Rachel Donadio, visiting critic at the American Academy in Rome, is the European culture correspondent for the New York Times. Based in Paris, she writes about culture, high and low, across the continent. From September 2008 until August 2013 she was the New York Times Rome Bureau chief, covering the vicissitudes of former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi; political and social disarray in Greece amid the European debt crisis; and historic changes at the Vatican, including the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI and the election of Pope Francis.