The Bittersweet Life

Back in September, Katy sat down with her sisters (now frequent guests on the show!) to discuss what Dana had planned for her Celebration of Life ceremony, namely, she wanted to be there. If you missed that episode find it here.

That event took place a few weeks ago, and Katy and her sisters Dana and Sara join us to talk about what it was life to live through and participate in this momentous event—and how it has changed them forever.

***If you are moved to help with the staggering medical costs of Dana's st...

Have you ever seen a ghost? Not just sensed one's presence, but actually seen one with your own eyes?

Tiffany's husband Claudio has.

In honor of Halloween, today we hear his story on an episode from our archives. It's a story that takes place many years ago, one frigid night in a tiny hilltop town near Rome... a town that would years later be utterly destroyed by an earthquake.

Happy Halloween and happy ghost hunting!

***The Bittersweet Life podcast has been on the air for an impressive 10+ years! In order to...

It's become something of a tradition here at The Bittersweet Life podcast to air an original radio play at Halloween or Christmas time, by our friends over at AudioImagination77 Productions.

You'll be happy to hear that this year is no exception! Katy's brilliant friend Matthew P. Woerner returns with Rearview, another tantalizing and spine-tingling radio drama to properly celebrate Halloween. Based on the urban legend "Highbeams," this original production will get you in the perfect mood for our spookiest holiday.

So settle into your favorite chair, turn down the lights, pour yourself a cup of...

What's it like to really live with a ghost, and why do so many people want to these days?

This mini-episode from our archives was inspired by a recent article in the New York Times that suggests some interesting reasons why ghosts are more popular than ever.

And why do hauntings and other ghostly phenomenon feel so oddly romantic?

We also hear from a listener who experienced an utterly romantic moment in Venice several years ago.

***The Bittersweet Life podcast has been on the air for an impressive 10+ years! In order...

When the only ancient Romans you've ever seen are gleaming white statues of gods, goddesses, and emperors, you might assume that the fashion trends in Ancient Rome favored clean lines, understated design, and an all-white color scheme.

Well, you'd be wrong.

Today, with the help of a recent New York Times article, we debunk this persistent fashion myth, and explore what kind of threads the ancient Romans, particularly those of the patrician class, were wearing.

We also discover why the color purple was reserved for royalty (and where the dye came from) and...

Aurelio may be starting middle school this fall, but on this episode from our archives, we time travel back to a different new beginning, namely elementary school.

He joined us for a mini-interview exactly five years ago, to answer: How's first grade in Italy going? Does he love it or hate it, what's his favorite subject, and does his English teacher actually speak English? We find out in this short (and very giggly) interview with our resident six-year-old redhead.

Also, then as now, Halloween is just around the corner! What's Aurelio's favorite thing about Halloween...

This week, we continue our conversation from last week's episode: Can living in a foreign country or even a different city from where you grew up dramatically change your life and even your personality?

Last week we discussed the concrete life outcomes (like who you marry, what job you do, if you have kids) that often result from moving to one place or another (or staying right where you grew up).

On Part 2, we turn the focus inward. How does living in a particular city or country change YOU? Change your personality, your character, your...

It's a much-told legend that Michelangelo and Leonardo Da Vinci used to rob graves in order to dissect bodies in secret so they could achieve anatomical accuracy in their art.

But is it actually true?

On this mini-episode from our archives, we are joined by curator Jennifer Dasal of the Art Curious podcast, and author of the book, Art Curious: Stories of the Unexpected, Slightly Odd, and Strangely Wonderful in Art History. Listen in to find out the truth, which might just be more fascinating than the myth.

***The Bittersweet Life podcast has...

Can living in a foreign country or even a different city from where you grew up dramatically change your life and even your personality?

A letter from a listener sparked this fascinating topic.

Katy and Tiffany muse on how their lives would be different if Tiffany hadn't moved to Rome and Katy hadn't moved back to Seattle.

Also, can you ever really imagine how much a decision (like moving or staying) can change your life? At some point, it's all just speculation.

Stay tuned for next week's episode, when we continue...

It's finally Halloween season, and to assuage the fears of anyone who is afraid of rats (like Tiffany!) Katy shares a fascinating and little-known recording of rat laughter (yes, you read that right) on this episode from our archives.

On this mini-episode from years past, she also shares a touching piece of short fiction she wrote during lockdown that most likely many of our listeners can relate to in some way.

