What’s New in Italy for 2024: From Roots Tourism to Historic Train Trips

This article originally appeared in the December 2023/January 2024 issue of Dream of Italy. To cope with record-high tourist numbers, Italy has generated new and creative ways to welcome and entertain visitors. This coming year promises a renewed love and appreciation for locomotive travel, ancestry-inspired tours and a fresh Italian Capital of Culture sure to bring a new side of the …

Three-Night Castelvetere Sul Calore Experience with Kathy McCabe in Italy April 2024

So my Regent Seven Seas cruise has incredible timing as it departs from Rome’s Civitavecchia port on April 29, 2024. That means I can attend the Festa della Madonna delle Grazie in my ancestral hometown in Campania (about 2.5 hours south) the day before, April 28th. I want to invite as many of you to join me as we can accommodate. I am creating a special 3-night …

Why Claim Italian Citizenship and Advantages of An Italian Passport

Those of Italian ancestry around the world, particularly in the U.S., are using their family line to claim Italian citizenship jure sanguinis, by blood. This gives them the option of dual citizenship and holding an Italian/European passport. This short excerpt from Kathy McCabe’s book Dream of Italy: Travel, Transform and Thrive details some of the benefits of holding Italian/European Union …

Join Me As We Dream of Italy: Travel, Transform and Thrive

This article originally appeared in the April/May 2021 issue of Dream of Italy. It has been several years in the making, with a pandemic thrown in for good measure, so I’m thrilled to announce that the special, Dream of Italy: Travel, Transform and Thrive, is coming to PBS stations and Create TV in June. My life was changed by just …

Editor’s Note: April/May 2021 Dream of Italy Issue

This Editor’s Note originally appeared in the April/May 2021 issue of Dream of Italy. Members receive access to more than 180 back issues—if you’re not a member, join here. What’s it like to see your life’s work and passion culminate in a star-studded TV special and a companion book with a foreword by Frances Mayes? Well, I’m about to find …

New Archive Shares Thousands of Italian Immigrant Stories

The Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has launched an project called I Diari Raccontano- Italiani all’estero  which translates to “Diaries Recount – Italians Abroad.”  The dense archive holds immigrants’ tales about leaving their beloved Italy behind. The website is based on an interactive map on which users can click on different orbs and delve into a thousand stories of immigrants’ …

A Book That Celebrates Fathers, Daughters, Miracles and Italy

In honor of Father’s Day, I want to tell you about a book that I have enjoyed and that my own father is currently reading! An unforgettable story based on true events, My Father’s Last Meatballs, A Heavenly Entrée, is a tale of family, love, loss and miracles. This non-fiction book is a compelling story brimming with great ingredients: moxie, …

A Poem From Castelvetere: The American in Castelvetere

For the Castelvetere sul Calore episode of my PBS travel series, I returned to my ancestral hometown 22 years after my mother and I had first laid eyes on it and more than 100 years after my great-grandfather left Castelvetere for America. That day my mother and I arrived in July 1995, we met our distant cousin Livio Nargi, historian, …