The Eternal City of Rome is a pigsty! Litter is everywhere. Dirt coats every surface and lies an inch think in the corners of the steps of every stairway. At the National Museum, right in the center of the city, trash had collected so deep in the wells surrounding the trees that the ground could … Read more
The Venetian streets I walk each day are paved in 300-year old herringbone pattern bricks that, despite bearing countless millions of footsteps each year, provide an enduring pavement. The houses are old and disintegrating on the outside, yet peeking through widows reveals modern interiors that have been painstakingly and lovingly restored. Of the 56 churches … Read more
More than the fishy, slightly salty taste of squid cooked in its own black ink or the melt-in-your-mouth sweetness of fruit-shaped marzipan candies. More than the play of sunlight over the narrow canals, their rippling green waters reflecting distorted houses each time a gondolier glides past. More than the vague scent of sewage and the … Read more
In keeping with my determination to find easy descriptions for every country I visit, here are my three words for Switzerland: Breathtaking: Every inch of this country is stunning, but the high mountain villages in the Bernese Oberland are particularly beautiful. At one point I really had to laugh at myself because I pored over … Read more
Nowhere else are the Alps so near, so spectacular, so safe, and so accessible as they are in the Jungfrau Region of the Bernese Oberland. There are literally hundreds of possible destinations and thousands of hiking trails but I only had two days, so I chose the two that I’d heard the most about and … Read more