***The Bittersweet Life podcast has been on the air for an impressive 10+ years! In order to help newer listeners discover some of our earlier...

A cringy AI-generated ad that touts a gimmicky protein pasta as "just like in Italy!" makes us wonder: what are the worst misperceptions around Italian culture, food, and lifestyle?

We muse on how easy it is to fall prey to these misconceptions and end up having an inauthentic experience while in Italy, or not enjoying an authentic Italian meal because it's not what we were expecting.

And it's not just about food. We dig into stereotypes about Italian culture that just won't go away, and other common misconceptions.

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COME TO...

Some psychologists say that anticipation of a desired event can often bring more happiness than experiencing the event itself. And if that's the case, can we conclude that planning a trip is even more fun that actually taking the trip?

In this episode from our archives, we take inspiration from a recent article in the New York Times, Travel and the Art of Anticipation by Stephanie Rosenbloom. We muse about the so-called "happiness reset," the pleasure of anticipating travel, and the joys to be gleaned from reminiscing about past adventures.

***The Bittersweet Life podcast has...

The US mid-term elections are just around the corner, and it's important to know that Americans living or studying abroad can vote from whereever they happen to be! (And it's actually not that complicated to do!)

This week Tiffany took part in a voter registration drive for American students at a study-abroad campus in Rome, and she chatted with Kelly Feenan, a volunteer at Votefromabroad.org, a non-partisan group that helps expats register to vote from abroad and request their ballots.

Kelly shares all her expert tips on how easily and successfully to vote from...

On this episode from way way back in the early archives of the show, Tiffany and Katy take listeners on a walking tour of their favorite Roman neighborhood, Trastevere.

***The Bittersweet Life podcast has been on the air for an impressive 10+ years! In order to help newer listeners discover some of our earlier episodes, every Friday we are now airing an episode from our vast archives! Enjoy!***

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COME TO ROME WITH US: Our 4th annual Bittersweet Life Roman Adventure, taking place from 1 to 7 November 2026, is officially sold out! If you'd like to...

Today we're joined by Katy's sisters, Dana and Sara, to chat about what's on the horizon for Dana, considering her diagnosis of terminal brain cancer last year.

As always, Dana shares inspiring words of hope and fortitude, proving that a terminal cancer diagnosis doesn't necessarily mean an instant end to a happy and rich life.

They also attempt to address the question: would you want to know how much time you have left? For most of us, this is abstract question we'll never have to face. But Dana has a unique perspective on this.

In cities like Rome, tourists are part of the city's identity, its reality, its way of life. When they go away—and don't come back—the city will inevitably change and adapt. Will the countless AirBNBs turn back into regular rentals, and will that in turn cause locals to move back to the historic center? Will the souvenir shops that have crowded out the artisanal workshops close their doors? Will restaurants that once hawked mediocre fare to tourists be forced to raise their standards in order to lure Romans to dine?

On this episode from our archives, we h...

It's a debate as old as time, and today Katy and Tiffany are tackling it:

Which are better: dogs or cats?

And perhaps more importantly, which make better pets? Is the loving loyalty of a dog a more important trait in a pet than the independent, low-maintence lifestyle of a cat? And crucially: which animal is cuter?

Katy grew up with dogs, and now has cats.

Tiffany grew up with cats, and now has a dog.

Does that mean cat people can become dog people and vice versa?

Are you tired of watching every one you know go to Italy?

Florence-based food blogger and culinary tour guide Coral Sisk was, and she penned a viral complaint about it for the popular online foodie publication Eater, with the specific complaint that the media turns too much of its focus on Italy—particularly when it comes to food programming—so tourists think it's the "only" place to go.

The comment section was wild, with most of the responses somewhere along the lines of "I love Italy and there's nothing wrong with that!"

Of cour...

Do you write in a journal? If you don't know, have you ever done so in the past? Have you ever used a journal as a means of self-therapy?

These and other similar questions come to us in a two recent email from two long-time listeners, and we decided to devote an entire episode to this interesting topic. (Since we're both writers, you might not be surprised to hear our answers!)

But listen all the way to the end to discover the published journals that we have most enjoyed reading.

WE LOVE LISTENER...

On a past Bittersweet Moment, Tiffany remembered accidently smearing a bit of lipstick on the doorframe of one of the buildings she lived in her first months in Rome, and how that red streak is still there, 18 years later. And how, somehow, every time she sees it, it reminds her of her earliest days in Rome, almost an "I was here" moment.

