TLC Travels - Escape to your Italy Adventure

02/05/2025

This interview was fun to do! Thanks to Wendy Holloway for inviting me to talk about my novel "Dante's Garden" on her "Flavor of Italy" podcast.

Listen to us discuss all things monsters, Dante and historical fiction at the address below (just replace the (.) with a dot). The podcoast audio is at the top of the page, in green, and the info that follows is about the park and other related things.

Dante's Garden is available as paperback or ebook!

27/09/2024

I just got an awesome review of my novel "Dante's Garden" on Amazon. Since I've lately been doing more marketing for it, I wanted to share it here, too.

"5.0 out of 5 stars
Superlative
Reviewed in the United States on September 23, 2024
Verified Purchase

The premise of this book sounded interesting. However the reality of it was astounding. I'm not usually into time travel books but this one could make me an enthusiast. This book was so well written that, other than Diana Gabaldon's books, I really enjoyed it. Kudos to Teresa Cutler-Broyles for possibly turning me on to this genre."

Thank you, random reviewer!
(Link in comments.)

16/09/2024

New post over on Substack! Check it out.

"Rome echoes with the honking of horns and the turbulent, all-encompassing roar of traffic and never-ending conversations. Ambulances rush by in the street five stories down. People in the apartments across the courtyard are listening to opera, the game, top-40 on the radio… an Italian talk-show… and again, the game. Cheering… calling… rushing… coughing… lives lived too close to my window.

I forget how much I like solitude and silence until a day like this....

https://open.substack.com/pub/teresacutlerbroyles/p/all-that-glitters?r=2xhls5&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

08/09/2024

New post over on Substack (after a hiatus and a regroup). Check it out!

When I lived in Southern California, I was a bodybuilder.

08/08/2024

Here's your chance! I am pleased to offer the 2nd edition of my historical fiction "Dante's Garden: The Magic and Mystery of Bomarzo" on Goodreads. Enter for a chance to win a free copy!

It's got it all! Renaissance Italy, romance, adventure, danger, love, and more.

You'll need to use your own Goodreads account to enter, so I'm not adding a link. Easy enough to find me under "Giveaways." Good luck!

07/07/2024

New post over on Substack - check it out!

I first became aware of Iraqi-British architect Zaha Hadid when my not-yet-husband and I visited New York in 2006. We went to the Guggenheim Museum, and halfway down the spiral we ran smack into an exhibit that halted me in my tracks. Made up of drawings and paintings and furniture and models and ob...

18/06/2024

"Being in Rome is like being in a relationship."

Have you ever been in love with a city?
New post over on Substack!

Being in Rome is like being in a relationship. When I first met Rome in 2000, I was enchanted. I stumbled, clutching my unwieldy bags, off the Metro right into the city’s heart. The first thing I saw was the Coliseum and I stood in its shadow for an hour or more, unable, unwilling to make a move l...

10/06/2024

"The Borgo began as many neighborhoods do, to house groups of people gathering together around a central theme - an ethnic background or belief or a certain religious or cultural site. In this case, the draw was the original Saint Peter's Church, built by Constantine in the 4th century. Through the 5th to 9th centuries the Borgo grew and eventually contained hostels financed by various countries for pilgrims, monasteries, hospitals, churches, water fountains, lavatories, smaller churches and chapels, food vendors, blacksmith shops – in short, all things necessary for travelers and pilgrims who were visiting the city...."

New post over on Substack!

Via della Conciliazione is the most disliked avenue in Rome. It is a relatively short street, running east/west from the Castel Sant' Angelo on the north bank of the Tiber (here swinging southwest around the historical city centre) to the magnificent Piazza S. Pietro. The walk from the Castel to the...

04/06/2024

I have another short piece over on Substack. Check it out. Come with me and see for yourself!

Bread Baking Ash and cinders Raining. Running for life, people Forget to eat Losing family, losing Heart, falling to stone In a doorway A bakery. The scent Fresh bread rises The last earthly moment One of sweet, sweet memories… Bread baking… Breaking bread…

21/05/2024

New (short) post over on Substack! Check it out.

It takes a certain kind of woman, and a certain way of moving, but it really is possible to walk confidently on cobblestones while wearing 5-inch stilettos. I've seen it. I wonder if the women practice when the streets are dark and no one is awake? I imagine furtive, colorfully clad shapes stumbling...

14/05/2024

New post over on Substack!

***
All the gondole in Venice are black.
It almost doesn’t make sense, in a city suffused with rich color around every corner – purple/yellow/orange/red flowers cascading over balconies and iron railings, marble pillars of pink, blue-gray, white, and the green-black shadows on crystal green canals – that the very icon that epitomizes Venice in the minds of people world-wide would be black.

Have they been black forever? If so, why? And if not, what happened?

All the gondole in Venice are black. It almost doesn’t make sense, in a city suffused with rich color around every corner – purple/yellow/orange/red flowers cascading over balconies and iron railings, marble pillars of pink, blue-gray, white, and the green-black shadows on crystal green canals ....