Latest Posts
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Three-pitch strikeout
I know how freelance writers “pitch” story ideas. Or, as a noun, how you make a “pitch” to a magazine. I know, because I was the editor of the Sunday magazine of the Providence (R.I.) Journal-Bulletin. And I was features… Continue reading
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Intermittent immortality
In a magnificent niche of the medieval Fano wall, a thick Plexiglas sheet offers a double vision. Looking through it, you see brick steps descending below the cobblestones into some ancient space, with sprouts of weeds in the mortar. This… Continue reading
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Archeology vs. the East Wing
Three young women wearing bright yellow work vests and matching hard hats are committing archeology in one of Italy’s most exciting new digs this year. One is brushing dirt with a what looks like a paint brush. Another checks a… Continue reading
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Vitruvian treasure
When the city of Fano wanted to restore the Piazza Costa in the middle of the old city, it invited a team of engineers and archeologists to check underneath the cobblestones. This is a common requirement in any old city… Continue reading
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Monastic views
A Benedictine monastery with a pagan name, Eremo Monte Giove (Mt. Jove Hermitage), offers a breathtaking perspective on the area around it. After you hike up the steep quiet road from where the bus lets you out at Rosciano, you… Continue reading
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Windy morning of kites
Wind that is strong and steady belongs at sea, where the waves show it off. You walk out the Fano Marina, holding on to you your hat, past the colorful fishing huts on the pier, past the giant blocks of… Continue reading
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A Marathon Sunday morning
We woke this morning to a gigantic noise of parade drums, crowds and an endless, amplified Italian commentary just outside our apartment. It turns out, we are staying only a few steps from the colorful finish line of a major… Continue reading
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Sabato marcheto
I am not a fan of shopping in America. Unlike those who enjoy it, I am a snorkel diver, swimming through my search or shopping list as if I might run out of oxygen before I reach checkout. Street markets… Continue reading
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The Five Deadly Virtues
Like her hero Niccolò Machiavelli, Carol Darr delights in turning conventional (and Catholic) wisdom on its head. So in one chapter of her book Machiavelli 4 Everybody, being published next week, she describes five traditional virtues as “deadly” for a… Continue reading
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The Big Bad Prince
The Italian who invented political science, Niccolò Machiavelli, is not much appreciated outside of certain academic types who admire and debate his famous 16th century book “The Prince.” A bookstore I visited yesterday on Fano’s main piazza keeps paperback copies… Continue reading
An American journalist heads for Italy to see his country changing from afar. 