The Navigli: Canal neighborhood wins me over to Milan
I never liked Milan much but the Navigli neighborhood, the city’s one bastion of calm, has won me over. It dates to 1200 and is resurfacing after a rough lockdown.
Gondolas: a ride through peaceful Venice canals is all romance and no schlock
I’ve always avoided gondola rides in Venice just as I avoid all tourist traps. But with Venice coming out of pandemic lockdown, I gave it a try. It was worth every minute of our 45-minute ride.
Anniversary in Venice: A proud city awakens from lockdown
Venice has had been more economically devastated than any city in Italy but as it crawls out of lockdown it reveals itself as the peaceful, romantic paradise it once was.
10 things I miss about travel — as Italy’s lockdown ends
I’ve traveled to 107 countries but none in the last 14 months. I miss it more than anyone can know. Here is why.
European Super League sticking it to the little guy, like me
The proposed European Super League is a greedy, elitist idea that will enrich the already rich and make it harder for others to compete and their fans to have hope.
Covid vaccinations in Italy rolling out slowly but I got mine
La Nuvola is Rome’s answer to modern architectural marvels, a bookend to the legendary monuments this city built 2,000 years ago. Known formerly as the Nuovi Centro Congressi (New Congress Center), it is a gargantuan glass cube made up of 592,000 square feet of convention space. Built from 2008-16, it was awarded the 2012 Best […]
Dante Alighieri: Italy celebrates 700-year anniversary of his death
Italy celebrates the 700-year anniversary of Dante Alighieri’s death while I reflect on one of my favorite books as a young adult.
Birthday in Lockdown Italy: In lieu of travel, my birthday was lunch and dreams and pray for a vaccine
Since moving to Rome in 2014, birthdays have never been dates of dread. I don’t see them as another year older. At my age, 65, they blend together, like cards in an ever-growing deck. Instead, birthdays in Rome are dates for adventure. Every birthday, on or around March 29, Marina and I head off to […]
Augustus Mausoleum: The long-awaited reopening illuminates perhaps Rome’s greatest emperor
The Augustus Mausoleum was the first of its kind in Ancient Rome, built even before the Pantheon. It has reopened to the public for the first time in 14 years.
Lockdown Rome II: A 3rd Covid wave floods over Italy and three weeks of isolation awaits us once again
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Gray skies the shade of a lonely broken highway greeted me Tuesday as I ventured out for the first time in Episode 1 of “Lockdown Rome: Season 2.” The science fiction tale of a broken, 3,000-year-old city has a different feel this time. A year ago, this city of 2.8 million felt like the day […]
Anzio: Nero’s birthplace and site of key WWII battle is a beachside paradise a short ride from Rome
ANZIO, Italy — You can’t tour Rome and Southern Italy without being in awe of the monstrous footprint this civilization laid down 2,000 years ago. Monuments and market places, mausoleums and temples, the most powerful civilization in man’s history stretched from what is now Great Britain to Persia. Peoples and armies in between cowered with […]
Palestrina: A Rome day trip back 2,200 years ago to the powerful Roman Republic and a massive sanctuary
PALESTRINA, Italy — Before the Virgin Mary there was Fortuna Primigenia. She was the Roman Goddess of Fate, the oldest daughter of Jupiter. In 204 B.C., as the Roman Republic flexed its muscles, the largest sanctuary on the Italian peninsula was built in her honor. Stretching 1,300 feet at the base and crawling up the […]