Mary Pocchia

Mary Pocchia, Esq. developed her love for all things Italian while traveling for over thirty years throughout Itay with her husband, Anthony J. Pocchia, Esq., who is a dual citizen of the US and Italy. They live in New York City.

During their travels, they met their friends Stefano Cirillo and his gracious wife Beatriz Sarmiento. Stefano is a gastronomic photographer, who works in Rome, Italy.

Mary and Stefano collaborated on their series of bilingual books "Following Stefano" in English and Italian. The series "Following Stefano" has parallel English and Italian text on every page for easy reading and translating. Mary is studying for the CLEI/CLIS Italian certification to obtain her Italian dual citizenship. While studying Italian, Mary realized that reading easy and entertaining stories is a fun way to improve her Italian. She hopes that her books will also help you improve your skills in bilingual English/Italian vocabulary, grammar, and comprehension.

Mary and Stefano want these books to be entertaining enough for their readers to enjoy the stories but challenging enough to be an effective tool to learn Italian. All the illustrations are whimsical, light-hearted drawings that Mary hopes will uplift her readers' spirits.

All the stories are based on actual adventures that Mary, Anthony, Stefano, and Beatriz experienced together. Beatriz's mischievous and energetic dog Gino accompanies them to share in the fun. The 1st book in the series takes place in Rome. The 2nd book in the series takes place in Tuscany. The 3rd book in the series takes place in Southern Italy during the Christmas and New Year's Holidays. In the 4th book Stefano and his friends explore Northern Italy. In their 5th book they enjoy the Christmas holidays in New York City. They explore the famous landmarks, diverse neighborhoods, and delicious ethnic foods of New York! In her 6th book the friends venture out from Italy and explore Paris and the South of France. They enjoy gourmet food on a boat ride along the Sene River in Paris, visit a winery in Provence, walk along the Promenade des Anglais in Nice, and watch the Eiffel Tower sparkle with magnificent fireworks on New Years Eve. In her 7th book, which takes place over Halloween weekend, we travel to California and enjoy Fisherman's Wharf, Muir Woods, Sausalito, a cable car ride, surf at Half Moon Bay and partake in the festival of Day of the Dead in San Jose. The friends sample Italian, Chinese and Mexican cuisine. Her 8th book travels to Puerto Rico, where the friends swim, kayak, zip-line, dance and enjoy the spicy local cuisine and, of course pizza!

Planned for the future are Following Stefano stories that will take place in London, Canada and beyond!

Since Mary has retired from the practice of law, she decided to make her main "retirement" goal to learn Italian. She hopes that these books will be an inspiration for young and old people alike; to always keep improving themselves and always keep learning new things!