This blog has evolved from my original intention of writing about the recipes we’ve tried from around the world. The challenge was fun and introduced to so many cultures and food that I would never consider trying before the challenge. The challenge got difficult though in the sense that I found it to be very wasteful of food, since I was buying ingredients I would most likely never use again and finding the ingredients could be very time consuming and expensive, usually in the end I had to buy ingredients from Amazon. I wanted to continue with the challenge though by trying only two countries a week but I was offered a job I couldn’t pass up. The commute is long and I don’t have the energy to cook elaborate meals in the evening any more, so for now I have put the challenge on hold.

The new job is actually an old job I had my first year of living here, I mentioned it in a previous post, saying it was the best place I worked here. The problem was always the commute, it was very tiring when my kids were smaller. Now they are bigger and sleep better, so waking up early for the drive isn’t leaving me as exhausted before. Also after experiencing the brutality of working in Naples, I know now that was by far the best place to work, especially because the other women that work there make it a warm and welcoming place to work, a break in the daily life of Naples.

Today though is my last day until September but during this month that I have been there I have though many times about starting a blog and Instragram stories and reels about what is like to live and work in Naples from an expat’s point of view and especially as a women. It is a world so different than the rest of Europe and the West. It’s a place almost frozen in time for many things, but for many things its also modern. Living here has its challenges already, but being a working mom here brings on more challenges and lots of cultural differences.

So stick around and I will update here and as well as on my Instagram, (k.gradinetti), about how different it is to live here, the struggles and the good (its not all bad, I promise!).