"A Recipe From Rome"... The Story Behind the Book

It was October, 2019. My phone buzzed with a message on social media from a friend I hadn't seen in fifteen years.

"Can you take a week off next month?" he asked.

"Actually, yes," came my reply. "I have exactly one week left of vacation days to burn before the end of the year. Why, what's up?"

I wasn't prepared to hear his answer: "My work is sending me on a trip to Italy. I can bring a guest."

The next four weeks blurred by with expediting a passport (complete with unflattering photo), arranging a cat-sitter, packing sensible yet fashionable footwear (that's a rare brand of shoe), and getting used to an increased heartrate beating to the tune of OMG I'M GOING TO ROME.

Italy, as you can imagine, was everything I'd dreamed it would be and more. When my friend and I returned home, all I had left of the eternal city were the refrigerator magnets and mugs I bought at the souvenir shops and the photos I took-- all one-thousand of them (no, that's not an exaggeration). But that wasn't quite enough to keep every morsel of the trip razor-sharp in my memory.

So, I wrote it down.

Every second I could remember, from the mundane details-- what we ate on the plane (meatballs), what we talked about over breakfast at the hotel (electrically-compliant non-American hairdryers)-- to the breathtaking ones (every historically and culturally-significant nugget about Rome I could remember) turned into a three-hundred page Microsoft Word document.

Holy Mother of God, I'd written enough to fill a book. That book will be titled A Recipe from Rome.

Three years have gone by. Three years of fine-tuning my memories on the page. But what started as a document to keep my trip to Rome preserved in detail, has since turned into an entertaining and heartwarming novel inspired by my own experience.

The characters in A Recipe from Rome are very much inspired by the real people who shared in this experience with me, and I hope they put a smile on your face when you read about their treks through ancient Roman ruins, cooking classes among Italian vineyards, and train-rides to Tuscany.

How would I describe A Recipe from Rome?

• Epic buddy trip

• An escapist read that will transport you to Italy

• Recipes and romance (yep, it's got both!)

• Friends-to-Lovers? (Well, maybe. I don't want to give anything away.)

• Will make you laugh and swoon (a very tasty combination)

I hope to share a cover and release date with you soon. But in the meantime, sign up for my monthly newsletter for more book updates, book reviews, recipes, and fun Italy content. As a thank you, I'll send "A Taste of Italy" straight to your inbox instantly! I can't wait to share A Recipe from Rome with you later this year!

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