A Writer In Italy - travel, books, art and life – Details, episodes & analysis

"I am a Mediterranean painter" - Cy Twombly

Welcome to Episode #125:

In 1952 Robert Rauschenberg photographed his friend and fellow artist Cy Twombly standing with a thin notebook next to Constantine’s colossal hand while on holiday in Rome. They were together on a traveling arts scholarship. They traveled extensively for months in Italy and North Africa. 

Five years later Cy Twombly moved from America to live in Rome, Italy.

Cy Twombly (1928-2011) made a life in Rome as an artist. He kept the art world at bay, painting vast canvases full of white space with a trademark style to his work, secluding himself in places like Gaeta, Bassano and Rome. 

Twombly would take many journeys over his lifetime. Moving between places and homes and making art. Twombly’s fascination with ancient civilisations, the Mediterranean cultures, the Greco and the Roman would converge on his canvases. A love of literature and poetry underlines his art. 

This is a story about place, art and history, and how they intersect on the canvas of life. 

Musical Scores by Richard Johnston

Shownotes at MichelleJohnston.life

A Writer in Italy Instagram

Substack - At My Table

Michelle’s Books

© 2025  A Writer In Italy - travel, books, art and life
Music Composed by Richard Johnston © 2025

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“To awaken quite alone in a strange town is one of the pleasantest sensations in the world. You are surrounded by adventure. You have no idea of what is in store for you, but you will, if you are wise and know the art of travel, let yourself go on the stream of the unknown and accept whatever comes in the spirit in which the gods may offer it....."  Baghdad Sketches, Freya Stark

Welcome to Episode #124:

Today I take you on a journey through a few travel experiences that have a left a wonderful impression on my life as a writer and lover of Italy. 

These are a handful of moments that captured the essence of travel and what I truly appreciate and love about the Italian culture and visiting Italy.

The places that called me on the travel journeys in Italy, that are mentioned today.... The Venetian Lagoon, Venice, Padova, Torino, Sperlonga, Campania, Rome, Lake Garda, Milano….. and Paris

Enjoy x

If you are interested in another kind of rabbit hole, I mention these podcasts along the way....

Art & Love: Peggy Guggenheim Part 1

Art & Love: Peggy Guggenheim Part 2

Moments in Italy: Caffes & Coffee Bars, Turin Italy

Shownotes at MichelleJohnston.life

A Writer in Italy Instagram

Substack - At My Table

Michelle’s Books

© 2025  A Writer In Italy - travel, books, art and life
Music Composed by Richard Johnston © 2025

Today's end music - 'Chances' 

'Seascapes" for mood music.....

Richard's Music is available on Spotify and Apple Music - Album 4240

Links to Episodes that I mention in this podcast:

Art & Love: Peggy Guggenheim Part 1

Art & Love: Peggy Guggenheim Part 2

Moments in Italy: Caffes & Coffee Bars, Turin Italy

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"I adore the spirit of Rome" - Michelle Johnston, In the Shadow of a Cypress - An Italian Adventure

Welcome to Episode #115:

More and more I realise there is just something about Italy. This podcast is a culmination of an eventful solo journey in Italy and Paris, and the culmination of the days wandering around Italia has me feeling very open to the beauty of the day and those last precious moments in Rome…

Enjoy x

Find all Shownotes at  michellejohnston.life

My book:  In the Shadow of a Cypress - An Italian Adventure

Book Link for  MichelleJohnston.life

© 2025  A Writer In Italy - travel, books, art and life
Music Composed by Richard Johnston © 2025

Support the show

"Thy light alone - Gives grace and truth to life's unquiet dream'    -  Percy Bysshe Shelley

Welcome to Episode #25.......

Sometimes you just need to start in the middle, and somehow you find the beginning and the end.  That is how this episode came about.  There is always the attention to the inner calling to do the work, to make way, to make hay while the sun shines.  This episode is a soliloquy to the creative life, to getting back to writing and to some musing about life and art. 
'Eat, Pray, Love’ and the book ‘Big Magic’ by Elizabeth Gilbert played a role in reminding me why it all matters.   And that sometimes you have to go out on a limb if you want to get the fruit.  Enjoy.  

© 2021 A Writer In Italy - travel, writing, art and life

Music Composed by Richard Johnston, © 2021

See Show Notes for Books mentioned and a little share on podcasts I have enjoyed over the summer  if you are interested in the creative journey....

Please find all Show Notes and details mentioned at:

www.michellejohnston.life

Instagram:  @awriterinitaly and @theyellowhouse__

About A Writer in Italy Podcast:

Five years ago Michelle Johnston traveled to Italy to create space for herself and her writing.  Michelle traveled solo giving herself time to recalibrate after many years of parenting and life in general.  Leaving her husband to take care of the family she reconnected with her writing, her art and her love of travel.

