When Presence Suffices

I sat on the cool stone steps of the Piazza Trilussa resting my feet and just breathing in the moment as the twilight deepened toward darkness. On the other side of the square, cars zipped along the edge of the Tiber, and all around me people came and went as the warm spring day yielded […]

Peeling Back The Layers

Scilla has a stunning solitude this time of year. When the tourists are away, the narrow streets are quiet other than an occasional pedestrian and some hushed voices sitting at a cafe. The storefronts mostly stand closed, and the rare few that are open are staffed by lonely shopkeepers. Even the ripples of the Sea […]

Hypnotized by You if I Should Linger

In the ancient epic poem, The Odyssey, the Greek poet Homer tells the tale of Odysseus’s journey home from the Trojan War. He became lost on the way and had to brave numerous trials and dangers including the brutal cyclops, the sirens with their bewitching song, and the Scylla and Charybdis. As the story goes, […]

You Should Watch Cinema Paradiso

I love volcanoes – I’ve always loved them, for as long as I can remember. There’s just something about the power, the destruction, the unpredictability, and the intimate association with our history. They have always had some sort of meaning. Seriously – when I was a kid and my dad had to go to Sicily […]

Forgotten Histories

When I came to Calabria I knew I was coming someplace smaller, to a place most of the world doesn’t know about, and if they did they have already forgotten. I knew transport in this region is limited and many places are impossible to reach by train. I don’t have a car, so I’m more […]

Leaving Guidebooks Behind

Lurching left and right in an unpredictable manner, the train hurried forward, going ever downward. We were in a hurry to reach our destination, so didn’t bother stopping at Napoli Centrale, which would have lengthened this already long 5-hour ride. We stopped at Salerno, the site of my infamous loss of consciousness, and I glanced […]