Chasing Castles: Nineteen Years Living and Teaching Ballet in Italy

Author Barbara File Marangon’s second memoir begins with a glimpse of her Irish ancestry in her grandmother’s Bronx kitchen and a heartfelt promise she made there. Her incredible journey of self-discovery begins with the poignant finale of a Hollywood show and a ticket to Venice, Italy, courtesy of an appreciative cast. She is offered a job teaching ballet in Venice, but after a painfall marriage comes to an end, she moves to a small Italian town with a castle and opens a ballet school. For nineteen years she battles loneliness, bigotry, and corruption—even standing up to the Mafia. With courage and fierce determination, she prevails and finds love again. The Italian castle on the hill reminds her of the promise she made decades earlier: to find the ancestral castle in Ireland and discover who she is. CHASING CASTLES is a book about persevering and never abandoning a dream.