A Slow Day in Mantova

Today is my final complete day in Italy. When tomorrow morning comes, I will hurrying off to the airport on my way home. Has this trip been only one week? It alternately feels to have gone by incredibly quickly, and to have been quite a long vacation. Having spent the bulk of yesterday in the […]

I’m Like a Real Life Ben Stiller!

We are spending the night in a museum. Really – I can’t make this stuff up. We are staying in the Casa Palazzo Museo Valenti Gongzaga in central Mantova, and I didn’t have to do anything special to find it – in fact it was a bit of an accident. I was just looking for […]

“Been There, Done That” Sometimes Doesn’t Apply

I have a confession: Milan isn’t my favorite Italian city. In a sense, it isn’t really particularly Italian. They obey traffic signals, scooters park in delineated spots, and they’re very organized. I prefer the relative chaos of Italy to the south. That said, there are a couple things here that are well worth seeing. I […]

Visiting Milan with Me Is Hazardous

D is here! Well, technically, he got to Italy last night, having rerouted a day early to Amsterdam in order to avoid the big snowstorm that was headed for New York. He got in late and spent the night in a hotel near the Milan airport, while I finished my last night in Genoa. We […]

The Day The Museums Opened

Today was Tuesday, which meant that all those museums I missed yesterday were open. Of course, now that I knew they were open, I didn’t really want to go to the museums. The sun was shining and there was nary a cloud in the sky. Ivo, my host, had spoken reverently about the towns on […]

When Life Gives Us Focaccia

Well – it happened again. My penchant for not planning has reared it’s ugly head. Usually, it’s just one minor bump in the road — I go to a city, and some museum or other is closed on a given day, so I have to reorganize slightly. Even when well planned, I have had this […]