreciator of a focus on quality, seasonal ingredients, of bio-dynamically raised food and wine, and I love to suss out authentic places to eat in Italy. And thus, I will often include info of this nature.
d) Over-tourism in Italy concerns me and I’ll be posting about ways to get off the beaten path within the touristed cities, and highlighting lesser-known places.
e) I plan to create a fun, interactive, course on Florence’s history and art using Substack’s video feature and utilizing the chat feature where we can spend art-focused time together. Does this appeal?
Substack’s poll only offers single choice voting, so you can’t choose a handful and rank them. But, if you’d like to rank them or leave more feedback, please do so in the comments. I’ll be molto contenta to hear from you 🤩
My order….c, d, e, a,b
My wife, Jeanne, and I are off to Italy in September/October for our 19th visit. b is our last choice because although we’ve toyed with the idea of buying a place in Italy, it’s such an expensive country with such a wide range of options that we wouldn’t want to ourself down to one place. Plus, we have friends who live there and the nitty-gritty sounds really daunting. Plus we live in San Diego, which is almost heaven.
My wife is a travel writer – traveltawk.com or on Instagram @Traveltawk. Yes, she is originally from New York. She’s contemplating a move over to Substack because Wordpress just isn’t working out. Actually, I think she’s in the process of doing it.
We just spent seven weeks in southern Italy, Sicily, and Greece/Pelopponese. And all the trips to Italy we’ve never been to the Amalfi coast so we went this time – four days in Amalfi and two days in Sorrento. It’s one and done and I don’t see going back there at all. We found a place some of our friends stayed in Santa Maria Castellabate, two hours south of Naples, one hour south of the Amalfi coast. Palazzo Belmonte was fabulous!!! lots of things to do in the area, Greek and Roman ruins, beautiful coast and inland mountains, food and Wine were dynamite. Thanks! Doug Decker DDS.
I love your deep knowledge of Renaissance history and in particular the history of Florence. I enjoy reading everything you write on that subject, along with the back stories on the art pieces you highlight. Buona fortuna e grazie.