The Bittersweet Life

Rome not only has more fountains than any city on earth, it also has the most beautiful ones, from the delicate Fountain of the Turtles (nispiration for Tiffany's book Midnight in the Piazza), to the…

*but didn't know who to ask.

In today's mini-episode, Tiffany fills you in on the history of this fascinating election, unique in the wolrd, as well as all the rules and ceremonies involved, just in …

What's it like to move abroad, all the way from Texas to Florence, Italy, learn the language to perfection, and establish yourself there so fully that you become known internationally simply as the "…

This special author interview pulled from our archives is Part 2 of our conversation with bestselling writer Anthony Doerr, author of Pulitzer Prize-winning All the Light We Cannot See, as well as be…

There’s one museum in Rome that has it all—and it’s not the Vatican.

The Capitoline Museums are comprised of a collection of nearly everything you could hope for in a museum—sumptuous frescoed…

Did you know that ancient Roman statues used to smell like roses?

Or that ancient temples and palaces used to be painted with bright colors?

What other things from the deep, dark past are vastly diff…

In this very special episode from our archives, we are joined by the award-winning, best-selling writer, Anthony Doerr, author of All the Light We Cannot See, Cloud Cuckoo Land, and Four Seasons in R…

On this bonus episode, available exclusively to our Patreon supporters, Katy gives an update on her sister Dana's stage 4 agressive brain cancer.

This is just an excerpt, and if you want to hear mor…

Are romance languages sexist? On this episode, we discuss the puzzling and seemingly discriminatory aspects of languages like Italian and French.

For example:

Why do inanimate objects have a gender?

…

When you come back after several years to a city where you used to live, what do you notice? What has change? What has stayed the same? What have you forgotten about in your time away?

In this episod…

Where did Lord Byron and Percy Shelley come to sip coffee while they jotted down their verses? Where did Bizet and Berlioz go to discuss their work? Where could Casanova be found trying to pick up g…

Need help falling asleep?

That's not usually our forte—at least we hope it isn't!—but this week the legendary sleep-podcaster Drew Ackerman, better known to his listeners as Dear Scooter, of t…

This week, therapist and bestselling author Lori Gottlieb joins us to talk about change, loss, self-examination...and when you should really talk to someone. If you’ve ever wondered what your therapi…

For a leisurely stroll that is full of artistic gems and delightful curiosities hidden in plain —and somehow overlooked by tourists—join us for a walk down Via Giulia, one of the most historic and s…

The Bittersweet Life Podcast went on an unexpected and unprecedented month-long hiatus. As you can imagine, only something life-threatening could have caused us to take this break.

Katy sits d…

This week, we explore the underground world with Robert MacFarlane of Cambridge University in England. Robert is the best-selling author of Landmarks and The Old Ways, and was awarded the EM Forster …

Did you know that your favorite podcast hosts are also writers?

On this week's bonus episode—available exclusively to our supporters on Patreon—we talk all about our various writing processes.

Katy r…

Five years after the world came to a grinding halt—when Italy and shortly after much of the globe went into a full or partial lockdown—Katy and Tiffany have a conversation about that unique and momen…

Continuing our month-long look back at life during the initial outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, we are re-airing Part 2 of our peek into our lives—and the lives of our listeners all around the worl…

Who remembers what life felt like during the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, when cities and entire countries were shutting down right and left? Believe it or not, it all started five years ago …