Journal

Stories of Italian living, the art of the table, and the places behind MI RE LA

Explore the Journal

What Would You Like to Discover?

Follow the places, rituals, recipes and ideas behind MI RE LA, or continue below to browse the complete Journal.

Places & Collections

Stories Behind the Collections

Discover the landscapes, symbols and traditions behind Cortina, Toscana and Amalfi.

Cortina Toscana Amalfi
Food & Italian Rituals

In the Kitchen

Recipes, ingredients and the small decisions behind Italian cooking, from what belongs in the pan to what is better left out.

Explore In the Kitchen

Latest from the Journal

Browse All Articles

Continue below to see the complete archive, or use the filters to view stories, guides and recipes.

Searches articles only.

All Story Guide Series
A table after a long lunch, plates pushed back and chairs left where people rose from them
Italy Gave the World Dolce Far Niente. Now It Struggles to Protect It.
Every few months another article explains that Italians have mastered doing nothing. The Italian statistical office publishes numbers that suggest otherwise. Read more...
Everyone at Your Table Learned Different Rules
Everyone at Your Table Learned Different Rules
Most etiquette writing tells you how to behave abroad. Much less is written for the person opening the door at home. Read more...
The Table Between Meals
The Table Between Meals
A dining table is set for five or six hours a week and stands there for the other hundred and sixty. Which leaves a question nobody enjoys. Read more...
The Table Is Set. Nobody Is Sitting There.
The Table Is Set. Nobody Is Sitting There.
You set the dining table. Two hours later the room is exactly as you left it, and everybody is standing around the kitchen island. Read more...
Nobody Agrees About the Napkin
Nobody Agrees About the Napkin
A napkin looks like the least controversial object on a table. Then somebody stands up mid-meal, and a question appears that has no settled answer anywhere. Read more...
held in one hand with a linen cocktail napkin between the palm and the glass MI RE LA
Hold With the Left, Toast With the Right
Italian etiquette says hold the glass in your left hand. It also says toast with your right. The napkin is what makes the handover work. Read more...
A Glass Table Does Not Break in the Middle
A Glass Table Does Not Break in the Middle
The middle of a glass table is the strong part. The edges and corners are where the failures start, which changes what you should be worrying about. Read more...
Fourteen Shades of Red - The Coral
Fourteen Shades of Red - The Coral
Hardly anyone would believe there are more than three grades of red, wrote a naturalist visiting Livorno in the 1740s. He was then shown fourteen. Read more...
The Basket With Nothing Inside It
The Basket With Nothing Inside It
Most bread baskets have something inside holding them up. Wicker, wire, a stiffened base. Ours has none of that, and three useful things follow. Read more...
Your Linen Napkin Will Not Stand Up
Your Linen Napkin Will Not Stand Up
Every guide says the fold failed because your linen is not good enough. Every one of those guides is written by somebody who sells linen. Read more...
The Traditional Alpine Interior, the Way Cortina Actually Does It
The Traditional Alpine Interior, the Way Cortina Actually Does It
Search for alpine chic and you get antlers and plaid. Then go to Cortina and look at the houses that actually work. They do the opposite, and always have.   Read more...
There Is No Such Thing as Italian Linen
There Is No Such Thing as Italian Linen
More than half the Europeans surveyed thought linen was produced outside Europe. A third imagined Asia. It grows in a strip of land most of them could drive to.   Read more...
What Your Dining Table Can Actually Take
What Your Dining Table Can Actually Take
A dinner plate is warm. A serving dish from a 400°F oven is not in the same category. The gap between those two objects is where every damaged table comes... Read more...
A Sealed Marble Table Still Etches
A Sealed Marble Table Still Etches
Three weeks after the table arrives, a glass of lemonade leaves a dull ring. It is not a stain, it will not clean off, and the sealer did nothing to... Read more...
Take It Out While It Is Still Damp
Stiffness, shrinkage and creases no iron can remove: a surprising amount of it happens at the end of the drying cycle, once the cloth is already almost dry.   Read more...
The First Two Minutes
Hot water, chlorine bleach and rubbing ruin more linen than the spills that prompt them. What to do in the first two minutes, and what to reach for instead. Read more...
Four Inches Below the Knee
Four Inches Below the Knee
Before the 1930s nobody bought clothes for skiing. By the mid-1940s the trousers had changed shape for good. The window in between is what these two motifs are wearing. Read more...
The Rules That Kept the Valley Whole
The Rules That Kept the Valley Whole
In the fourteenth century the Regole closed whole forests to cutting and grazing for years at a time. The landscape that looks untouched is the result of decisions.   Read more...
Two Napkins, Two Finishes
Two Napkins, Two Finishes
A dinner napkin is in your lap within thirty seconds and nobody sees it flat again. A cocktail napkin lies flat under a glass for an hour. That is the... Read more...
The Moment Before It Moves
The Moment Before It Moves
The reserve that saved the ibex paid a bounty for every fox killed. One of them needed a king and a century to come back. The other never left Read more...
Pre-Washed, Stone-Washed, Enzyme-Washed
Pre-washed, stone-washed, softened, garment-washed. These terms do not form one standard vocabulary, and two cloths carrying the same word can have been through very different things.   Read more...
