Latest Posts
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An evening stroll, senza fretta
We went out at dusk to look for the moon. “Sunset” in Italian is tramonto, “between” and “mountain,” and we imagine the sun somewhere between the Apennines and the sky behind us far to our west. We were walking east… Continue reading
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Pilgrims’ Progress
To prepare for walking the old Tuscan footpath of European pilgrims and Crusaders, I borrowed a 1919 book by an idealistic American walker who represented the American Red Cross in Palestine 30 years before it became the modern state of… Continue reading
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Antifa, 1945
“Liberation Day” was what President Trump called it when he began imposing his Let’s-Make-a-Deal tariffs, which turned out to be an unconstitutional tax on Americans. In Italy, it’s something else. It’s today, April 25, Festa della Liberazione, Italy’s emotional celebration… Continue reading
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The Grand Tour
Tourism is one thing; pilgrimage is another. The pilgrims and Catholic devotees seemed outnumbered a hundred to one yesterday in the enormous Duomo of Siena. Cameras with long lenses or inside iPhones were clicking away everywhere as tour-group leaders held… Continue reading
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Come back
The footpaths from Montereggioni to Siena are so enchanted, you wonder if the way was staged by some Romantic poet. April birdsongs fill the hedges and woods. Wildflowers of yellow (rapeseed and broom), red (poppies), star white, lavender and heavenly… Continue reading
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Cities upon hills
Walking from town to town would be very different if this were Kansas, or Tennessee. It’s Tuscany, and we’re on the antique Via Francigena (or occasionally off it, mixing up the varied trail markings with the Google maps of our… Continue reading
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What can you say?
Should parents apologize in public for a child’s behavior? Should we two Americans apologize for our President? If so, how, across a language barrier? We thought we would have a quiet, private dinner at the table in the empty back… Continue reading
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Good Lord, we beseech thee
We see more walking companions, resting in small groups chatting in Italian on breaks in the shade of olive trees. One group of young women leaves a stone booth with a Virgin Mary altar (one crosses herself, kissing her hand)… Continue reading
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Under the Tuscan Sun
Wayfaring through the old towns and narrow footpaths of Tuscany. We are two pelligrini, daypacks on backs, knitting the ground with adjustable walking poles bought outside Lucca. Fueled by a hotel breakfast and two cappuccinos each. CaminoWays, a service company… Continue reading
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On a train and the Lucca wall
On a passenger train, the living things passing by can strike you with a poignancy like nothing else. A child on a bike, that geranium on a window sill, green hills in April cloud shadows. Their brief appearances, and disappearance,… Continue reading
An American journalist heads for Italy to see his country changing from afar. 