In 1999, at age 26, John Moretti left his job as a small-town reporter in Vermont in search of fame and fortune in Italy. For four years in Milan, he worked as an editor at a national newspaper in English, a joint venture between Corriere della Sera and the International Herald Tribune. The early experiences all fade into one another: being cradled as a baby by Zio Giovanni, a monsignor in Naples, who was dressed from head to toe in black except for a red pom-pom atop his hat; chasing pigeons around St. Mark's in Venice as a toddler in awkward white leather shoes; experimenting as a teenager with copious amounts of wine and mozzarella; and backpacking through Europe as a young adult. In Milan, John grew into the role of a self-described expert on a society that continues to baffle him (and everyone else who writes authoritatively on the subject). As a freelancer in Southern Europe, John covered everything from Lance Armstrong's fifth consecutive Tour de France victory for the New York Sun to the plight of African prostitutes in Turin for the London-based Independent. John grew up in Norwell, Massachusetts, and is a graduate of Middlebury College.