In the spirit of “Stop waiting,” I’ve decided to release of few chapter of my murder mystery, Under the Tuscan Gun. If you like it, let me know. _______________________________________________________________________________________________ CHAPTER 1 “I’ve killed Elin and put her body in the trunk of my car.” Thus Sunny greets me […]
Italy
Rome is like that friend you’ve known for 20 years and yet every time you get together you need to set aside 4 hours for dinner and even then you will still end up closing the place because you will never run out of things to talk about and stories […]
It’s the first full week of September and numerous news items leave me shaking with rage – or fear – or both on a daily basis. It seems impossible to believe that just 2 months ago I was in a place so magical I ceased caring about even eating, and […]
Whenever we land in Rome I never know what to expect, at least from ourselves. The Ancient City boasting still standing structures thousands of years old is constant; airlines and people, not so much. Will we be on time? We will be overcome by jetlag and unexpectedly sleep until noon? […]
When it comes to Italy, I belong in a 12 step program. I am powerless over Italy. I start getting a jones to go every January and it’s all I can think about until I’m actually there, at which point I’m already thinking about the next time I’m going to […]
When people tell me they didn’t like Rome, it’s like they told me they don’t like sunsets or puppies or Elvis Costello. Sure on the cuddly scale, Rome is less puppy and more Costello, but like the musician, Rome has a large body of work that encompasses a […]
When we were planning our Amalfi coast trip, we were looking for a place to spend our last couple of nights and thinking of the island of Capri, in keeping with our Crowded/Less Crowded/Remote plan. A friend of ours said, “Go to Ischia.” Ischia is an island about […]
About five years ago we planned a trip to the Amalfi coast. Technically we planned it six years ago. When figuring out where to go on our 2009 trip, we thought we would be really clever if we split up the research. What that meant was that I would […]
There’s a reason Tuscany is one of the most talked about destinations in Italy. Tuscany is a unicorn; a mythological creature that doesn’t exist except in fairy tales, but part of us still holds out the hope of finding one some day anyway. Tuscany is like a hot […]
Cinque Terre roughly means the 5 towns, which is exactly what it is: 5 towns on the Ligurian coast between Genoa and La Spezia. The towns are famous for being connected by a series of hikes ranging from the very intense to a mere stroll. It’s rocky, dramatic coastline, […]
The Husband and I like to call Bologna “the Boston of Italy” which really sends the wrong message if you’ve ever met a drunk Red Sox fan, lived through the bus riots, or were the victim of a mass cover up by the Catholic Church. When I say Bologna is […]
If Bologna is the Boston of Italy, Puglia is the Cape Cod. I first heard about Puglia as a destination about 5 years ago when my friend told me that she heard it was great. “Italians are just starting to discover it,” she explained. Indeed when you go there, […]