hiii thank you so much you are very very kind ☹️💗 i actually haven't been to italy but i really want to!!! which is why it was important to me to make it feel as realistic as i could manage 🥹 i try my best to situate each scene in its setting with small details (sounds, smell, things in the environment, etc.) but it's hard for me to do that unless i'm looking at reference pictures/real places... so i spent a lot of time looking at real locations i could draw from! for example: castle wedding venues in tuscany, restaurants in siena, horseback riding places and vineyards, hotels and restaurants in amalfi, SO many pictures and videos across pinterest/google/tiktok/youtube shorts LOL anything that could help me envision the settings a little more clearly and allow the characters to interact with them in a way that feels dynamic (at least to me)! and i saved all of these to my outline doc so i could pull from them whenever i needed!! i pretty much was constantly looking up things about local food, wine, history, cultural traditions, and more LOL and it's very easy to get bogged down by all the peripheral research but i definitely think if the setting is an important part of the story for you, then you'll feel a lot more confident building up that knowledge and then putting it to the page!!!

this was long i apologize LOL but i hope this was somewhat helpful.... 🥹💖 have a wonderful day anon!