A Conversation with Kathy McCabe, Host of PBS Dream of Italy Travel Show series…
Dear Friends, My apologies for Thursday night tech probs, mucking up the Women Who Love Italy conversation on Facebook Live that I had perfectly planned (so I thought), with my dear friend Kathy McCabe.
Grazie mille to you who did bear with us and joined in. Your hearts and thumbs up and comments mean so much to us.
It’s ALWAYS GOLDEN to share time with friends, however it can happen. I became a fan of Kathy’s when I first came across the Dream of Italy newsletter, and our friendship began when we finally met on a press trip to the region of Abruzzo in 2007. It was a huge symposium, with plenty of time to get to know each other over long winding bus rides flanked by stunning mountains, grand dinners, and discoveries of enchanting spots, like the village of Sulmona. (How amazing that years later she did a Dream of Italy TV show episode there!).
Of course we immediately bonded over our shared Love of Italy, and we also discovered we’re both Jersey Italian-Americans–with Irish on our Daddys’ sides. (In fact, my paternal grandmother’s maiden name was McCabe!). Clearly, though we loved our Daddys, our maternal Italian sides steered the way for both of us.
Through the years it’s been wonderful to be there for each other as we’ve followed our bliss—I’ve been thrilled to celebrate Kathy’s triumphs with Dream of Italy magazine, and in creating the awesome Dream of Italy PBS series, and Kathy has cheered me on with my books, amd Golden Weeks in Italy. We’ve toasted on both USA coasts, and all over Italy–in Rome, Sardinia, the Tuscan countryside…sharing loads of happy times.
I loved getting to know Kathy’s parents, who came every year to our New York Times Travel Show Discover Italy panel.
They were so much fun and so supportive–always sitting in the front row and beaming. Sadly, Kathy and I wound up sharing another similar life experience. Kathy’s parents passed away recently–first her mother in 2018, then her father, in December 2019. I had the same experience in the early 1990s with my parents dying one after the other in a short time span. We’ve talked around and through this–imagining these pairs who had good long marriages, now united up there, watching over us….
I get it when Kathy talks of returning to Italy and says, “It’s my therapy.” The trip I took to Italy after my parents’ passing was profoundly healing, and I’ve seen so many times how Italy can be a blessing to many who’ve suffered losses. Kathy needs to go!
In the meantime, we’ll be here for each other and have our girlfriend talks. We always get a lift from each other and from joining together to share our Love of Italy with you wonderful Italofiles out there.
For those who missed it, here are some highlights from Thursday:
Kathy McCabe and Susan Van Allen: Two Jersey Italian American Women with their mother’s necklaces…in Positano
It was fun to reminisce about when Kathy and I met in Positano for aperitivo and dinner at Le Tre Sorelle a couple of Octobers ago. We hadn’t planned it, but we both showed up wearing necklaces that had belonged to our dear mothers.
Kathy always wears her mother’s gold Capri bell. It’s a classic gift from the island, and became popular during WWII days, when GIs would go to Capri for R&R and buy the bells to bring back to their loved ones. The bell recalls a legend of a shepherd boy who was wandering around Anacapri, when he heard a tinkling sound. He followed the sound to a ravine, where a glowing Saint Michael appeared to him, and gifted him a little bell to protect him for all his life. Receiving the gift, the shepherd’s life became full of luck, joy, and kindness. It is still believed that the bell brings fortune = “porta fortuna”.
Kathy’s mother got the bell as a gift from her parents and wore it all her life. By the way, Kathy found out her mother’s bell was from Campanina, a shop that’s still on the main Capri shopping via, and also beloved by women who come along on my Golden Week in Southern Italy For Women Only trips.
I love this detail: believing in its protective powers, Kathy’s mother was never without that bell—even when she wore a different necklace, she’d pin it to her bra.
How is Italy Right Now?
