Milano is a fashion maven’s paradise: Prada. Dolce & Gabbana. Armani… etc. But dresses and handbags don’t interest me much. I’d rather have knives and scissors. I’d rather have tools for making things. I’d rather have a well-crafted implement. A girlfriend wrote to me last night and mentioned G. Lorenzi Coltellinaio on Via Montenapoleone, and [...]

It was just starting to spit a little rain as I got off the subway at “Fermata Moscova” and walked toward the cemetery, “Cimitero Monumentale“. It’s a remarkable place, but what draws me now is a wonderful, elder woman, Mary. I met her in March, over a year ago, and we’ve been “sweet on each [...]

At the Saturday street market yesterday, there were a couple of meat vendors selling rotisserie-cooked chickens, still rotating behind them. I stood in line with the rest of the crowd because the aroma was irresistible. One woman gave up on the wait and gave me her number, “90″, just 4 spots away. For 5,50 euro, [...]

After my first week in Milan, I toured the south of Italy for two weeks, and then have spent the subsequent week writing about it and prepping photos! (I shot 2400.) What an amazing time. I met tremendously dear people and saw rich details. Indeed, as I’ve always heard, the south of Italy is very different [...]

Seattleites delight! There’s quarter-inch hail rocketing down at this moment in Milano! (And I’ve even worn a light sweater today.) the hail isn’t just falling, it’s being propelled to the ground like bullets. It’s 73 degrees out! I have the doors wide open. An odd phenomenon, certainly. They’re still predicting mid-80s for the weekend though, [...]

It’s hot and I’ve had too much salt. My fingers and toes are like little sausages. My skin is tight. I don’t think I could put my shoes on if I had to. My sandals are uncomfortably snug. I’ve eaten too many pickles. I’m 4 doors away from the best pastry shop in town but [...]

On a narrow, stair-stepped passage in the “centro storico” – historic district – of Taormina, there was a small shop that sets up fruits and vegetables outside. The lemons pulled me, looking like seventeenth-century Old Masters’ paintings. Some fruit was cut and drying at the edges, more thick-of-skin than there was flesh. Some was left [...]

“The essential is invisible to the eyes.” Painted graffiti on a wall in Palermo.  

Ticka-ticka-ticka-ticka. The signs that indicate Milano’s M2 green line subway destination were malfunctioning and rapidly rotating through all the options. It was amusing, but noisy with its constant “ticka-ticka”. Wouldn’t you like to stop at Gorgonzola?

A pigeon wandered into the other bedroom, twice, off the balcony. A child was practicing lessons on a recorder flute, playing “Somewhere (There’s a Place for Us)”. The sound was amplified through the courtyard, allowing us all to “enjoy” the practice. It actually wasn’t too bad. The neighbors next door must be good cooks, or [...]

In Italy, one can go 100 kilometers and find a very different food culture. There are dishes and combinations found in just one town, and certainly in one region, not others. What Americans think of as “Italian Food” is a tiny representation of what Italians eat. In planning to visit the south of the country [...]

Finding out about Alberobello, I itched to stay in a trullo for a couple of nights! Through an internet search, I found Charming Trulli, and dear Antonella. (“Trulli” is plural for “trullo“.) I had a long, complicated Sunday traveling up from Lecce, and finally arrived in early afternoon by train and bus. On her only day [...]

A few months ago, I heard for the first time about the “trulli” of Alberobello, in the Puglia region at “the heel of the boot” of Italy. After my initial glance at images, I knew that the town had to be added to the itinerary of my South Italy Tour. The trulli are a photographer [...]

Almost, but not quite at the tippy-tip of the “heel of the boot” of Italy, the city of Lecce (roughly pronounced “lay-chay“) has much more to marvel at than is possible in two short days. With its Roman amphitheater smack in the middle of the town square, its over-the-top Baroque architecture, castles, parks, a duomo… [...]

In 1419, when they built this castle, they weren’t planning ahead for wifi reception in the rooms. Three-foot thick stone walls don’t lend themselves to today’s wireless technology. I’m staying at Torre del Parco, in the town of Lecce, in the region of Puglia, almost at the very tippy-tip of the “heel of the boot”. [...]

May 13 Journal Entry. Catanzaro Lido to Lecce. Training along the Ionian Sea shoreline: Red poppies. Cactus. Olives & grapes. Palms & pines. May is a lovely, ideal time to be traveling here, sunny, pleasantly warm. A breeze from the sea and no mosquitoes. But I look out and can imagine the late-summer heat and [...]

These old shoes have been through a Venetian deluge in San Marco Square, and foot-swelling heat in the Roman Forum. They’ve taken me on the Via dell’ Amore dirt trail in the Cinque Terre and the Via Montenapoleone high fashion district of Milan. I’ve worn them with skirts and dresses, pants and shorts. On the [...]

It’s no joke that I’m in the “presidential suite” at the Palace Hotel, in the region of Calabria, the town of Catanzaro Lido. The waves of the Ionian Sea are rolling in just off my private balcony. I could throw a stone (hard) and it would land in the water, on the other side of [...]

Haven’t you always heard of “the straits of Messina”? Today I took a train from Taormina, about halfway down the east coast of Sicily, up to the northeastern point of the large island, at Messina. I wondered how this would work, since my train ticket included going up the northwest-facing shoreline of Italy. There was [...]

May 9 Journal Entry. Taormina. I need an attitude adjustment. I just don’t do “the tourist thing” and am feeling finished, ready to go home. Without someone to taste wine with at the enoteca, to share a filet of grilled swordfish or a plate of caponata, without someone to marvel with over the historic sites [...]