Tag Archives: travel
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 […]
Pack light, don’t forget the emergency lipstick
I’m on the way to the airport tonight with an 18 pound backpack. Packing light is a non-negotiable necessity for a budget traveler. If you want to be independent and highly-mobile traveler, pack light. If you want to be tied down by your luggage, be dependent on elevators and porters, and have your airline lose […]
Goslar: all fairytale, no twee
Easter Sunday in Goslar, at the foot of the Harz mountains in Germany, with a carillon in the town square at noon and a snowfall I never knew existed outside of musical theater: a fairytale village, but real. Realness is what sets Goslar apart. We’ve visited charming half-timber villages before, and enjoyed them, but they often […]
Does this moneybelt make me look fat? How to foil pickpockets and avoid scams while traveling.
Crossing a crowded street in Madrid, I happened to glance at HOB and saw a teen girl unzipping his backpack. The second she saw me notice her, the girl melted into the crowd and disappeared. At a café in Istanbul, a toddler suddenly appeared, and just as I warned “look out!” he had his hands […]
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 […]
How to get the best customer service from tourist information and visitor services employees: an insider view
One of your most valuable resources as a budget traveler are tourist information centers and the visitor services staff at museums and cultural centers. The employees of these organizations are passionate about where they live and work and they are experts on what tourists need to know. They can reliably provide you with brochures and […]
No one told me there would be cats in the Hagia Sofia
The Hagia Sophia in Istanbul is overwhelmingly grand, which I expected. What I didn’t expect were the cats. The cats of Istanbul are apparently unimpressed by this famous Byzantine church-turned mosque-turned museum, and they’re just hanging out or snoozing just as nonchalantly as can be. Actually all of Istanbul was full of stray cats and […]
Picnic at the Cathedral 