Gabriella Contestabile

Gabriella Contestabile is an author, educator, and owner of SU MISURA JOURNEYS, a boutique travel company connecting people to the artisans of Florence. She emigrated from Italy to New York City in 1959. In her pre-writer life, as a foreign language teacher, and as a fragrance/cosmetics executive she visited the fields and perfume laboratories of Grasse, and worked in a family-owned perfumery in Florence. It was there that her passion for perfume and artisanship took hold. Gabriella is a strong advocate of the arts, of multiculturalism, and of social justice--a passion inspired by reading Dickens and Dante at a very young age. She lives on the Upper West Side with her husband, her daughter, and a furry Shih-Tzu named Oreo. ' The Artisan's Star' is her first novel. She is currently working on a collection of short stories, also set in Italy.