I’m a writer, editor and journalist based in Florence, Italy for over a decade. As a kid growing up in cliché-prone Mississippi, I learned that the phrases that get repeated most often about a place are not always the most interesting or even the truest — they’re just the ones most easily left unexamined. In my years of editing, writing and reporting on Italy, I’ve always tried to keep that top of mind.

I’m currently the Editor-in-Chief of Italy Magazine and an accredited member of the Foreign Press in Italy. I’ve written for the Washington Post, US News & World Report, Forbes Travel Guide, Virtuoso and Qantas magazines, among other publications; and have co-authored guidebooks for Time Out, Lonely Planet and DK Eyewitness. Italian national daily newspaper la Repubblica has recognized me for my contributions to international media about Florence, while Travel + Leisure has featured me as an expert on my adoptive home.

The “Renaissance city,” once my primary source material, still inspires me — but frequent travel within Italy has mercifully taken me off the Tuscany-only treadmill. I’ve edited special Italy Magazine supplements on Piedmont, Trentino-Alto Adige, Umbria, Calabria, Abruzzo, Lombardy, Marche, Liguria, Friuli Venezia Giulia, Lazio and even Vatican City — so far! — and am always eager to explore new destinations and ideas.

I cut my teeth in roles as a staff writer and then a deputy editor at The Florentine magazine, where my food writing drew rare praise from the widower of the cookbook giant Marcella Hazan, and my monthly column on misadventures as a renter was turned into a book.  Along the way, I earned an M.A. in Italian Studies from Middlebury College. I’ve still not fulfilled my childhood fantasies of being an agony aunt (which sounds so much more glamorous and compassionate than “advice columnist”). But I enjoyed many semesters of teaching travel writing to undergraduates, which often felt like the same thing.

I’m available for select freelance commissions, particularly in the culture and travel beats. If you’d like to work together, please email hello@verymarygray.com. For anything specific to Italy Magazine, use mary@italymagazine.com.