Stef Smulders, born in Leiden in 1960, a graduated mathematical engineer, emigrated to Italy in 2008 with his husband and dog to start B&B Villa I Due Padroni. He sold his house, left family and friends behind, and took a leap into the unknown. In 2014, Stef documented his experiences in the book Italian Situations - Living and Surviving in Italy (Boekenbent Publishing). This book has been well received and continues to sell well. "In this book, the reader meets numerous characteristic Italians, from sympathetic to villainous, from touching to shameless," wrote NBD Biblion. On bol.com, it is one of the highest-rated Dutch-language books about Italy, with 90 reviews and an average rating of 4.8. The English translation, titled Living in Italy: the Real Deal, was published in 2016 and has sold over 30,000 copies worldwide (paperback and e-book). It has received positive reviews from Kirkus Reviews and Reader's Favorite, and has won three literary awards. In 2016 and 2017, two Dutch-language sequels were released, featuring even more anecdotal short stories about life in Italy. In 2022, The Real Italy was published, stories with a humorous twist about the daily experiences of a foreigner in Italy.
Stef is a regular columnist for the website DitisItalie.nl, contributing monthly articles about life in Italy. Since a year ago, Stef has also been writing very short stories and has won the monthly Sweek microfiction prize twice, as well as the Audience Award once. Nearly twenty of Stef's stories have reached the finals. A collection of one hundred of these humorous stories was published in 2022 under the title Visiting Hours and 100 Other Short Stories. With the English translations, he has reached the finals of the English Sweek competition several times, and with two stories, he won third place in the London Independent Story Prize and reached the finals of the Fiction War Autumn 2018 Prize. Currently, more than ten pieces of his flash fiction have been published in various English-language online magazines. Stef is active on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram, where he shares updates about his life in Italy with thousands of followers and Italy enthusiasts.