On Spring, Birthdays, and Rebranding
Even in Rome, Mother Nature is at her most Piscean this time of year.
Flirty and fickle, she’s left no patch of grass unadorned. Baby daisies with their long and slender stems are just begging to be plucked from the rain-damp earth.
They’re too delicate to braid into strands, but they feel good wrapped around between our fingers like little promise rings. Promises spring will break and over and over again.
But we because we are human and prone to magical thinking, we dress up our disappointment as hope.
Something better is coming. It has to. It’s spring.
Even the word ‘spring’ means momentum.
From Old English springan – ‘to leap, burst forth, rise suddenly’ via Proto-Germanic springaną – ‘to jump or to spring up.’
While I myself am rarely still, I’ve never liked spring and I’m unapologetic about it.
Give me a season I can count on, preferably one that requires as few layers as possible from dusk to dawn.
That said, I’m grateful the days are getting longer and believe it or not, I’m even grateful for the rain.
It rained for the first two months of the 2026.
It wasn’t great for half-marathon training, but I ran it anyway!
The Athens Half Marathon is birthday tradition. It reminds me to stay grateful for my working legs and lungs.
In lieu of gifts, as always, I asked friends and loved ones for donations.
Click here to donate a few bucks to my favorite foundation, Achilles International, as they continue to support athletes with disabilities.
One my primary distractions is a sunny day.
I’m a self-diagnosed heliophile (from the Greek word for ‘sun’ ἥλιος hēlios + -φίλος philos ‘lover-of’).
Physiologically, I cannot resist a sunbeam. I’ll cross to the sunny side of the street. Even for a few blocks.
Silver lining: the rain has been incredible for productivity.
Spring isn’t just about rebirth and starting fresh. It’s also a great time to revisit and revive the best parts of ourselves.
The cherry trees are aren’t sprouting from seed every year. They’re busting with blossoms to remind us how steadfast they are.
For my part, I’ve been busy with the brilliant team at 20A designs to rebuild my website. Take a look!
DiVino got a makeover!
Many of you readers are familiar with my work as a wine consultant and educator at DiVino.
For those who are not: I founded the company in 2010 in New York City.
Watch our first ‘about us’ video.
Since then I have curated wine events, created editorial content for wineries and brands, taught wine in private home and corporate settings, and offered Italian to English translation.
I sold wine for several years for an importer while offering wine education, staff training, and wine event services for many of my clients.
As I’ve expanded into food, spirits, travel, and culture writing, wine remains at the heart of my approach to everything.
I’m interested in the people behind the brands, the raw materials, and traditions they hold sacred.
There’s a story behind every finished product, a seed planted and nourished along the way. People and places go hand in hand.
Scents and flavors happen naturally, but there’s a poetry to humans interacting with nature and their surroundings.
These are the stories I most love to tell—here on Tastefully, in my freelance writing, and a little book project I’ll let you in on soon.
Wine is a Language
I’m also obsessed with language, etymology, and how culture shapes language (and vice versa). If you’ve ever studied a foreign language, you know that it’s more than just vocabulary.
All the same, you can’t form sentences or even begin to express yourself without an arsenal of words and phrases. That’s why I created my YouTube series, 21 Days to Wine.
From the Archives: The Best of DiVino on Tastefully
I built the DiVino Blog over a decade. It was created to supplement my wine education services, and articles were long and comprehensive—in part because people used to actually read, also because of SEO.
The blog now lives in the Divino Archives, here on Tastefully. I’ll be adding and updating old articles for months to come.
In the meantime, check out some of my most popular posts.
There’s plenty more to discover in the DiVino Archives, and all over Tastefully! As always, I welcome your requests and queries.
Something better is coming.
I’ll be sharing some exciting publishing news and a brand new extension of Divino on the ground in Rome, Italy. Stay tuned.
Here’s to more sunny days and a spring in our steps.
XOXO,
Annie