travel
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What made Italians?
Near the end of the 1969 movie “The Secret of Santa Vittoria,” the psychological battle between the Nazi captain and the slyly submissive mayor of the Italian town (played lovably by Anthony Quinn) reaches a tense climax. The two men… 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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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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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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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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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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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
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Sic transit!
Germans display their orderliness even in a labor strike. The pilots of Lufthansa joined their fellow workers by holding a two-day strike, April 13 and 14. Danke schön, I picture management negotiators saying, and promptly informing us by email that… Continue reading
An American journalist heads for Italy to see his country changing from afar. 