A Conversation with Kathy McCabe About Travel, Heritage, Wellness and Living the Italian Dream
For anyone who loves Italy, the phrase Dream of Italy has a certain magic to it. It suggests the Italy so many travelers carry in their imagination: hill towns, long meals, local stories, ancestral roots, beautiful landscapes and the possibility that a trip might become something much deeper than a vacation.
That’s exactly what happened to Kathy McCabe, founder of Dream of Italy, when she first traveled to Italy with her mother to search for her grandfather’s ancestral hometown. Her grandfather had dreamed of finding that village for most of his life. Kathy and her mother found it, and just 36 hours later, he passed away.
As Kathy told me in our conversation, it felt almost metaphysical, as though her grandfather had left Italy to her. What began as a personal journey soon became a lifelong obsession, and in 2002 Kathy founded Dream of Italy as a travel magazine and membership website. Today, more than two decades later, Dream of Italy has grown into a rich travel platform with more than 210 magazine issues, PBS television series and specials, travel planning services, moving-to-Italy resources, and now an expanding presence on YouTube and Substack.
From Ancestral Roots to a Life Built Around Italy
Kathy is Italian on one side and Irish on the other, a combination she jokes is especially common in the American Northeast. Her Italian family name is tied to one very specific town, and when she returned years later to film an episode there, she found an even more direct cousin.
That personal connection explains a lot about why Dream of Italy has always felt different from standard travel content. Kathy isn’t simply checking destinations off a list. She’s interested in the stories, family histories, landscapes, food traditions and communities that make Italy feel so emotionally powerful for so many people.
Her work began as a travel magazine and membership site, but it eventually became the inspiration for the PBS series Dream of Italy, which Kathy hosts. PBS describes the series as a journey through Italy’s landscapes, artistic treasures, traditions and local people, with Kathy meeting chefs, artisans, historians and others deeply connected to the land.
Dream of Italy on PBS and YouTube
Dream of Italy has now included three PBS seasons and two specials. Season 3 is currently airing on PBS stations in the United States and includes episodes featuring Andrea Bocelli’s Tuscany, Americans moving to Abruzzo, Caserta and its famous pizza, Modena with Massimo Bottura and Lara Gilmore, and the mystery of the Black Madonna in southern Italy with Marisa Tomei.
For those of us outside the United States, one of the best things Kathy has done is make much of the Dream of Italy video content available on YouTube. PBS may be difficult or impossible to access internationally, but YouTube allows viewers around the world to enjoy full episodes, clips and individual segments. Kathy explained that the PBS programs still air and stream through PBS, but YouTube has become the international hub for her video content.
Kathy also created Dream of Europe, a PBS series that applies a similar storytelling approach to destinations beyond Italy, including Malta, Albania, the French Alps, London and Greece. Still, as she said during our conversation, Italy is her heart.
The Dream and the Reality of Moving to Italy
One of the strongest themes in our conversation was the growing fascination with moving to Italy. Kathy was ahead of the curve with her 2021 PBS special Dream of Italy: Travel, Transform and Thrive, which explored living in Italy, moving to Italy and the deeper ways Italy can change people’s lives.
Since then, interest has exploded. Kathy described the current moment as a kind of “Wild West,” with many people dreaming of buying property or relocating, but not all of them fully informed. Some people have a romantic idea of Italy without understanding the bureaucracy, the property market, the language barrier, or the difference between visiting a place and actually living there.
That’s why Kathy tries to give people both the dream and the reality. She loves Italy deeply, but she doesn’t present it as all sunshine and perfection. She connects members with trusted professionals, including attorneys, licensed real estate agents and people with genuine local experience. Her goal is to protect people from misinformation and help them make informed choices.
She also offers consultations to help people think through where in Italy they might actually want to live. In our conversation, she mentioned Emilia-Romagna and Tuscany as regions that currently attract her personally, partly because of work, friends and access. She loves the south too, but for now she’s drawn to places with a mix of community, infrastructure and professional activity.
Extended Stays: A Softer Way to Try Italy
One of Kathy’s strongest recommendations is the extended stay. Instead of selling everything and moving immediately, she encourages people to spend several months in Italy and see what daily life actually feels like.
That’s a wise approach. Living in Italy is not the same as taking a vacation in Italy. The rhythms are different, the systems are different, and the practical details matter. An extended stay gives people time to shop at local markets, form routines, understand transportation, meet neighbors and see whether the place they imagined is the place they really want.
We also talked about the importance of community. Even after more than 42 years in Italy, I still value my American and international connections here. Kathy agreed that having some expats around can provide a softer landing, especially in the beginning. The goal isn’t to live in an expat bubble, but to have both: local Italian life and a community of people who understand the experience of arriving from somewhere else.
