In the Borderlands

The adrenaline rush of rebooking sustained me well into my flight out of JFK to Paris. I slept a bit on the plane, but by the time I hit the ground at Charles de Gaulle I was starting to drag and could feel the wall coming at me. Try as I might, the fatigue of […]

Off To The Cupboard With You Now, Chip

I was rushing out of my building on my way to the gym when my doorman stopped me. “You know what’s coming don’t you?” His eyebrows shot up. “You always seem to be here for bad weather.” I was intimately aware of the forecast, and had been for hours. A massive blizzard is bearing down […]

The Magicians of Sin City

I stepped out into the muted, pale pink morning of the Las Vegas Strip in an effort to earn my steps for the day, a steaming paper cup of cappuccino warming my hand, the occasional glug of it burning deep into my throat and chest. A sporadic runner hurried past along the glittering sidewalk, panting, […]

Why I Try to Make the Best of It

She sits on a quiet corner up the street from the Coliseum, and when the weather is warm you can sit at an outside table, under the trees that line the sidewalk. If you’re really fortunate the wind might sway the branches and you may capture a glimpse of the edges of the grand marble […]

In Which I Heed My Own Advice

Charles sat at the table next to mine at lunch yesterday. He is from Yellowknife in Western Canada and he is traveling alone. This is his second trip to Italy, and he will be here for a month and a half. Yesterday, he arrived in Bologna, having taken the bus from Bari. He took the […]

Three Days

My train pulled into the Bologna Centrale station shortly before 2 pm. I have three days in Italy and was well behind schedule; when time is short every hour counts. My flight was delayed leaving Newark due to nose cone damage, and my mind raced. Then the Leonardo Express train from the airport to Roma […]