A native Roman who has lived extensively in the U.S., France and Great Britain. Petulia has a deep passion for local culture and what makes a country and a city special and unique: food, folklore, culture. In her previous life she trained to be a lawyer, but more recently she decided to further develop her passion and pursue an MA in social history at the University of Edinburgh.

Born and raised in Milan, Irene moved to Scotland in 2009. She achieved a PhD in Art History at the University of Edinburgh in 2015. Her doctoral thesis looked at the artistic patronage of the Vespucci family in fifteenth-century Florence. Irene currently works at the University of Edinburgh. She loves art, coffee, yoga, and the sun – not necessarily in this order. Despite her reluctance to sit on planes, she is a travel addict and she hopes to tour the world one day. Edinburgh stole her heart and it is now her home.

Having grown up in Edinburgh and the Lothians, Alana completed her MA in English Literature and History followed by a MScR in Fantasy Literature at the University of Edinburgh. Now an English teacher in secondary school, Alana is passionate about local and national history, literature, cuisine and a wee dram of uisge-beatha (otherwise known as whisky, without an ‘e’). Having been trained at the Scotch Whisky Experience, Alana loves nothing more than to share stories and pass the time of day over a dram or two and can more often than not be spotted as the person with her nose in a book.