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...
Marché

Marché

For the gastronomic traveler, there are reasons enough to visit Marché (pronounced Mar´kay). From the culinary point-of-view, Marche is a little more sophisticated than Molise or Abruzzo, sharing borders and culinary traditions with Emilia-Romana and Tuscany, as well...
The Epicurean Traveler in  Alto-Adige

The Epicurean Traveler in Alto-Adige

  Text and photos ©2010 Tucked away in a steep-sided narrow valley in the Northeastern part of the country, Alto-Adige seems a world apart from the rest of Italy. It’s almost unknown to American tourists who stick to more traveled roads, though it’s a popular...
Ten Great Things about Whistler

Ten Great Things about Whistler

  Text and photos ©2012 The crossing:  Getting to Whistler by air requires flying to Vancouver, a beautiful city that deserves at least afew days of your time. En route to Whistler, the awe-inspiring ambiance of the Sea to Sky Highway with its misty mountainous...
Turkish Fare

Turkish Fare

Text ©2013 Photos ©2013 by Sal Laterra              I have two strong recollections of my first visit to Turkey more than four decades ago.       In Istanbul I stayed in the Youth Hostel overlooking the Bosphorus. Then and there, I decided that Istanbul must be one of...
Inside Paris-Insider.com

Inside Paris-Insider.com

  Review by Scott W. Clemens For the most part, I prefer the country and small towns. Yet there are in this world a few cities that I look forward with eager anticipation to visiting again and again. With its intertwining layers of history, art, and the art of...
Rangoon Renaissance: Staying at the Strand 

Rangoon Renaissance: Staying at the Strand 

text and photos ©2012 Burma is now on many world travelers’ “A” list.  With the release of Nobel Prize Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest last year and her subsequent triumphant election campaign, tourism to the country is at an all-time high.  Decades of...
Not Enough Time in Padua

Not Enough Time in Padua

  Alliteration conjures treasures in the Veneto. Venice, Verona, Vicenza come readily to mind, and a fourth joins them in an old folkloric rhyme:   Veneziani, gran signori; Padovani, gran dottori; Vicentini, mangia gatti; Veronesi, tutti matti.   Freely...
O’Keeffe Country: Looking for Georgia

O’Keeffe Country: Looking for Georgia

© 2011 A painting made me do it.  I’m not sure whether it was “Purple Hills II” or “LavenderHill with Green 1952” that gave me the itch but when a friend gifted me with a coffee table book commemorating Georgia O’Keeffe’s artwork, I knew I had to set foot on the land...
Souvenirs of Languedoc

Souvenirs of Languedoc

text and photos ©2011 by Bill Marsano Languedoc-Roussillon is almost invariably short-changed. It’s blessed by lovely, lively Nîmes and dramatically walled Carcassone, but Provence just across the Rhone gleams with Avignon, Arles and Aix, with gritty Marseille and...