Nothing to Hide Behind
Nothing to Hide Behind
In 2019 the European Commissioner confirmed that San Marzano tomatoes can legally be grown anywhere. What is protected is the name of a place, not the name of a tomato. Read more...
The Animal That Returned to the Rock
The Animal That Returned to the Rock
In 1965 eight ibex were released in the Dolomites. One pair walked away, crossed two mountain groups, and founded the colony still standing above Cortina.   Read more...
Aperitivo, Back Inside
Aperitivo, Back Inside
Après-ski faces backwards, toward the slope. Aperitivo faces the other way. The Italian hour between the last run and dinner, and what a table is for once people start using... Read more...
The Mountain Does Not Need to Be Added
The Mountain Does Not Need to Be Added
Antlers on the wall, skis over the door, checks on every cushion. The houses in Cortina that convince you do the opposite, and they always have. Read more...
The Flower Closest to the Rock
The Flower Closest to the Rock
The emblem of the Alps did not come from the Alps. It arrived from the deserts of Central Asia during the ice ages, wearing a coat built to survive drought. Read more...
Before the Chairlift
Before the Chairlift
In 1925 a cable car saved you an hour of walking. In 1936 a sledge carried fifteen people up through the snow. Then came a single chair, and one skier... Read more...
When the Kitchen Joins the Room
When the Kitchen Joins the Room
The open kitchen keeps you in the conversation — and puts dinner's smell in the whole room. How to cook for guests without it taking over. Read more...
A Village That Learned to Receive the World
A Village That Learned to Receive the World
Most people already have an image of Cortina. It is real, but it is not the beginning. A prologue to Collezione Cortina and the five motifs from the valley.   Read more...
The Dragonfly Rarely Stays
The Dragonfly Rarely Stays
Light without being fragile. The story behind the dragonfly embroidery in Collezione Toscana.   Read more...
Lavender Beyond Provence
Lavender Beyond Provence
Provence made lavender iconic. Tuscany gives it a different accent — the story behind the lavender embroidery in Collezione Toscana.   Read more...
Let the Table Breathe
Let the Table Breathe
Garlands, candlesticks, objects everywhere — then the guests arrive. Our 25% Rule for a table that is beautiful and actually usable. Read more...
A Summer Stop in Bridgehampton
A Summer Stop in Bridgehampton
A special selection developed for L'Épicuriste — six summer days on Main Street in Bridgehampton, July 30 to August 4. Read more...
Made for the Small Things
Made for the Small Things
MI RE LA · Italian Lifestyle Journal Story · The Object Made for the Small Things How the MI RE LA embroidered linen basket moves naturally through the home —... Read more...
A Placemat, Built Like a Charger
A Placemat, Built Like a Charger
A rigid disc, a removable linen top, and a design that plays two roles. How our placemat is built — and why the top comes off. Read more...
The Crab at the Edge
The Crab at the Edge
A creature of margins, tides, and quiet persistence — the story behind the crab embroidery in Collezione Amalfi. Read more...
Fatto Bene
Fatto Bene
MI RE LA existed before the online store. The story of how each piece is made — from Miami markets, through Italian hands, to your table Read more...
Charger or Placemat?
Charger or Placemat?
A researched guide to what actually separates a charger from a placemat — and how a single structured piece can serve both roles at your table. Read more...
Bienvenido a Tu Casa
Bienvenido a Tu Casa
A note on hosting, entertaining, and the quiet work that happens before anyone arrives — starting with a sentence I heard once in Mexico. Read more...
The Shape of the Glass
The Shape of the Glass
Why wine, water, and champagne each ask for a different shape — a complete guide to glassware. Read more...
Hand folding a linen napkin embroidered with a dragonfly motif on a rustic wooden table — We Were Already Here | MI RE LA
We Were Already Here 3/3
Part Three of Three. Notes on the Italian table — and why it was never a trend.   Read more...
The Anchor 2/3
The Anchor 2/3
Part Two of Three. The one material that holds a mismatched, collected table together.   Read more...
The First Stitch
The First Stitch
Before the first placemat, there was a stitch. The story of MI RE LA's first embroidered motif.   Read more...
Your Parents Had a Dining Set. You Entertain 1/3
Your Parents Had a Dining Set. You Entertain 1/3
Part One of Three. How American entertaining moved from matching sets to personal tablescapes.   Read more...
What to Put Under a Hot Dish on a Wood or Marble Table
What to Put Under a Hot Dish on a Wood or Marble Table
Placemat or trivet? A clear guide to heat protection for wood and marble surfaces.   Read more...
How to Protect a Beautiful Wood Table Without Hiding It
How to Protect a Beautiful Wood Table Without Hiding It
A layered system of placemats, coasters, and trivets that protects without concealing. Read more...
The Five Elements of a Beautiful Table
The Five Elements of a Beautiful Table
Color, texture, proportion, material, detail — the five things every memorable table gets right.   Read more...
The Table Nobody Taught You to Set
The Table Nobody Taught You to Set
A practical guide to place settings, napkins, chargers, and the tablecloth question nobody asks.   Read more...
Behind the Bee
Behind the Bee
Not decoration. Meaning. The story behind the bee embroidered on Collezione Toscana. Read more...
Why Sardines? The Unexpected Elegance of Collezione Amalfi
Why Sardines? The Unexpected Elegance of Collezione Amalfi
The unexpected elegance behind the humble fish embroidered on Collezione Amalfi.   Read more...