Category Italy
Cefalù: cute costumed children celebrating Carnevale with confetti
Cefalù, in Northern Sicily, is indisputably scenic. It’s dramatically set on the Mediterranean, with a giant rock mountain looming above it, full of golden light, palm trees, and twisty medieval streets. Despite it’s attractive qualities, we spent much of the day irritated with the tourist industry of the town, which has three major sights, two […]
Magnificent Monreale Cathedral, an amazing cloister followed by a beef spleen sandwich
The Cathedral of Monreale in Monreale, Sicily, exceeded my high expectations. Until I have a chance to write more, I’ll tease you with a few photos of the mosaics and cloister. Dating from around 1200, the cathedral and it’s art are pristinely preserved. After a day in Monreale, we returned to Palermo and furthered our […]
A taste of Palermo: street food, a curly tail cat, and Jesus Christ Superstar
Palermo is a delicious mix of Norman, Arabic, Byzantine, Baroque and Renaissance–and the street food reflects the multicultural heritage of the city. Our day was full of Byzantine mosaics with interludes of studiously eating as many types of street food as possible. I look forward to lovingly describing the outstanding art and architecture of Palermo when I […]
Straight of Messina
Today I napped on a dusty train next to a stranger, South from Naples down mainland Italy until we crossed the Straight of Messina into Sicily. Sicily is an island, of course, and there’s no bridge, and yet it’s possible to take a train across the sea. The train actually boards a ferry by breaking up […]
See Naples and die
You know how when someone goes to Las Vegas, people nudge each other and say knowingly “What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas”? Well in Italy, if you’re going to Naples people say “Vedi Napoli e poi muori!”—See Naples and die! Well I’m sure this is meant as a compliment, as in “OMG I’ve seen […]
In which we visit the caves of Matera
We got on the bus in Naples and departed six hours later in another millennium. Matera, in the Basilicata region of Southern Italy, has been continually occupied by humans since Paleolithic times. We were there to see the Sassi di Matera, cave dwellings and churches that people have been living in for over 9000 years.When […]
Bramante’s Tempietto gets a visit from the Infamous Blue Traveling Poncho
This modestly-scaled building in Rome, the Tempietto, is the monument of Italian High Renaissance. Donato Bramante created his “little temple” in 1502 after a lifetime of studying Roman ruins and the architectural writings of the classical author Vitruvius. Bramante followed a strict classical ratio of proportions, where height equals width in the lower and upper sections. The Tempietto feels rather […]
The origin story, or how I became a raging travel-craving maniac
I was sixteen, living in a tiny Midwestern town and determined to go to Europe. I didn’t have money and in that rural environment, received no encouragement from my friends or teachers. Nonetheless, I researched relentlessly until I learned about the Rotary Club International’s Rotary Youth Exchange program, which funds and facilitates international student travel. […]
Adorable Alberobello and a cozy night in a trullo house
The view from the train through the Itria Valley, in the Puglia region of Italy, was stunning, and we had plenty of time to enjoy the scenery, as trains in South are slooooooooooooow. There were the silvery olive trees everywhere and then….what was that odd little hut with a cone on top in the middle […]
I’ll just have to wait for the arancini
I had a jones for Italian street food on my lunch break. Normally, I’m pretty disciplined about eating only what I pack from home, but damn, this was what crack addiction must feel like. I NEEDED ARANCINI. There’s a place by my job called L’Appetito that I walked past for years but never eaten in […]
Picnic at the Cathedral 