Mark Hinshaw

Mark Hinshaw is a retired architect and city planner who lived in Seattle for more than 40 years. For 12 years he had a regular column on architecture for The Seattle Times and later was a frequent contributor to Crosscut. He now lives in a small hill town in Italy.

Want to Live in Italy? Hint: Go Digital

The Digital Nomad Visa opens the door to younger and middle-aged people to live and work in Italy. Given the popularity of Italy, many people have anxiously waited for this door to open.

Planting Trees in Cities: From NYC to a Medieval Italian Village

While I held that job in New York, I oversaw the planting of thousands of trees.

Living in Rural Italy Without a Car

Despite its reputation for crazy drivers, Italy takes its traffic code seriously. So, we now know the answer to a common FAQ: Can you live in the Italian countryside without a car?

Empty Storefronts and Reviving an Ailing Downtown

In a sense, for decades, real estate brokers designed urban streetscapes. Now, the upscale credit tenants have fled. Have the lease rates gone down? Apparently not. So, we have dead, if not festering, street conditions.

The Remarkable “Official Bands” of Italy

Italians have always placed great importance on access to culture for people of all ages and economic means, and concerts are everywhere — many of them free.

Watching What We Eat in Italy

Our close proximity to farms means we have access to the freshest possible vegetables, fruits, and meats, as well as fish from the sea.

How I Made a Movie in Italy

I crafted a screenplay, as much as a personal exercise as anything else. It’s a story of a straw hat, made by an artisanal workshop, that gets blown from person to person.

I Can See Clearly Now: My Italian Trauma

Friends who had been through the procedure assured me that it was “not that bad.”

Italy: In Quest of the Elusive Onion Ring

My hunt for onion rings took me to the Old Wild West, an Italian restaurant chain that aims to satisfy the Italian yearning for the American frontier.

Ringraziamento: Thanksgiving in Italy

Our Italian guests are often perplexed by the placement of all the food on one large plate.

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