Meet Melanie Renzulli, author of Italofile, which is more than a blog – it’s a travel resource!
Melanie, you started your “Italofile” to “bring guidebook readers and other Italy travel aficionados more information on one of the world’s favourite travel destinations” but you have a special reason for continuing it, don’t you?.
When I started Italofile, back in December 2006, it was a few months after I had just had my first child and I wasn’t going to be going back at work for a while. So I wanted to keep my writing sharp and to stay informed of developments in the Italy travel world. I remember thinking, “this is too much of a niche idea – a blog that is only about Italy travel?!” Fast forward a few years and niche blogs are all the rage. Plus I’m in too deep to quit. So, I continue…
As the site has grown more popular, I have started seeing a small bit of income for “doing what I love.” So that has been an incentive to continue. But I also keep posting on Italofile in the hopes that I can turn the site into a bona fide business for myself and avoid having to work in my office and sending my children to daycare. My oldest son has been diagnosed with a mild form of autism, so I choose to take on self-guided projects so that I can set my own deadlines (or no deadlines) and be available for my children when they need me. I write more about that in my post For the Love of Dante:
http://www.italofile.com/2009/10/07/for-the-love-of-dante/
Now that I think about it, I should also write a post called “For the Love of Italy” because I truly love what I do. Writing about Italy is so much fun and sharing my finds with others has been a real pleasure so far. Aren’t those the best reasons to keep working hard, day after day?
Yes, I was really touched by the “For the Love of Dante” post. Can you tell us about your other travel writing?
I’ve been in the travel writing game for over a decade now, having started out around the first dot com wave when tons of travel websites were trying to develop online content. I worked for Travel Channel Online for a while (before they canned my whole department) and have written or done editing for several other websites, like AOL Digital Cities.
I have also written or contributed to several guidebooks about Italy. I wrote The Unofficial Guide to Central Italy: Florence, Rome, Tuscany and Umbria and the first edition of Frommer’s Irreverent Guide to Rome. I’ve also been a principal writer for Michelin’s Green Guide series for a few years now and have contributed to titles on Italy, Rome, and Tuscany.
It appears that I write exclusively about Italy, but that’s not the case. I’ve also written about India and Turkey, two places where I have lived as the spouse of a U.S. diplomat, and on various other destinations and topics. Links to several of my travel writing samples are on my personal site at missadventures.com.
What is the unique perspective that you feel you can now bring to your travel writing?
Well, I certainly think that having been an expat in four different countries (I was also an exchange student in Germany years ago) has given me the ability to see articles from different angles. Parenting, of course, brings a new perspective. Safety and practicality are so much more important to me now that I have to consider kid-friendly restaurants, hotels, and tours.
Where did you live in Italy and how long did you live there?
I lived in Rome for about six months though with my trips back and forth doing research it’s more like a year.
Did it take you long to settle?
It actually did take me a bit of time to settle. Maybe it was just the fast pace of Rome that made it difficult because I could go to the countryside and just melt into the scenery.
What did you love about it?
I loved the food, though I wasn’t going to restaurants very often. But alimentari (delis) and pizza al taglio places were the best. I loved slipping into churches and checking up on my favorite works of art whenever the mood struck me. I loved watching people during the evening passegiata. I loved just setting out in the morning and choosing a new corner of town to explore. Most of the time I walked, so there’d always be something new to discover – ruins, a bookshop, a boutique, a monument.
What did you miss about your own country?
I missed the typical things – friends and family.
Now that you’re not based in Italy what do you miss about it? Did you get “reverse culture shock” when you left Italy?
I didn’t have reverse culture shock. But I definitely missed – and still do miss – those things I described above that I loved. I certainly miss the human scale of things in Italy – being able to walk almost anywhere, normal food portion sizes, etc. At this very moment, I am missing my neighborhood cappuccino guy…
Did any of your tastes - culinary or cultural - change while you were in Italy?
My culinary tastes did change. For instance, I really started drinking coffee in Italy and Italy also turned me into an olive fiend.
Do you visit Italy now?
Yes, but not as often as I’d like.
What are your own particular interests in Italy?
My interests are wide-ranging: ruins, art, dining, kid-friendly activities, wine, medieval towns, etc. I don’t think I can narrow it down!
What advice would you give to someone planning to move to Italy?
Go for it! I’d also suggest he or she try to have a job lined up before moving there, as Italy is much more enjoyable when you have a little bit of money to spend. But even if you move to Italy on a whim, it’ll be rewarding – an experience you’ll never forget.
Italofile aims to be a comprehensive resource for people travelling to Italy. What help do you think you can give them that they can’t find elsewhere?
From the beginning, I have strived to make Italofile the “Italy Travel Resource.” But I know that I can’t provide everything the traveller needs to know about Italy. My hope is that people enjoy my voice and my interests and that I provide them with different ways to approach a trip to Italy.
Who reads your blog - mostly Americans / British people or a mixture of readers?
I get readers from all over the world, but mostly the USA, UK, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, and Australia.
What has blogging given you?
Blogging has definitely given me an outlet for providing Italy travel info beyond guidebooks. It’s like my online filing cabinet, which is where the word “Italofile” came from. (I fear that some people think I don’t know how to spell “Italophile”!) Blogging has given me the opportunity to build a number of skills, from writing and editing to Wordpress and SEO and I have enjoyed guiding the site editorially and creatively. Everything you see on Italofile has been a decision I have made. It’s nice to be in charge! Finally, blogging has allowed me to tap into a network of other Italy travel lovers, and that has definitely helped the site grow.
Is there anything else you would like to tell us about Italofile?
I like to think that the information on Italofile is accessible to regular travellers. I try to write for an audience of independent travellers that fit somewhere between the backpacking set and the luxury travellers. I appreciate the low- and high-brow, and that kind of mix is present on the site.
All your blog posts are interesting but can you recommend one or two especially for Italy Magazine readers? What other areas of your site do you think would be of particular interest to our readers?
It’s hard for me to pick out just a few, but I really like this recent piece on Beautiful Places in Italy for a Photo Op: http://www.italofile.com/2010/04/26/beautiful-places-in-italy-for-a-photo-op/. Best Places in Italy for Modern Art (http://www.italofile.com/2009/11/17/best-places-in-italy-for-modern-art/) was also fun to write. “Five Favorites” is a new feature in which I invite guest bloggers to write about their five favorite things in Italy. I really like the way this feature is shaping up. Italy Magazine readers can see the Five Favorites archive here: http://www.italofile.com/category/featured-articles/five-favorites/.
Happy blogging, Melanie and thank you for talking to Italy Magazine.
