Viva the Villa Experience!
If you let it, Italy will blow your mind. — Mario Scalzi It happened quite by accident, and I was hooked. My first trip to Italy — back in the Spring of 2000 — was organized by some friends who said that we would be renting a villa. I had no idea what to expect. I looked up the word “villa”…
Meatballs!
The trouble with eating Italian food is that five or six days later you’re hungry again. — George Miller My dancin' and cookin' stool The little wooden stool has been in my house forever. Ever since my grandfather died, at least, and we cleaned out his house. My father was going to throw it away. I said no. The stool…
National Poetry Month
I, too, dislike it: there are things that are important beyond all this fiddle . . . — Marianne Moore If you were forced to sit through hours of classroom time slogging through the seemingly incomprehensible — word upon word, stanza upon stanza of ghastly rhyme and meter, archaic language and even more arcane concepts — well . . . welcome…
Fabulous Floyd
Airplane travel is nature's way of making you look like your passport photo. — Al Gore The welcoming committee Sometimes it’s best just to get in the car. That’s what we did almost as soon as we moved to Virginia. We headed south and west, about 200 miles, to Floyd County. After living a combined 15 years in Boston and…
Gem in the Veneto: Montagnana
I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I ended up where I needed to be. — Douglas Adams I can’t remember how we happened upon Montagnana, exactly. Seven years ago, in 2003, Tim and I were taking a break from our larger group of eight, and he and I and our friend Gus had…
The Art of Travel Poetry
“. . . if you can’t pull forth the riches of a place, don’t blame the place, blame yourself, because it is you who are not rich enough to pull them . . .” — Rilke Tough words, especially for travel writers. We’re supposed to be so observant, so adept at translating our experiences and emotions into word pictures for…
Guest Blog Feature: La Tavola Marche
I long, as does every human being, to be at home wherever I find myself. — Maya Angelou Room for one more? I have not been to Le Marche, that region in central Italy that is bordered by Tuscany and Umbria on one side and the Adriatic on the other, but I have been reading about it in a terrific…
Writing Away
My memory is certainly in my hands. I can remember things only if I have a pencil and I write with it and I can play with it. I think my hand concentrates for me. I don’t know why it should be so. — Dame Rebecca West People give me books. Books about Italy, books about writing, books about cooking…
Food, Glorious Food
The first condition of understanding a foreign country is to smell it. – Rudyard Kipling It’s happened to Tim twice — once in Paris and once in Crete. Following his nose through the town, street by street, smell by smell, until he located the source. Dinner? Garlic, always. Large quantities of rosemary. A little lamb. Wondrously flavorful sauce. Fresh bread.…
Lost in Milano, Part II: The Menorah on the Second Floor
Always roaming with a hungry heart. — Alfred Lord Tennyson When we travel, we usually “roam” for a time. Go off the itinerary. Lose the schedule. I’ve filled journals with stories about all the turn-offs and re-routing that Tim has done on vacations — some of it hair-raising, but most of it well worth the time (his) and tantrums (mine).…
Travel Tips Newsletter
Every once in a while, Linda posts useful gems about mustn’t-miss travel info. Group travel? Packing? Where to go? What happens when an emergency strikes?
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