The gravity well of some of the structures here is enormous. The colosseum, for example is unavoidable, she draws me to her, the chill of her stone and the mass of her being encompassing me. This is a place I have visited repeatedly, but she is a touchstone, and the visit leaves me giddy. I […]

No day trips today. Just me and la grassa, la dotta, la rossa: Bologna. I just love this city in so many ways. And strangely it doesn’t get high priority in many travel guides. I don’t know why this is, but the benefit is that the crush of tourists is less. I met a couple […]

Today I went to Verona. I got an early start and was there by 930. I intended to pick up a tourist map at the train station, but the tourist information center was closed. There were no signs and I had no idea where the station was relative to town (it wasn’t in the guidebooks […]

Still without any rumor of luggage, I got up and dressed in my new clothes and had a revelation. Although Steve Jobs was famous for his reality distortion field, designers and clothing vendors have a similarly effective field. Basically, you look through the store and reorient your expectations. You step into the dressing room, try […]

Today I was awake early and off to the conference. Another good day of talks and discussion on diabetes in pregnancy. Good until late afternoon when the jet lag caught up with me and I basically slept through a talk. At this point the talks were winding down so I decided to head out. I […]