Category The Infamous Blue Traveling Poncho
Frómista, Spain: The Infamous Blue Traveling Poncho Camino de Santiago special edition
Never has before has Frómista, Spain seen a sexier pilgrim until the day I sauntered into to town with my handsome gentlemen companion, wearing seven shirts and a coat and a poncho. First ever documented sighting of Wife of Bath wearing The Infamous Blue Travelling Poncho. San Martín: brace yourselves because this is one of my all […]
Caspar David Friedrich painting or The Infamous Blue Traveling Poncho?
This could be a post about an ugly travel poncho. Or more likely, a tribute to the earnestly brooding Romantic landscapes of German painter Caspar David Friedrich. However, I’d prefer this to be be a story of how an undignified rain coat can transform the experience of traveling in crappy weather from dreary to hilarious. So, is it The […]
Temple of Olympian Zeus, Agrigento: he’s an atlas, he’s a column: HE’S SUPER TELAMON!
19th century romantics must have gone wild with nostalgic indulgence at the ruins of Temple of Olympian Zeus, in the Valley of the Temples in Agrigento, Sicily. It has such a literal “feel small before the mighty ruins of past civilization” vibe about it. And to my 21st century eyes, the scale and ambition of […]
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 […]
Picnic at the Cathedral 