Bernard Ohanian, a former deputy editor of National Geographic magazine, has been besotted with Italy since he first lived on the shores of Lake Garda as an exchange student in high school. A fluent Italian speaker, he’s the author of A Day in the Life of Italy and the founder of the Italian language version of National Geographic magazine. He also served as the RKO Radio correspondent in Rome; the San Francisco correspondent for Reporter, an Italian daily newspaper; the U.S. sports correspondent for Rome’s RadioIn; and an editor/translator for the Rome-based Inter Press Service. He contributed an essay, in Italian, to Patria 1967-1977, an account of a pivotal moment in Italian history that was compiled and edited by noted Italian journalist Enrico Deaglio.

Bernard holds a BA in linguistics from the University of California, Berkeley. He finds boundless pleasure in sharing his love for, and knowledge of, the culture, geography, and history of the peninsula (and islands) that Italians not so modestly—but quite accurately—call “the beautiful country.”