This episode from our archive is Inspired by this idea. Katy and Tiffany talk about other moments in their life that they have felt a similar sensation, how common that might be, and why we...

When a stranger online started badmouthing Rome, Tiffany's reaction was viceral. It was almost as if someone had insulted her mother.

On this week's new episode, Tiffany and Katy chat about what it means to love a city so much that you are sometimes blinded to its faults.

They also touch on why, despite popular opinion online, it's perfectly okay to romaticize living in Italy. (Tiffany has been doing it for the last 22 years and show no signs of falling out of love with Rome.)

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COME TO ROME WITH US...

What is wonder? And how does it affect your life? Perhaps most importantly, what can we do to harness it?

In this episode from our archives, we are joined by Andrea Scher, author of Wonder Seeker: 52 Ways to Wake Up Your Creativity and Find Your Joy, a playful, practical, and effective guide to finding wonder and joy in your daily life. Andrea's passion and life's work is to cultivate a sense of wonder, and to help others do the same.

She discusses how her need for wonder has grown out of her innate sensitivity, anxiety...

Last week we aired a fascinating and inspiring conversation with Julian Shapiro-Barnum about his new book How to Grow up without Becoming a Grown-up and his strategies for resisting the pull of what can often end up being a constrictive and joyless adulthood.

Today, Tiffany and Katy continue the conversation. They wonder: have they managed to remain childlike (or hey, even childish) despite the fact that they have entered long since adulthood?

And does having your own kids keep you young, or does it make you even more of a grown up?

What...

In this episode from our archives, we ask our listeners: What are the sounds you truly love, not for how beautiful they are, but for what they mean? Sounds that, for whatever reason, make you happy? Sounds that, when you hear them, you know something good is about to happen?

We asked and you answered. We asked our listeners to send in the sounds that mean something to them, and we got so many, we almost couldn't fit them all in one episode! Happy listening.

***The Bittersweet Life podcast has been on the air for...

What can kids teach us about how to live? This is a topic close to the heart of today's guest, Julian Shapiro-Barnum. An actor and comedian, Julian is perhaps most known for his web series Recess Therapy, in which he interviews children playing outside in New York City.

He joins us this week to talk about his new book, How to Grow Up without Becoming a Grown-up. He shares what he has learned from his young interviewees: how to notice the beauty all around you, how to believe you can make a difference in the world, when...

Does the language that we speak influence the way that our thoughts work?

An article in the New York Times by Guy Deutcher, Does Your Language Shape How You Think? explores this topic in depth.

Taking inspiration from the article, Katy and Tiffany muse on this topic on this episode from our archives. We consider how gendered nouns influences how we think about objects, how specific we choose to be—or are forced to be—depending on the language we are speaking, and other language-rich ideas.

***The Bittersweet Life podcast has been on the...

What does it feel like to plan for the end of your life when your only in your mid-50s?

Could you plan your own funeral/celebration of life?

What about going through your childhood mementos to decide what your children would actually want, and what you need to ruthlessly trash.

These are all things that Katy's sister Dana has had to thing about lately, after her diagnosis of stage-4 glioblastoma brain cancer. But luckily, she's not having to think about it alone. She's been supported by her sisters Sara and our own...

We are proud to say that we have some of the most engaged listeners in the entire podcast world! We get lots of mail from our listeners, both comments and questions about specific past episodes, as well as suggestions for future episodes and questions about life (often expat life) in general.

Every so often, we grab a few of those letters and read them on air, address the questions and offer our suggestions. Today we hear from a third culture kid who is married to another third culture kid, and the challenges he has faced and the...

Today we sit down with David Epstein, environmental scientist, investigative journalist, and author of the new book, Inside the Box: How Constraints Make Us Better. He joins us for a special interview to discuss a modern paradox that is plaguing today's society: how seemingly infinite choices and the illusion of absolute freedom bring overwhelm, paralysis, and uncertainty.

David Epstein uses science to explain how we can benefit from narrowing our options, and how, as contrary as it might feel, using self-imposed boundaries and constraints can tap into unexpected wells of focus and innovation.

<...

We all know what synonyms are, and probably antonyms too. But have you ever heard of contronyms?

In this episode from our archives, Tiffany and Katy have a little fun playing with these controdictory words, which launches a discussion on learning a foreign language, including what makes learning English hard, and how it differs from a language like Italian. Tiffany also reveals the one Italian gramatical rule she still can't wrap her head around.