Italy, Wellness and the Art of Taking the Water
Kathy is increasingly interested in Italy as a place of wellness, not in a trendy spa-package sense, but in a deeper lifestyle sense. She spoke about Italian longevity, community, family, food, movement, mineral-rich waters and the relationship between people and the land.
One of her favorite Italian traditions is “taking the water,” especially in thermal towns like Bagno Vignoni and Saturnia. Bagno Vignoni, in Tuscany’s Val d’Orcia, is famous for its central piazza, which is actually a large thermal pool fed by natural hot springs. Kathy described the experience of soaking in the waters while looking out over the Val d’Orcia as profoundly restorative.
Saturnia is another favorite. Kathy has been going there for years and believes the water has a special quality unlike anywhere else she’s found in Italy. We laughed about my first visit there decades ago, when my husband Maurizio told me to grab the mud and rub it on my skin. At the time it felt completely foreign, but those waters really are extraordinary.
Italy’s thermal traditions are found throughout the country, from Tuscany to Ischia, Campania, Emilia-Romagna and beyond. For travelers looking for a slower, more restorative version of Italy, these places offer a beautiful alternative to overpacked itineraries.
Food, Water, Community and the Italian Way of Living
Our conversation also turned to food, because in Italy it always does. Kathy spoke about the difference she feels when eating in Italy versus in the United States. For her, the quality of ingredients, the freshness, the lack of overprocessing and the relationship between food and place all matter.
I see this constantly with visitors. They’ll taste a simple dish and ask, “What’s in this?” Often the answer is nothing extraordinary: olive oil, garlic, peperoncino, vegetables, pasta, maybe a little cheese. But the quality of each ingredient changes everything. Our olive oil comes from our own trees, and that proximity to the land is part of the flavor.
Kathy also emphasized the social side of wellness in Italy. It’s not just what people eat, but how they live. Older people still gather in piazzas and bars, grandparents are included in daily family life, and community remains visible in ways that can feel increasingly rare elsewhere.
Le Marche and the Italy That Still Feels Undiscovered
Kathy’s Winter 2026 issue of Dream of Italy highlights several destinations, including Le Marche, Valle d’Aosta, Bagno Vignoni and Cortina d’Ampezzo. Le Marche came up in our conversation as one of those regions that still feels like the Italy travelers fell in love with 20 or 30 years ago.
Set between the mountains and the Adriatic Sea, Le Marche offers Renaissance cities like Urbino, beautiful hill towns such as Offida and Fermo, the dramatic Frasassi Caves, vineyards, lace-making traditions and a slower rhythm that remains relatively under the radar. Kathy mentioned Offida as one of the most beautiful and interesting towns she has visited, and I agree that Le Marche is a wonderful choice for travelers who already know the obvious destinations and want to go deeper.
We also talked about how much Italy still exists beyond the famous circuit. Even just outside Rome, where I live, the landscape shifts quickly from city to countryside. In the United States, the transition from city to suburb to country can take a long time. Around Rome, you can be in the historic center and then, not long after, among cows, olive groves and hills.
What Dream of Italy Offers Today
Dream of Italy today includes the magazine, membership, PBS programs, YouTube content, travel planning, moving-to-Italy resources and soon a more active Dream of Italy presence on Substack. Kathy’s membership gives access to digital or print issues, the large archive of past issues, moving-to-Italy resources and additional member benefits. Her travel planning service focuses mostly on four- and five-star custom travel, with trusted planners who know Italy deeply and can create highly personal experiences.
Kathy is also considering launching her own trip again, possibly connected to the thermal waters she loves so much. Given her long history with Saturnia and her passion for wellness in Italy, that sounds like a natural next step.
Why Kathy McCabe’s Dream of Italy Still Resonates
What I loved most about this conversation is that Kathy understands both the romance and the reality of Italy. She believes deeply in the dream, but she also knows that the dream becomes more meaningful when it’s grounded in real knowledge.
Dream of Italy is for people who want more than a surface-level trip. It’s for travelers who are curious about ancestry, regional traditions, local communities, food, wellness, landscapes and the possibility of spending more time here. It’s also for those who understand that Italy is not one single idea, but many different Italies, each with its own rhythm and character.
After nearly a quarter of a century, Kathy McCabe is still following the thread her grandfather left her. And through Dream of Italy, she’s helping others follow their own.
For More Information on Dream of Italy
Dream of Italy: https://www.dreamofitaly.com
Dream of Europe: https://dreamofeurope.com/
Instagram: https://instagram.com/dreamofitaly/
Facebook: http://facebook.com/dreamofitaly
Twitter/X: http://twitter.com/dreamofitaly
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/dreamofitaly
Substack: https://substack.com/@kathymccabedreams
Special things to do in Italy this year
Visit Aquila in Abruzzo, the 2026 Italian capital of Culture
Best of Bologna Day Trip
Join me for a Culinary Walking Tour of Rome!
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