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 [...]

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 [...]

Always an exercise in “packing light”, I keep removing things from my one-and-only carry-on bag for two weeks in the south of “The Boot”. After a week in Milano, I’m heading to south to wander around. First, I’ll explore Sicilia for a week. Then I’ll take a train along the “sole of the boot”, to Puglia, [...]