Of Etruria and What Came After

It all goes back to the Etruscans. Well perhaps not all, but some of it anyway. Tuscania is the town we are in now, but despite the name, it isn’t in Tuscany. It’s in the northern reaches of Lazio, one of the 20 Italian regions, known to most as home to Rome. This area is […]

Guccio Has Some Serious Muscles

The day began with a rooster finding its way out of the henhouse and into a small fenced in area adjacent. Flora and I had a plan to move the rooster back to its roost, but Guccio would have none of this. Instead, he found the smallest of crevices and bound into the pen, frightening […]

The Dogs Always Find Me

I drove with some trepidation at first, in the rental car, as we pecked our way around the tight Fiumicino Airport parking garage and escaped into the airport streets. The nav apps aren’t always familiar with the most up-to-date traffic patterns, so I had to do my own thing for a time until our courses […]

In Which I Try to Control the Things I Can’t

I refreshed the page on my phone incessantly, monitoring where Lisa’s flight was. I mean, I knew it was late, but now every minute counted, and I wanted to know every change and how late it would be. In fact, her flight wasn’t just late – it was extremely late – about 3 hours behind […]

At Least the Hotel was Nice

The day in Edinburgh was crisp and clear when I stepped over the threshold of the hotel and into the waking solitude of a weekend morning. The city about me still dozed, with but a few shops open. I stopped into a small cafe and ordered a bacon butty (sandwich), eating it while sipping at […]

Why We Do Flights of Beer, Not Whisky

I couldn’t feel my toes. This is why we don’t do flights of whisky. Because by the time we finish the fourth dram (or in this case, fourth ounce) we can’t feel our toes. It’s just too much. I’d made some decisions that led to this moment, such as settling for ice cream (whisky flavor) […]