Rick Bailey grew up in Freeland, Michigan, on the banks of the Tittabawassee River. A small-town Midwestern guy, he married a woman from the Republic of San Marino and over the ensuing decades became Italianized–avid about travel in Italy, the language, food, and history. For 38 years he taught writing at Henry Ford College. He wrote textbooks for McGraw-Hill for 15 of those years. He now focuses on creative nonfiction, writing about food, wine, travel, and the curiosities of contemporary life.