The Bittersweet Life

Bittersweet Peek: Curmudgeon Katy

Is Katy becoming a curmudgeon? Listen to this recent event, and weigh in! This is just a sneak peek of a much longer bonus episode that drops today, available exclusively to our generous Patreon supporters. Want to hear the whole epside and many many more like it? Become part of the Bittersweet Life community by supporting just on Patreon! For as little as $5 per month—less than the price of a coffee in some places—you will have access to multiple bonus episodes every single month. You'll hear conversations that would never take place on the main show, you'll be part of our new chat community, you'll have access to Patreon-only content in addition to bonus episodes, you'll be invited to join us for live meet-ups, and you'll get to enjoy ad-free listening! But most importantly, you'll be doing your part to help keep this show alive—an independent podcast with no corporate support. (You'll also help keep it virtually ad-free!) Check our our Patreon page for all the details, and consider joining us at the $5 level or above. We are eternally grateful! ------------------------------------- COME TO ROME WITH US: Our third annual Bittersweet Life Roman Adventure is in the books! If you'd like to join us in 2026, and be part of an intimate group of listeners on a magical and unforgettable journey to Rome, discovering the city with us as your guides, find out more here. ADVERTISE WITH US: Reach expats, future expats, and travelers all over the world. Send us an email to get the conversation started. BECOME A PATRON: Pledge your monthly support of The Bittersweet Life and receive awesome prizes in return for your generosity! Visit our Patreon site to find out more. TIP YOUR PODCASTER: Say thanks with a one-time donation to the podcast hosts you know and love. Click here to send financial support via PayPal. (You can also find a Donate button on the desktop version of our website.) The show needs your support to continue. START PODCASTING: If you are planning to start your own podcast, consider Libsyn for your hosting service! Use this affliliate link to get two months free, or use our promo code SWEET when you sign up. SUBSCRIBE: Subscribe to the podcast to make sure you never miss an episode. Click here to find us on a variety of podcast apps. WRITE A REVIEW: Leave us a rating and a written review on iTunes so more listeners can find us. JOIN THE CONVERSATION: If you have a question or a topic you want us to address, send us an email here. You can also connect to us through Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Tag #thebittersweetlife with your expat story for a chance to be featured! NEW TO THE SHOW? Don't be afraid to start with Episode 1: OUTSET BOOK: Want to read Tiffany's book, Midnight in the Piazza? Learn more here or order on Amazon. TOUR ROME: If you're traveling to Rome, don't miss the chance to tour the city with Tiffany as your guide!

Episode 618: Which Way Do Your Antennae Turn?

We all notice some things over other things. What determines what we notice?  Is it our background? Our innate personality? Our experiences? Our preferences? Our past mistakes? All of these things? Today we discuss this idea, and chat about the things we notice and why we think we notice them. What do you think? We always welcome your thoughts and feedback on the topics we discuss. Email us here anytime. ------------------------------------- COME TO ROME WITH US: Our third annual Bittersweet Life Roman Adventure is in the books! If you'd like to join us in 2026, and be part of an intimate group of listeners on a magical and unforgettable journey to Rome, discovering the city with us as your guides, find out more here. ADVERTISE WITH US: Reach expats, future expats, and travelers all over the world. Send us an email to get the conversation started. BECOME A PATRON: Pledge your monthly support of The Bittersweet Life and receive awesome prizes in return for your generosity! Visit our Patreon site to find out more. TIP YOUR PODCASTER: Say thanks with a one-time donation to the podcast hosts you know and love. Click here to send financial support via PayPal. (You can also find a Donate button on the desktop version of our website.) The show needs your support to continue. START PODCASTING: If you are planning to start your own podcast, consider Libsyn for your hosting service! Use this affliliate link to get two months free, or use our promo code SWEET when you sign up. SUBSCRIBE: Subscribe to the podcast to make sure you never miss an episode. Click here to find us on a variety of podcast apps. WRITE A REVIEW: Leave us a rating and a written review on iTunes so more listeners can find us. JOIN THE CONVERSATION: If you have a question or a topic you want us to address, send us an email here. You can also connect to us through Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Tag #thebittersweetlife with your expat story for a chance to be featured! NEW TO THE SHOW? Don't be afraid to start with Episode 1: OUTSET BOOK: Want to read Tiffany's book, Midnight in the Piazza? Learn more here or order on Amazon. TOUR ROME: If you're traveling to Rome, don't miss the chance to tour the city with Tiffany as your guide!