The adventure turned into the book and travel memoir...............

In the Shadow of a Cypress: An Italian Adventure

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“To make time to eat as Italians still do is to share in their inexhaustible gift for making art out of life” 
                                        -  Marcella Hazan
                     ‘The Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking 

Welcome to Episode #24
Join me for the final episode for 2020 as I make a Spritz Prosecco Cocktail and share my last podcast for the year with Christine from Italian Dish Podcast.
At the beginning of December Christine and I had a Skype chat about her Italian Dish Podcast and how she made her way to Italy over the recent years.  We chat about the mood of Christmas as we near the end of 2020, cooking in la Cucina Italiana and her inspirations behind her Italian food creations and how she went to Italy to study abroad and eventually found herself married to an Italian and living in Tuscany.

Christine can be found on I-Tunes or your favourite Podcast Channel @ Italian Dish and on Instagram at @italiandishpodcast.

Enjoy and try one of her gorgeous Italian Recipes......or join her Patreon Community for extra cooking ideas and recipes.

Music Composed by Richard Johnston, Copyright 2020.


Please find all Show Notes and details mentioned at:

www.michellejohnston.life

Instagram:  @awriterinitaly and @theyellowhouse__

About A Writer in Italy Podcast:

Five years ago Michelle Johnston traveled to Italy to create space for herself and her writing.  Michelle traveled solo giving herself time to recalibrate after many years of parenting and life in general.  Leaving her husband to take care of the family she reconnected with her writing, her art and her love of travel.

The adventure turned into the book and travel memoir...............

In the Shadow of a Cypress: An Italian Adventure

Support the show

“Italy, like the olive tree, is ever-green” 
                                    - Lina Waterfield, ‘Castle in Italy’

Welcome to Episode #23.......

I begin with a light serenade to December 2020 sitting out in the morning sun and then share the fifth installment of The Family Trip in Italy....

Part 2 Florence, Tuscany....Firenze and the travel adventure continues. 


Enjoy, See You Next time with Christine from The Italian Dish Podcast #24


And then onto Lucca, Pisa and Genoa Italy.........and then the French Riveria

Music Composed by Richard Johnston, Copyright 2021.


Please find all Show Notes and details mentioned at:

www.michellejohnston.life

Instagram:  @awriterinitaly and @theyellowhouse__

About A Writer in Italy Podcast:

Five years ago Michelle Johnston traveled to Italy to create space for herself and her writing.  Michelle traveled solo giving herself time to recalibrate after many years of parenting and life in general.  Leaving her husband to take care of the family she reconnected with her writing, her art and her love of travel.

The adventure turned into the book and travel memoir...............

In the Shadow of a Cypress: An Italian Adventure

Support the show

“These trains have eaten into my mind and my writing”    -   Tim Parks ‘Italian Ways:  On and Off the Rails from Milan to Palermo’

Welcome to Episode #22.......

This an excerpt from the journey, the little adventure from Padua in Italy to Paris, France....

Next stop - Florence, Tuscany....Firenze is one of those places that you can just wander and there is something wonderful around every corner.  The architectural detail and the Renaissance treasures are all there to be seen and savoured.  It is the open air museum like qualities that make it such a great walking city.  I share this with a little detail on the rich history of Renaissance art how this city is considered the birth place of the Renaissance and the reasons why.

Enjoy, See You Next time with Florence, Pisa and Lucca, Italy.........

© 2021 A Writer In Italy - travel, writing, art and life

Music Composed by Richard Johnston, © 2021

Please find all Show Notes and details mentioned at:

www.michellejohnston.life

Instagram:  @awriterinitaly and @theyellowhouse__

About A Writer in Italy Podcast:

Five years ago Michelle Johnston traveled to Italy to create space for herself and her writing.  Michelle traveled solo giving herself time to recalibrate after many years of parenting and life in general.  Leaving her husband to take care of the family she reconnected with her writing, her art and her love of travel.

The adventure turned into the book and travel memoir...............

In the Shadow of a Cypress: An Italian Adventure

Support the show

“I just think food is so important to us, it is the most important thing we do, so why not enjoy it”...Rick Stein

Welcome to Episode 21:

This is just me, the real me, the girl that decides to make it happen regardless of the original plan.

A garden walk and a podcast recorded in the chicken pen.   A little cook up of the stinging nettle I foraged in the garden was the outcome of this spontaneous episode on the philosophy and heritage of La Cucina Povera.  

