nature
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In a green shade
I am sitting on a bench facing the giant trunks of two tall trees twice my age – a Norway spruce and a Ginkgo. The Norway spruce, native as far south as the Italian Alps, was called picea excelsa (very… Continue reading
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The human factor
Here is continual spring, and summer in unseasonable months,the herds breed twice, the trees are good, twice, for fruit.And raging tigers are absent, and lions’ savage young,no aconite deceives unlucky foragers,no scaly serpent slides his huge segments over the ground,or… 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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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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Pilgrims-in-training
We are getting our legs in shape for an eight-day pilgrimage through rural Tuscany. It’s a small part of the 2,000 km route that an obscure Archbishop of Canterbury logged by foot or horseback in 990 A.D. from his English… Continue reading
An American journalist heads for Italy to see his country changing from afar. 