Yearly Archives: 2013

Life

It’s time for La Vita e’ Bella Version 2.0

andy-warhol-quote

You may have noticed that it’s been a bit quiet on the blog lately aside from the Amsterdam posts. That’s because I’ve been trying to figure out how to adapt this blog to fit my current life.

You see, when we started this blog nearly three years ago we weren’t even in Italy yet. But, we were happy to talk about “the dream” and Italian dual citizenship and Italy. All. The. Time. For the past few years I’ve kept it up, feeling the pressure to be this superstar expat blogger covering the same topics over and over again.

It dawned on me lately that if I really want to continue this blog I need to refocus on what I actually want to write about — style, design, parenthood, travel and, yes, sometimes Italy. But, I want my visually-focused posts to be juicier and my content-focused posts to pack more of an essay punch. If I pressure myself into posting one more dreamy photo of Florence I might hurl.

I love Florence. It has been our home for 2.5 years and is set to be home for at least that much or more. I love writing about this gorgeous city. I hate feeling pressured to be the expat blogger that people get to live vicariously through. I hate feeling like I can’t do a post on beautiful collections of things I’ve found online because I’m afraid my audience won’t like it.

A little over a year ago one of my favorite bloggers, Joy from Oh Joy! decided to totally switch things up. I remember it being a bit controversial at the time — this big blogger totally refocusing her editorial and getting rid of contributors. I also remember being amazed by her for having the cajones to do it. Guest what? I still love her blog and I’m almost certain her readership hasn’t suffered. Being true to herself simply worked.

So, here’s the deal:

  • This is officially my blog only…no more “we.” I love my hubby, but all of our friends and family have known that this is really my blog. I do 99.9% of the posts, take the photos and write the content. It’s my voice and my internet baby.
  • As such, the blog may get a tad more feminine now that I’m no longer trying to keep the we-ness of it in check. To the few regular male readers this blog has, I apologize.
  • It’s going to be an experiment for a while as I figure out how much of our life to really put out there. I’d love to be one of those bloggers that feels comfy slapping baby photos all over the place, but it’s not been me so far.

So, there you have it. After 320 posts(!), I’m making the editorial decision to switch things up a bit. Oh, and I may have totally taken a sledgehammer to the design and simplified it like woah.

I hope you all understand and enjoy the new style of content.

xo, Kate

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Parenthood

Pregnancy and Childbirth in Florence, Italy

On Monday, my birth story on Maple Leaf Mamma was posted! It’s been eight months(!) since Livia was born and a few months since the interview, so it was really fun to reread the adventure that was giving birth in Florence.

Ever since I started posting about having a baby here and a few tips for visiting Florence with kids, we’ve been contacted more than a few times for additional advice and insight. In an effort to provide a “one-stop-shop” post for those that need the info, I’m listing below all of the kid, pregnancy and childbirth-related posts right here.

Livia-23-Web-300x199Kate and Livia’s Birth Story at Ponte a Niccheri from the Maple Leaf Mamma blog

Before emailing with any questions related to what it was like to have a baby here, use the Italian healthcare system, choose a hospital, find an OB-GYN, etc., I kindly ask that you read this extremely detailed interview!

Visiting-Florence-with-BabyVisiting Florence, Italy with a Baby

We receive a lot of questions from fellow Americans about visiting Florence with a baby and what to expect. This post is my attempt to answer questions about strollers, changing stations and car seats in Florence. This city is baby-friendly in some ways, but definitely not in others.

cloth diaper introductionFAQ: Everything You (N)ever Wanted to Know About Cloth Diapers

When someone finds out that we use cloth diapers they are always intrigued — including people who have no interest in kids! In this post, I outline (in detail) exactly how we make these diapers work in our casa. The biggest surprise? We’ve found it all rather easy.

 

IMG_2874Baby Abroad: First Steps

I think it’s valuable information to share for current and future expats that find themselves pregnant in Italia. Having a baby in Italy as an expat is definitely a unique experience. In this post, I outline the first steps you need to take to get on the baby-mamma healthcare track.

 

IMG_1575-webBaby Abroad: The Home Stretch

This post covers the “next steps” to take later in your pregnancy as you prepare to actually give birth. I cover topics like choosing a hospital, getting the final tests done and what decisions you can and can’t make about the actual delivery.

 

For those that are interested, we’ve also rented baby equipment in Paris and Amsterdam and you may find those posts helpful when planning your own visits to those cities.

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Florence, Italy, Travel

Windows on Italy – Apartments in Florence

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I’ve been working on a bit of a special project lately and found myself in need of an apartment for a single day — not to actually sleep in, but for photography and video purposes. Florence has no shortage of amazing apartments, but finding one that was available for one day and that had the “look” that I needed was a bit of a tall order.

Thankfully, I found Windows on Italy, a holiday rental company that not only rents apartments here in Florence, but all over Italy. In fact, I confess to checking out rentals on the Amalfi Coast and the Lake Region (clearly someone is dreaming about an August vacay). Back to Florence, I found an apartment that looked great in the photos, is furnished beautifully and had amazing natural light — which was a big reason why I couldn’t work on this project at home…our place is a bit of a cave.

Full disclaimer: they gave me the apartment for the day (minus a cleaning fee that I paid) in exchange for this review, but I’m telling you the honest truth when I say how nice it was to work with them. Even when I was initially inquiring I was impressed with how quickly they responded via email. Anyone that’s planned a trip to Italy or tried to reserve things from abroad knows how difficult it can be to get prompt email service, so this was huge! Also, the staff speaks great English.

I found the apartment’s photography very true to what was actually there. If you’ve ever rented a place you know that this is not always the case. Somehow, apartments always look better online. I think the high-end nature of most of the Windows on Italy apartments is the reason you actually get what you see. I also love that their descriptions of each apartment are so detailed. They do a great job of capturing the personality and unique character of each place.

I may have spent extra time on the site collecting ideas for how to furnish a potential new apartment (no news now…maybe soon) and found these great rooms that really got me dreaming. You can click any of the photos to see the entire apartment:

Screen shot 2013-05-14 at 4.06.26 AM

Screen shot 2013-05-14 at 4.05.52 AM

Screen shot 2013-05-14 at 4.09.39 AMLong story short, I would highly recommend Windows on Italy to any of my readers that are planning a trip to Italy and are looking for great rentals from a great company, Windows on Italy.

 

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Parenthood, Travel

How to Rent Baby Equipment in Amsterdam


   

After our success with renting baby gear during our trip to Paris in December, it seemed like a no-brainer to try the same thing in Amsterdam. With fingers crossed I googled “baby equipment rental Amsterdam” and was super excited to find Travel Baby Amsterdam. Not having to lug our stroller across Europe was a huge relief!

We rented the Classic Stroller and a highchair. Livia is pretty attached to sitting in a high chair during meals, so we knew it was a must for the trip. I was nervous that a different type of chair might not be comfortable for her, but she loved the one that we rented! She was similarly comfortable in the lightweight stroller, which was a dream for navigating around a crowded city like Amsterdam.

I’m getting quite attached to having baby gear rental options in the cities that we travel to. Being able to travel light and not worry about who is lugging what baby stuff where is a huge relief during the actual travel process. Just like the company in Paris, the folks at Travel Baby Amsterdam deliver and pick-up the baby gear — all you need to do is tell them where and when to deliver and it shows up on your doorstep. After three long days driving from Florence to Amsterdam, it was nice to have this taken care of for us.

Planning a visit to Amsterdam with the kiddies in tow? We highly recommend Travel Baby Amsterdam - www.travelbabyamsterdam.com

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