John Henderson's Travel Adventures in Rome and Beyond

October 7, 2020

Bucket list 2021: Africa, axed trips top list

I was a sports writer in the U.S. for 40 years and sometimes football imitates life — like my life now. It’s October, less than three months remain in the year and the world is no better off than it was when the pandemic began. I’m facing 3rd-and-long from near my own end zone. It’s time to punt 2020. Fortunately, I’m not talking about my […]

September 30, 2020

Hadrian’s Villa: a day trip into the decadent opulence of Ancient Rome

TIVOLI, Italy — Sometimes Rome gets to me, kind of like too much fine wine. Yes, the most beautiful city in the world gets old in more than just age. A Roman outside my window leans on his horn for five minutes until the guy who double parked next to him comes out and moves his car. The garbage around my street’s packed dumpsters overflows […]

September 24, 2020

American expats terrified as 40-day march to vote begins

We American expats overseas don’t get our voices heard very often beyond family and friends back home. Our opinions get filtered by the roar of separating oceans and the relative anonymity of social media. But with the most important presidential election in, at least, my 64 years only 40 days away, our voices should be made loud and clear. There are 9 million of us. […]

September 16, 2020

European soccer season begins with frustration for me and AS Roma fans

AS Roma’s season begins Saturday, and I’m approaching it with the resignation usually reserved for my tax return or tomato sauce. I’m always disappointed. Enduring Roma’s season is worse than an Internet date. At least with an Internet date you have hope. With AS Roma, hope is just something that gets broken quickly, like a plate glass window in the back of a net with […]

September 8, 2020

My 10 favorite islands in the world: Your dream list for the post-pandemic 2021

Let’s face it, folks. It’s time to punt 2020. You’re not going anywhere. Americans have been banned everywhere from Poland to Pluto and even here in Italy our curve has spiked a bit after a flatlining summer brimming with optimism. It’s time to plan for 2021. Well, at least dream. That’s all many of us have done this year. We’ve sat in our homes, stalking […]

September 1, 2020

Covid-19 making a slight comeback in Italy and officials are clamping down again

Rome police are fining an average of 10 people a night over Covid-19 violations. They aren’t starting fistfights over masks. They’re not starting riots in front of government buildings. They’re merely not wearing a mask in public at night. Five hundred guests at a resort in Sardinia are in quarantine after a staff member tested positive. Six regions in Italy have delayed the opening of […]

August 25, 2020

Procida: A picture blog of my favorite isle in Italy by photographer Marina Pascucci

PROCIDA, Italy — In light of the political conventions happening in my native U.S., my blog this week will also feature a guest speaker. However, this guest speaks with her camera, not her mouth. Marina Pascucci, my uber photographer for this blog the last five years, is taking center stage. Last week we teamed up on a blog about Palazzo d’Avalos, the haunting prison that […]

August 19, 2020

Procida’s prison in paradise: after 150 years of jailing mafiosi, fascists, and worse

Procida is my favorite island in Italy and the hulking prison overlooking the beautiful isle only adds to the charm — and mystery.

August 12, 2020

As Roma gets a new owner, and a new future, this fan remains skeptical

Life as a soccer fan in Italy has been practically back to normal for nearly two months. It’s odd watching games in empty stadiums but from a pub you rarely see the stands as a TV graphic. Besides, soccer announcers talk so much you can’t hear the players’ ubiquitous cursing over the TV anyway. Juventus won Serie A for the — yawn! — ninth straight […]

August 4, 2020

Fregene: Rome’s one-time glittery beach escape still a slice of paradise for us

FREGENE, Italy — The scene is always the same. We park Marina’s car on a quiet, narrow side street and walk down the short driveway to Il Capanno dei Pescatori, the little beach-side restaurant that sells us lanais chairs for only 7 euros. A young cabana boy plops them down on an empty beach, pulling up the little movable roofs in case the sun gets […]

July 28, 2020

Covid-19 and travel: Ten important safety tips during and after this pandemic ends

(Editor’s note: Covid-19 isn’t going away soon and even when it does, you should be careful while traveling. My guest blogger, Emma Willson, has written 10 important tips on how to be cautious in this coronavirus world. Emma is a Californian who has visited 16 countries in North America, South America and Europe and has been a freelance writer for four years.) By Emma Willson […]

July 21, 2020

Raphael exhibition a great tour of a grand artist as Italy opens back up to the world

Three things you probably didn’t know about Raffaello Sanzio, known outside Italy as Raphael and part of the trifecta of Italian Renaissance painters: He scored his first commission at 17 and one of his first was painting an altarpiece for a family funeral chapel that housed the bones of some of the 130 men slaughtered by the ruthless Baglioni family decades earlier in Perugia. He […]

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