Graveyard with a View

Graveyards hold a special fascination for me. If you’ve read any of my books, you’ll agree. This one may have the best view I’ve ever experienced. Built centuries ago on a mountaintop overlooking Villefranche, the town of Eze Is a … Read More

Florence

His hands are too big, his head oversized. Yet the statue is considered one of the greatest works from the chisel of an artist. I circled this marble masterpiece like an unworthy prize fighter sizing up Muhammad Ali, snapping photographs … Read More

Tuscany

Our drive through the northern Tuscan countryside came too late in the year to see the endless fields of sunflowers. No matter. This is Tuscany. Our path wound through two hilltop villages, nee city states, whose medieval fortress walls now … Read More

Roma

Next time we approach Rome we will do it the way Hannibal did in 211 BCE. He took elephants over the Alps to surprise the Roman Empire, stopping short of the Eternal City because he lacked the necessary supply lines … Read More

Where is Hercules when you need him?

The 79AD eruption of Vesuvius claimed not only Pompeii, but other towns in the shadow of the volcano. Herculaneum–some say founded by Hercules, but at the very least named for him– a prosperous community used as a getaway for wealthy … Read More

When the Volcano Blows

Vesuvius, a beauty, couldn’t hold it any longer. Beneath the mountain seawater poured through fissures into Mother Earth’s fiery furnaces causing a titanic cataclysm, and in late summer79 AD she began a series of eruptions lasting two days, blowing clouds … Read More

Mamma Etna

Mount Etna is a reliable girl, as far as volcanoes go. Her last dramatic eruption happened less than six months ago, but at her 11,000-foot summit, activity is nearly continuous, with frequent eruptions from her flanks, where mantle magma spews … Read More

Athens

We arrived in Athens on Greek Independence Day. From our hotel we stepped into that iconic gathering place, Stavros Niarchos Park, where we joined thousands of revelers celebrating Greek resistance to fascism during WWII. From atop Renzo Piano’s architectural masterpiece … Read More

I was conflicted.

“When you come to a fork in the road…” Yogi didn’t prepare me for this dilemma. But I did end up taking his advice, in a roundabout way.