Moving on, we toasted Italians, and how proud we are of how they handled the COVID19 situation from the onset. The strict lockdown that began in March for 8 weeks was a hardship, but it united the country, brought their numbers down and controlled the spread. There’s been a little rise in numbers right now, because of Italians vacationing in the summer, but not nearly as bad as their neighbors–France and Spain–countries where they’re averaging 10,000 cases a day. In contrast, Italy is now about 1500 cases a day. Keep those prayers going and they’ll keep wearing their masks!
To sum up Italy’s response, Kathy gave a shout out to a story wonderfully told by Beppe Severigni in the New York Times: How Italy Coped and Will Continue to Cope
And, sorry to say, nobody knows when we’ll be able to return. As Doctor Fauci says, “The virus makes the timeline.”
So what are we doing in the meanwhile?…We’re finding ways to enjoy Italy at Home.
Of course, we miss The Food! Kathy, living in Colorado, has found some great places to satisfy the cravings…Her favorites:
Mezzaluna in Aspen and in Denver she loves Coperta, Parisi, and says
Il Posto has the best risotto of anywhere outside of Italy!
At Dream of Italy, Kathy has lots going on to tide us over until our Italy trips. There’s an espresso cup offered to new magazine subscribers, handpainted from Sisal, a company in the Val d’Orcia region of Tuscany.
And she has more ideas for “Italy at Home” in her upcoming PBS Dream of Italy special, along with virtual Dream of Italy workshops coming soon. It’s also a great time to get into exploring your geneaology and planning a trip to your ancestral village, said Kathy, adding, “That was life-changing for me!” — (Watch the Season 2 episode where she goes back to Castelvetere.).
Also there’s the Dream of Italy Bookclub on Facebook, where Kathy interviews authors, such as Tom Viviano who wrote one of her favorite Italy books, Blood Washes Blood. “I can’t believe how much enthusiasm there is out there for books that take place in Italy,” Kathy said. “Readers are showing up and sharing loads of great suggestions!”.
AND RIGHT NOW there’ happens to be a Great Book Giveaway–a set of 4 signed books will be given to 12 lucky winners…
CLICK HERE to enter the Drawing by September 30.
I’m finding baths with Santa Maria Novella bubbles and Fellini movies are a splendid way to get my Italy at Home time…
More of my recommendations to come!
The Future…
Psychologists say planning for a Happy Future trip is actually very good for your health during these stressful days…Kathy and I are down with that!
Kathy has been hearing that “Revenge Travel” may be on its way—a boom in traveling that’s bound to happen when restrictions are lifted. There also might be a trend of people taking longer trips or going to places less crowded than cities, that may be considered safer or easier to deal with, COVID19-wise. That means…perhaps we’ll go back to the region of Abruzzo.
“It’s so naturally beautiful, with the Gran Sasso National Park–as beautiful as Colorado,” Kathy said. And on the seaside, you can get in on a “Fish to Table” experience–eating on a pier in a hut where nets are dropped for the catch of the day. Go there vicariously in Season 2’s episode.
We sighed over thoughts of returning to…
—Spas in Tuscany…Years ago we met at Fonteverde, a gem of a spot in the southern part of the region, that was once a Medici villa.
Kathy adores Saturnia, in the Wild West Maremma province of the region, where thermal waters gush out of dramatic waterfalls.
Still below the tourist radar, is the city of Torino.
Kathy loves the setting, backed by mountains, the elegant historic center, the great Barolo wines, Egyptian museum, the agnolotti (tiny ravioli-like pasta filled with delicately spiced meat or vegetables). I’m crazy about the chocolate and the Royal Palace that’s room after stupendous room of awe-inspiring decor: fabulous chandeliers, ballrooms, outrageously beautiful furnishings….
We always have more places to be discovered, and one that we both have on our lists is the island of Pantelleria, south of Sicily, that’s written about by Barrie Kerper in the current Dream of Italy magazine…
We could have Dreamed On for hours!
Stay tuned for more from Women Who Love Italy…
AND in the meantime, let’s all be united, like the Italians, to control the spread and wear our masks…So we can get on that plane, and Live our Dreams of Italy…
Stay Well and See you Soon! XOX — Susan
