So pleased to have been interviewed by Claire Theobald of the Edmonton Sun for this fun article published yesterday on online. For those of you non-Edmontonians, it's a local newspaper back in my home city! 

A snippet from the article:

"Part of the fun of it is being able to show off the culture and the city that we've chosen," said Jasmine Mah, who moved to Bergamo, Italy -- a city she calls a "hidden gem" -- in early December to be with her fiancé. 

Read the rest of it here (or click the headline above). 

I have so many photographs from my past (is it six now?) trips to Italy and I really wanted to share some of them on the blog, especially since I was going through my files yesterday and found quite a few gems so in the next few days, expect a bunch of throwbacks! These three were taken in Bergamo and I alway felt that they exuded a bit of a Julia Roberts in Eat, Pray, Love- that scene where she's overlooking Rome at sunset. The camera pans a breath-taking view that is the epitome of something to marvel and Julia slowly takes off her (very classic) aviators to do just that. 

Here's what today's recipe looks like, see the full recipe here. 

The Rome segment of the new James Bond movie, Spectre, started shooting today. It's sounding quite promising with scenes supposedly along the Tiber river, Piazza Navona, and the Trevi Fountain. Evidently, even a Fiat 500 is set to make an appearance in the film, read more about it here. 

So in case you weren't aware from personal travel experience to The Boot, Italian breakfast is the equivalent of American dessert. Pretty much anything that Americans eat for dessert is fair-game for breakfast here and it's one of the things I have the most problems with as I am a firm admirer of savoury bacon, eggs, and pancakes. I miss the aforementioned dearly. However, alot of you with a sweet-tooth would LOVE IT HERE. Massi's mum made tiramisu one day and for the next couple days after, she made me eat it for breakfast. This is totally normal. You may also add a cappuccino to that and you have the Italian breakfast of champions. 

Here are some recent photos of our house and the bits and pieces we've added to it (such as Puffo). Much of the living room accents are literally pieces that Massi's mother insisted on giving us from her own house! Two weeks ago, it snowed like crazy and I would've felt right at home as if it were Canada except for the fact that I had to stare out at our poor snow-covered palm tree in the yard. Scroll to the very end if house stuff doesn't interest you and you just want to see Puffo, I can't judge you for that, it's what I would do. 

Today is Fat Tuesday or Martedí Grasso here in Italy and is the main day of Carnevale where everyone would be dressed up therefore, I wanted to share this old throwback photo of when I first visited Italy during one of my university reading weeks. We went to a Carnevale-themed night at a club and I had just bought a Venetian mask from our day-trip to Venice a couple days before. Of course, I busted it out for the discoteca and it's not too shabby if I do say so myself eh? 

It is with extreme excitement that I can finally reveal that Massi and I are going to be featured in an episode of House Hunters International which is shown on HGTV in North America. It was always one of my absolute favorite shows and I loved living vicariously through all the people moving to foreign lands. We never would have imagined that we would have the chance to share our own story and house hunting experience. I was 'hunted' down by a casting director awhile back and we are still filming some sections in the next month or two so if you see us in Bergamo, that's why cameras are rolling (although if you prefer to assume that it's because I'm famous, assume away!). I will post when more information about air dates etc. becomes available. Can't wait to see how our episode turns out!

Here are the two winners from Italy's big music festival, San Remo, that features only Italian songs and songwriters which helps in selecting the contestants that will represent the country for Eurovision (an annual song competition in Europe). Usually after San Remo, there's a sudden surge of Italian music on the charts. It's a great period of the year because most of the time, the top songs in Italy are all in English so it's nice to have some Italian back in the mix. 

Happy Monday! Monday is intense cleaning day here in our Italian abode. Before I get my hands dirty, I wanted to write a quick post from the weekend. Saturday we went to Verona to look at furniture for the house and ended up getting our Valentine's Day gift to ourselves- a coat hanger and a little table for the living room (will photograph for a later post). Valentine's Day, as cheesy as it is, will always hold a special place in our hearts; the photograph above is from February 14th on my first visit to Italy and five years later on the same day, we got engaged. Massi cooked his usual annual Valentine's meal, one of my favorite pasta dishes- Spaghetti allo Scoglio. It was his first re-attempt at cooking since coming home to Italy six months ago and we both agreed he lost his culinary touch just like he's losing some English and says things like 'Puffo is pulling out the wires of the duvet cover' (=Puffo is pulling out the threads of the duvet cover). I think one of the best things about being a mixed couple is that we get to have all these hilarious language slip-up moments together in English and Italian. It's a good lesson in learning to laugh at yourself.