The Bittersweet Past: Are You Curious about Art? (with Jennifer Dasal)

Is the Mona Lisa in the Louvre fake? Was impressionist painter Claude Monet a radical? And was Caravaggio—our show's muse—murdered? Art history holds as many mysteries and baffling stories as it does masterpieces, and Jennifer Dasal, museum curator and host of the wildly popular ArtCurious podcast knows all the best ones. In this week's episode from our archives, we sit down with Jennifer to chat about her book, ArtCurious: Stories of the Unexpected, Slightly Odd, and Strangely Wonderful in Art History and delve into the fascinating world of mystery and art. PS Jennifer has a new book out! Check it out here: The Club: Where American Women Artists Found Refuge in Belle Époque Paris. ***The Bittersweet Life podcast has been on the air for an impressive 10+ years! In order to help newer listeners discover some of our earlier episodes, every Friday we are now airing an episode from our vast archives! Enjoy!*** ------------------------------------- COME TO ROME WITH US: Our third annual Bittersweet Life Roman Adventure is in the books! If you'd like to join us in 2026, and be part of an intimate group of listeners on a magical and unforgettable journey to Rome, discovering the city with us as your guides, find out more here. ADVERTISE WITH US: Reach expats, future expats, and travelers all over the world. Send us an email to get the conversation started. BECOME A PATRON: Pledge your monthly support of The Bittersweet Life and receive awesome prizes in return for your generosity! Visit our Patreon site to find out more. TIP YOUR PODCASTER: Say thanks with a one-time donation to the podcast hosts you know and love. Click here to send financial support via PayPal. (You can also find a Donate button on the desktop version of our website.) The show needs your support to continue. START PODCASTING: If you are planning to start your own podcast, consider Libsyn for your hosting service! Use this affliliate link to get two months free, or use our promo code SWEET when you sign up. SUBSCRIBE: Subscribe to the podcast to make sure you never miss an episode. Click here to find us on a variety of podcast apps. WRITE A REVIEW: Leave us a rating and a written review on iTunes so more listeners can find us. JOIN THE CONVERSATION: If you have a question or a topic you want us to address, send us an email here. You can also connect to us through Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Tag #thebittersweetlife with your expat story for a chance to be featured! NEW TO THE SHOW? Don't be afraid to start with Episode 1: OUTSET BOOK: Want to read Tiffany's book, Midnight in the Piazza? Learn more here or order on Amazon. TOUR ROME: If you're traveling to Rome, don't miss the chance to tour the city with Tiffany as your guide!

