Italy
There are [545] photos and [43] stories about Italy
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Wednesday, 7 Nov 2012 | Views [926]
The problem with budget air-fares is the lay-overs. But they aren't all bad, either. Munich to Buenos Aires - more on that in a later story - meant a 23-hour layover in Rome. It hardly seems possible that I was saying "Guten Tag" on ... Read more >
Sunday, 4 Mar 2012 | Views [992]
We left Sicily at nine last night on the overnight train from Palermo.
It was a debate right until the last minute whether we would take the
train or the ferry. The train won out more on logistics than on
comfort. Neither the ports of Palermo ... Read more >
Friday, 2 Mar 2012 | Views [1248]
It sounds so beautiful in Italian - see-cheel-ya. From the Malta ferry, Sicily looks like a pancake floating on the sea; from Catania like a snow-capped breast; and from the car, it is a three-dimensional maze of hills, valleys and winding roads.... Read more >
Saturday, 25 Feb 2012 | Views [1346]
It is a strange trip indeed from Sorrento to Sicily. We began by traveling north on the Circumvesuviana line to Naples. Then we boarded the southbound train, first-class was all they had available, to Reggio Calabria on Italy's tippy-toe where, like ... Read more >
Saturday, 25 Feb 2012 | Photo Gallery
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Friday, 24 Feb 2012 | Views [833]
The road along the Amalfi Coast is so narrow that drivers are
advised to fold in their side mirrors and many cars bear scars on the driver’s
side. The locals speed into the
turns and drift across the center line, scaring the daylights out of us
tourists.... Read more >
Thursday, 23 Feb 2012 | Views [1662]
The archeologists who “discovered” it in the 18 th Century can be forgiven for naming it the Temple of Ceres after the Greek goddess of agriculture. Its columns glow like golden sheaves of wheat in the morning sun. More ... Read more >
Tuesday, 21 Feb 2012 | Views [1172]
On the surface Matera seems to be a new (for Italy) town, built in the 1960s. But there is an old town where any building could date back to the 8th Century, or earlier. We had the slippery, narrow streets and steep stairways to ourselves ... Read more >
Monday, 20 Feb 2012 | Views [2323]
Driving from Sorrento to Caserta was tedious, tiring and, frankly, disgusting. Once away from the coast the road is a tour through one dirty, potholed town after another, seemingly in circles. Once out of the populated areas the roadside ... Read more >
Saturday, 18 Feb 2012 | Photo Gallery
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Friday, 17 Feb 2012 | Views [1970]
If you lived in Pompeii, August 24 in the year 79 AD would have been a good day to be out of town. Around noon, Mt. Vesuvius began pouring tons of ash into the sky. It had been rumbling for a few days but no one thought much of it. As the ash piled ... Read more >
Friday, 17 Feb 2012 | Photo Gallery
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Thursday, 16 Feb 2012 | Views [3137]
Naples is the most densely populated - and supposedly one of the most corrupt - cities in Europe. The guidebooks post warnings, fellow travelers spin tales of woe and even the public address system at the station remind passengers to be cautious of ... Read more >
Tuesday, 14 Feb 2012 | Views [1049]
It was closed! And the Colosseum. And the Palantine Hill, too. They were still closed five days after the "Blizzard of 2012" dumped one centimeter of snow on Rome! I guess we can understand the reasoning. The temperature hasn't risen ... Read more >
Saturday, 11 Feb 2012 | Views [899]
It's always good to have a backup plan. With snow in Friday's forecast, even the single centimeter predicted, Hizonner, the mayor, still smarting from last week's surprise snow, virtually closed Rome. "Chiuso" as they say for schools, government ... Read more >
Thursday, 9 Feb 2012 | Views [2595]
Cameras are not permitted in the Borghese Gallery, which is a pity. The gallery is home to three of the most striking marbles, all by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Gothic successor to Renaissance Michelangelo. If both were sports sculptors, Michelangelo ... Read more >
Tuesday, 7 Feb 2012 | Views [846]
do as the Romans do. Dress warmly! Unlike friends who complained about the sweltering summer heat, we have been freezing. And we are not alone. Even the statues are are dripping icicles. Yesterday's train ride from Milan looked more like a scene ... Read more >
Monday, 6 Feb 2012 | Photo Gallery
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Sunday, 5 Feb 2012 | Views [1069]
While much of Italy - and most of the rest of Europe - is under a blanket of snow and sub-zero temperatures, we are hunkered down in our room at Aviano Air Base, watching crime show reruns and Super Bowl hype on the Armed Forces Network. It's cold ... Read more >
Sunday, 29 Jan 2012 | Views [1465]
Travel guru Rick Steves has hyped the Cinque Terre so much on his Europe TV program (check your local PBS station for times) that it almost seems like we had already been there. And when we arrived at Sestri Levante near the Cinque Terre coast, ... Read more >
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