“The city is a museum,” Fernando told me. “If you dig a hole deep enough anywhere you will find something.” We were standing in the middle of what was Ancient Rome’s city center. All around me stood remnants of columns and stone foundations – none of which I would have had any hope of deciphering…
Five days behind the wheel of a rental car have brought to my attention two things: 1. Italian highways are a California driver’s dream come true. 2. Italian drivers are insane. Earlier this week we picked up a rental car – a short and squat white Mercedes of an economy class not available in the…
Today we hopped a train to Rome, bidding ‘ciao’ to Florence after several slow-paced days of espressos, gelato, a little live music, markets and fine weather. It was a lovely time, but I’m glad to be moving along. This morning as we walked over the bridge and down quiet streets toward the train station, we…
I’m a week and a half into this and a funny thing has happened: I’m beginning to feel invisible. It occurred someplace between Paris and Florence – most likely during our two days in Cinque Terre, where the streets and restaurants were clogged with tourists – all speaking different languages, all entirely oblivious to anything…
We’ve begun a tradition of sharing our day’s ‘high/lows’ each night at dinner. The only rule is that we must narrow it down to one ‘high’ and one ‘low,’ though there is no penalty for stating multiples of either. I usually can’t help myself. Yesterday, my high was the train ride from Paris to Genoa,…
Somewhere Seeking 