Bittersweet Moment #239: Explore the Pantheon with Tiffany

Don't stumble around one of the most important ancient sites in the world without learning about its incredible history, structure, art, design, and curiosities. Tiffany is right now putting the finishing touches on an audio tour of the Pantheon, written and narrated by her, and distributed by VoiceMap, an app where real people lead you seamlessly on fascinating audio tours using GPS so you don't even have to look at your phone. (Download VoiceMap for free here.) After taking a deep, deep dive into the Pantheon's history in preparation for creating this tour, Tiffany learned several facts about the momument that were completely new to her. On this mini-episode, she shares them with our listeners. Stay tuned: this tour will be available on the VoiceMap app very soon! Tiffany has made two other tours with Voice Map in the past: Download Tiffany's audio tour of Trastevere here. Download Tiffay's tour of Literary Rome here. And don't miss your chance to visit Rome with us in person, on our intimate Rome listener trip, coming up in fall of 2026. Find out all about it here, or email us for more information! ------------------------------------- COME TO ROME WITH US: Our third annual Bittersweet Life Roman Adventure is in the books! If you'd like to join us in 2026, and be part of an intimate group of listeners on a magical and unforgettable journey to Rome, discovering the city with us as your guides, find out more here. ADVERTISE WITH US: Reach expats, future expats, and travelers all over the world. Send us an email to get the conversation started. BECOME A PATRON: Pledge your monthly support of The Bittersweet Life and receive awesome prizes in return for your generosity! Visit our Patreon site to find out more. TIP YOUR PODCASTER: Say thanks with a one-time donation to the podcast hosts you know and love. Click here to send financial support via PayPal. (You can also find a Donate button on the desktop version of our website.) The show needs your support to continue. START PODCASTING: If you are planning to start your own podcast, consider Libsyn for your hosting service! Use this affliliate link to get two months free, or use our promo code SWEET when you sign up. SUBSCRIBE: Subscribe to the podcast to make sure you never miss an episode. Click here to find us on a variety of podcast apps. WRITE A REVIEW: Leave us a rating and a written review on iTunes so more listeners can find us. JOIN THE CONVERSATION: If you have a question or a topic you want us to address, send us an email here. You can also connect to us through Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Tag #thebittersweetlife with your expat story for a chance to be featured! NEW TO THE SHOW? Don't be afraid to start with Episode 1: OUTSET BOOK: Want to read Tiffany's book, Midnight in the Piazza? Learn more here or order on Amazon. TOUR ROME: If you're traveling to Rome, don't miss the chance to tour the city with Tiffany as your guide!

Episode 617: Returning Home to a Different Country (with Brie Ripley)

Lately it seems like lots of Americans are moving abroad. But, believe it or not, some American expats are moving back to the States. Today we're joined by one such ex-expat, or repatriate. Seattle-native Brie Ripley has been on the show before. We first interviewed her back in 2024 after she moved to Rome without ever having been there before. She joined us again about sixe months later, after she had settled in. And today we sit down with her to talk about why she and her husband decided to move back to the US and what it's been like to repatriate at such a time in history. She reminisces about the things she misses about Rome, discusses what led to the decision to leave that sometimes feels like a mistake, and shares her thoughts about what it feels like to leave a place just as you're starting to feel at home now. She also talks about what it feels like to move back to a country that in many ways you can't recognize, how her priorities have shifted after living in Europe, and the realities of culture shock. Find past episodes with Brie here: Episode 527 Moving to Rome—Sight Unseen (with Brie Ripley) Episode 562 Moving to Rome—Sight Unseen, Part 2 (with Brie Ripley and Ryan Sparks) ------------------------------------- COME TO ROME WITH US: Our third annual Bittersweet Life Roman Adventure is in the books! If you'd like to join us in 2026, and be part of an intimate group of listeners on a magical and unforgettable journey to Rome, discovering the city with us as your guides, find out more here. ADVERTISE WITH US: Reach expats, future expats, and travelers all over the world. Send us an email to get the conversation started. BECOME A PATRON: Pledge your monthly support of The Bittersweet Life and receive awesome prizes in return for your generosity! Visit our Patreon site to find out more. TIP YOUR PODCASTER: Say thanks with a one-time donation to the podcast hosts you know and love. Click here to send financial support via PayPal. (You can also find a Donate button on the desktop version of our website.) The show needs your support to continue. START PODCASTING: If you are planning to start your own podcast, consider Libsyn for your hosting service! Use this affliliate link to get two months free, or use our promo code SWEET when you sign up. SUBSCRIBE: Subscribe to the podcast to make sure you never miss an episode. Click here to find us on a variety of podcast apps. WRITE A REVIEW: Leave us a rating and a written review on iTunes so more listeners can find us. JOIN THE CONVERSATION: If you have a question or a topic you want us to address, send us an email here. You can also connect to us through Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Tag #thebittersweetlife with your expat story for a chance to be featured! NEW TO THE SHOW? Don't be afraid to start with Episode 1: OUTSET BOOK: Want to read Tiffany's book, Midnight in the Piazza? Learn more here or order on Amazon. TOUR ROME: If you're traveling to Rome, don't miss the chance to tour the city with Tiffany as your guide!