It goes without saying that 2020 has been an interesting social experiment and I have been contemplating  many things that relate to less waste and more good living on my own terms.

After listening to the book on Patience Gray about her evocative life by Adam Federman this week, she died early 2005 and published many books and essays on food and life in particular the classic 'Honey From a Weed'  on her journey of living in the wilds of the Mediterranean lands and sea.  I have been musing over many things related this past few months that I ponder in this episode.

This is an offering of sorts, a whimsical share and a possible rant on what it means to be a modern woman and what it means to juggle the anxieties of the modern trappings this world offers.   Certainly I am a privileged woman who can make her own decisions about the give and the take on an ordinary Wednesday.  

If you want the real truth it is most of all the ordinary kind of magic that interests me the most.  The kind of alchemy that happens in the kitchen and in the garden, and when you spontaneously decide to make a plate of pasta for lunch from something on hand and within reach.   An improvisation of sorts.  This is my favourite kind of day, a privilege yes, and a humble thrill to even ramble and share this musing on a detail of Italian culture and how I feel inspired by it daily.

mj xo

Enjoy, See You Next time with Florence and Lucca, Italy.........


© 2021 A Writer In Italy - travel, writing, art and life

Music Composed by Richard Johnston, © 2021

Please find all Show Notes and details mentioned at:

www.michellejohnston.life

Instagram:  @awriterinitaly and @theyellowhouse__

About A Writer in Italy Podcast:

Five years ago Michelle Johnston traveled to Italy to create space for herself and her writing.  Michelle traveled solo giving herself time to recalibrate after many years of parenting and life in general.  Leaving her husband to take care of the family she reconnected with her writing, her art and her love of travel.

The adventure turned into the book and travel memoir...............

In the Shadow of a Cypress: An Italian Adventure

Support the show

"Travel is like any other addiction: the more of it you've had, the more of it you need" - Tony Wheeler

Welcome to Episode 20: Verona, Veneto

The day began with a large yellow Mimosa heart wreath in the middle of the Corso Porto Nuova.  And that pretty much sets the stage for a day of exploring the Veneto town of Verona.  The star crossed lovers, the myth and the magic of Romeo and Juliet and the legacy of the della Scala family,  the Scalageri in the Piazza del Signori and beyond.   The Romanesque architecture, the castle walls, the grand palazzi on the River Adige, the Roman ruins, the pristine vicolo to wander along with a gelato in hand admiring the homes of terra-cotta, lemon and sienna, and the ivy falling from wrought iron balconies all made for a delightful day exploring this fabulous city. 

Enjoy, See You Next time with Florence and Lucca, Italy.........

© 2021 A Writer In Italy - travel, writing, art and life

Music Composed by Richard Johnston, © 2021

Please find all Show Notes and details mentioned at:

www.michellejohnston.life

Instagram:  @awriterinitaly and @theyellowhouse__

About A Writer in Italy Podcast:

Five years ago Michelle Johnston traveled to Italy to create space for herself and her writing.  Michelle traveled solo giving herself time to recalibrate after many years of parenting and life in general.  Leaving her husband to take care of the family she reconnected with her writing, her art and her love of travel.

The adventure turned into the book and travel memoir...............

In the Shadow of a Cypress: An Italian Adventure

Support the show

"Open my heart, and you will see / Graved inside of it, Italy" - Robert Browning

Welcome to Episode #19:  Venezia, Venetia - Italy

Venice is the icing on the cake and should be sampled at least once in a lifetime or more if you are lucky.  Traveling to see this city built on over one hundred islands, linked by bridges and canals halfway between the rising and the setting sun never fails to excite and entice the curious traveler.

A family day walking this city to sample the delights of the Gothic and the Byzantine, the romance, the time worn elegance, the grand palazzi, the maze of alleyways, the bridges and the magic of the canals was a sweet thing.

Contemplation and wonder over travel narratives and thoughts on the art of travel.......... In truth an ever expanding world that one shall be musing over for some time.

Enjoy.....

© 2021 A Writer In Italy - travel, writing, art and life

Music Composed by Richard Johnston, © 2021

Please find all Show Notes and Books mentioned at:

www.michellejohnston.life


Please subscribe, rate and/or review if you enjoyed this podcast.

Instagram:  @awriterinitaly and @theyellowhouse__

About A Writer in Italy Podcast:

Five years ago Michelle Johnston traveled to Italy to create space for herself and her writing.  Michelle traveled solo giving herself time to recalibrate after many years of parenting and life in general.  Leaving her husband to take care of the family she reconnected with her writing, her art and her love of travel.

The adventure turned into the book and travel memoir...............

In the Shadow of a Cypress: An Italian Adventure

Support the show