Sometimes the Accidental Decisions Are the Right Decisions

Last day in Rome. Last day in Italy. I feel as though I’ve been here for much longer than 10 days and I think I’m ready to go home. I’ve also passed a milestone in my time here, in that I can sense my language skills improving. It takes just about a week for the […]

Sometimes I Make Bad Decisions

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 […]

All Roads Lead…

Up early this morning I bid a wistful farewell to Bologna. I have little left to see here from a tourist’s perspective, but that is no longer why I visit. There is something unique about her presence, her age, her vitality, her smallness. And her tangible, palpable, real-ness. This is a place where people live […]

Yes, I Am From Detroit, Texas. I’m Glad You’ve Heard of It

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 […]

In Fair Verona…

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 […]

Into Every Vacation A Little Rain Must Fall

My history with day trips is spotty at best. There was Parma, on a Monday, when everything was closed. There was Lucca, which I visited in the midst of a comic con. There was Modena yesterday: ok but a bit disappointing. When you are on a day trip, you have no escape from the elements […]