The Janiculum: Rome’s Eighth Hill

The Janiculum: Rome’s Eighth Hill

The refrain of the Morcheeba, a British trip hop Band, tells us repeatedly in the most famous hit of their 2000 album, “Fragments of Freedom,” “Don’t you know that Rome wasn’t built in a day.”  Indeed so, Rome, a layer-cake of history built on seven hills, is...
Duluth — An Uncommon Vacation

Duluth — An Uncommon Vacation

Our suite at South Pier Inn, with a warming fire and a jetted tub, commanded a 270-degree view encompassing the blue water of Superior Bay and the Aerial Lift Bridge at the entrance to Lake Superior. In the morning the surface of the bay was a glistening white slab of...
Delicious NOLA

Delicious NOLA

The city beckoned as the 737 landed mid-afternoon at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport.  We craved NOLA’s offerings and anticipated people and places prepared to satisfy. Four days and three nights later, ten highlights are too delicious to keep to...

Traveling to Tuscany?

    FutureBrand, the international business evaluation company, surveyed thousands of people to describe countries worldwide in a few words. The three most frequent for Italy were culture, beauty, and food. Without a doubt food is a “driver” when it comes to...
 AUTUMN IN VERMONT

 AUTUMN IN VERMONT

  text and photos ©2012 Driving down nearly deserted roads during the first two weeks of October, I couldn’t help but wonder, ‘If this is the busy season, what is Vermont like in the off-season.’ This, after all, was the “high season” as...
MOLISE

MOLISE

Molise is a tiny region with just 28 kilometers of seaside and very limited tourism. Wine has been made here since pre-Roman times, and was commented upon by Pliny the Elder. Today the area has about 49,000 acres under vine, grown on the long, low hills that stretch...
ABRUZZO

ABRUZZO

The political divisions along the Adriatic are merely arbitrary human delineations and bear only cursory resemblance to the landforms, so I think I should take a moment here to set the topography in the reader’s mind. Behind Molise, the mountains rise to about 3,000...