***The Bittersweet Life podcast has been on the air for an impressive 10+ years! In order to help newer listeners discover some...

When you've lived abroad for as long as Tiffany has (22 years and counting), every trip back to your country of origins brings with it a hefty dose of reverse culture shock.

But on her most recent trip to the US, Tiffany, along with her husband and son, spent some time in New York City, for the first time in several years.

What shocked Tiffany about being back in New York? What aspects of the city surprised her? And what aspects of life in the United States in general, and New York in particular, feel utterly...

What does it take to capture the sounds of the world's rich and diverse wildlife? On this extraordinary interview from our archives, we are joined by sound and nature recordist Martyn Stewart.

Stewart has one of the largest collections of natural sounds in the world, having recorded more than 90,000 different sounds in more than 55 different countries for a total of over 60,000 hours of natural sounds. Stunningly, Martyn reveals that two thirds of what he has recorded is now extinct. He talks about what inspired him as a young child to be a nature recordist, and explains you...

As hard as it is to succeed and thrive as a professional jazz musician, how much more challenging is it when the journey leads you to a new country—with new laws, new social customs, and a system that creates roadblocks nearly every step of the way?

Today we sit down with jazz saxophonist and music professor Felipe Salles to talk about his journey from an international student at a major conservatory in Boston "fresh off the boat" (as he puts it) from Brazil, to a working musician living in New York on a so-called "genius visa" to...

When you're a longtime expat, do your friends back home move on?

We discuss on this episode from our archives. Expats often make friends with other expats in their adopted country. That can be great, but it also means that it's very likely that your new friends will, sooner or later, move away and you'll be back to square one. It's typical, therefore, for expats to consider their friends back home as their "real friends." But do those same friends feel the same way about them?

While an expat may consider their childhood friends as...

What happens when you dream of living by the sea in Italy but you are deeply connected to your home town and community?

If you are like this week's guest, Laurel Attanasio, you compromise: buy your dream house on the Calabrian coast and live there for just part of the year. Best of both worlds, eh?

But there's a catch: living in Italy even part-time brings endless bureaucratical issues (perhaps even more than living there full-time). Case in point: you can't buy a car without car insurance, but you can't get car insurance unless you're...

Robert Fulghum is the author of 21 books and a writer whose career that has spanned multiple decades. On this episode from our archives, we share a deep and intimate conversation with him, asking questions like: how do you stay curious about the world around you?

Katy's also explores Fulghum's uncanny ability to attain resilience in the face of what some would deem to be disaster, why Robert dismisses the "meaningless" idea of personal authenticity, how travel shapes your life (and why he makes sure never to dress like a tourist!) and the simple thing that one elementary...

In an episode that is worth sharing with others in your life, Katy's sister Dana joins us to give an update on her health, dealing with a glioblastoma brain cancer, as well as an amazing device that she has created to keep her mind focused on things that offer consolation rather than desolation. It's a surprisingly simple idea that helps her focus on the true prioriities in her life, rather than all the scary and anxiety-producing things about facing major change in your health. And she does it is in the most fuzzy and cute, cuddly way that you...

Traveling all alone... does sound like a nightmare or a fantasy? Or perhaps the idea intrigues you but you're a little too scared to try it.

Thanks to a listener question, we delve into the realities of solo travel on this episode, the good, the bad, the perks, the challenges, the dangers, and the unexpected joys. We also share some of the wonderful and not-so-nice things that have happened to us on our own solo voyages, as well as a few hacks on how to make the most of it (and not get too lonely).

...

On Monday's new episode, we discuss the bittersweet feeling that so often comes with endings and new beginnings. Excitement tinged with nostalgia and a sense of what will be missed. What brought up these thoughts? Aurelio recently finishing elementary school and all the emotions that that brought up, particularly for his mom! (If you missed that episode, be sure to go back and listen here!)

On this mini-episode, Aurelio weighs in. What does HE feel about leaving the school and teachers he's gotten to know so well over these past five years and preparing to embark on...

It's happened: Tiffany's son Aurelio has "graduated" from elementary school and is on his way to big-kid land.

How is his mom handling it?

And why is it that endings, no matter what they are, tend to be so bittersweet?

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COME TO ROME WITH US: Our 4th annual Bittersweet Life Roman Adventure is taking place this year from 1 to 7 November 2026! If you'd like to be part of an intimate group of listeners on a magical and unforgettable journey to Rome, discovering the city with us as your guides, find out...