Welcome to our website. I am Rebecca Helm-Ropelato. I am an American free lance writer living in Italy. I moved here in 2001 from my longtime home in California. I have a daughter who lives and works in New England. My husband Franco is Italian. We live in a small village not far from Rome with our three dogs.

My recent publication credits are in the Los Angeles Times Magazine, the Christian Science Monitor, and The Baltimore Sun (reprints here).

Here on foreignremarks.com, I have a blog in which I write about the culture and people of Italy, and some of my experiences living in another country. I hope you will find it enjoyable and, at times, informative.

I have a B.A. in Communications/Journalism from California State University, Fullerton. I worked as a staff reporter for three California newspapers in the years just after I graduated, respectively the Saddleback Valley News, the Daily Pilot, and the Orange County Register. Later, I went back to school and got my M.A. in psychology from Pepperdine University, followed by two years of study in a counseling psychology doctoral program at USC.

Franco graduated from the University of Padua with the Italian equivalent of a master's degree in Electronic Engineering. He is an Information Technology consultant.

As a standard practice, I never accept any remuneration or gifts from the business places or people on this website, or in any of my free lance articles.