I live in a fifteenth-century building on a narrow cobblestone lane in the historic center of Verona Italy.  Sun on my balcony keeps my cactus plants thriving and warms my little dog’s coat as he peers through the railings to watch the fruit seller unload his hail-dented station wagon. On certain spring days the air sits so softly on my skin and the temperature is so perfect that I am sure, if there is weather in heaven, it must be like this.

How I came to make my home in Italy, how I became a professional wine taster and how I found my heart’s desire are loosely entwined, each dependent upon the others but independent in its development, and each is the result of pure serendipity.

As a child I never planned on being a television director in Wichita, an analytical reader for New York publishers, a farm laborer in Champagne, a Bordeaux broker in London or a wine writer in Verona. Jobs like these did not exist in a world where good little girls grew up to be teachers or nurses or librarians, while secretly dreaming of being private detectives or astronauts.  I often think that if, on career day, a creator of perfumes or a designer of stuffed toys had come to my school and given a little speech about the possibilities these professions offered an eager teen, my life would have turned out differently – not better or worse, just differently.

This website is designed to give you a glimpse into my life in Verona, insights into Italian wine, and introduce you to the books that I write.