Welcome to La Nonna Vita
Calling all italophiles, admirers of "la dolce vita," and grandma-core enthusiasts
Dear reader,
Since moving to Italy last summer, two things have become abundantly clear: the first is that my fascination with Italian culture seems to have no limits. Especially the culture of cibo e vino that is deliciously full of contradictions—complexity and simplicity, traditional wisdom and intuition, care and effortlessness, unhurried pleasure and contentment—it is a never-ending treasure trove of learning and discovery for me. This fact is reaffirming as it somewhat justifies my decision to leave my well-paying, respectable job in New York to deepen my studies of Italian Food & Wine at the Università di Padova.
The second realization is that, no matter how deep my admiration of Italian culture may be, my identity as an American is like a stubborn crust at the bottom of a Dutch oven, burnt in so deeply and for so long that it’s impossible to remove. Try as I might, my sense of self and ingrained habits that developed during the majority of my life in the U.S. cannot be scrubbed away by studying or living the “Italian way.” There is an effortlessness that I will never quite grasp or be able to emulate as an American.
Rather than throw up my hands in defeat, I’m choosing to access this culture through a studied approach, drawing on the figure of the nonna, the Italian grandma, as my muse. This publication is not a chronicle about an American woman living in Italy who adopts the Italian lifestyle (this would be an insincere approach). It is a collection of observations and reflections on italianità and how its principles can or cannot be applied to modern life. The American in me hopes that through this exercise, I will uncover the secret life of the nonna, unlocking ways to fully embrace living a slower, more meaningful, and balanced existence.
italianità
[i-ta-lia-ni-tà]
The quality of being Italian or feeling Italian; to identify with being Italian: to declare one’s Italian-ness.1
The name of this publication, La Nonna Vita, is a play on words inspired by the Fellini film turned cultural idiom, La Dolce Vita—“the sweet life.” And it is an evocation to the modern Italian muse: the nonna, who represents all of the things I admire most about the Italian way of life. The nonna is a tangible conduit to access and imagine a culture that is not my own. Rooted in the values of italianità—simplicity, tradition, connection, and culture—La Nonna Vita draws on my experiences and studies while living abroad. I’ll write about the viticultural and culinary topics that I’m learning about, unfamiliar traditions that I encounter, and the randomly beautiful places I stumble upon that can’t be found through a simple Google search. I’ll share these reflections in mostly bite-sized, didactically-oriented pieces that offer glimpses into the richness of Italian culture.
A bit about me: I’m a former wine marketer who paused corporate life to move to Italy in pursuit of a different way. Originally from the Midwest, I now call Padova (Padua for you English speakers) home, and it’s here where I’ve lived since 2024 with my Italian partner and our Lagotto Romagnolo dog, Athena. Life in Padova offers a daily education—not only in the academic sense but also in daily life lessons that, sometimes not so gently, remind me to embrace slowness and savor the beauty of learning about and experiencing another culture.
If you’ve ever wanted to understand what’s really behind the veil of “la dolce vita,” or how a small peninsula in the middle of the Mediterranean has managed to keep itself relevant and desirable to the rest of the world for millennia—well, here’s a start.
- Emma from La Nonna Vita
La Repubblica. (n.d.). Italianità. Dizionario italiano. Retrieved April 14, 2025, from https://dizionari.repubblica.it/Italiano/I/italianita.html