Adventure of the month

Four days is not enough time to see Sicily. A week wouldn't have sufficed either. Two weeks might have been a good start but it would probably fall short. I am going to guess you need a minimum of one month to do this island justice and I suspect I am way undershooting the mark.  Point being, we only had four days. Four wonderful sun-filled days that left me wanting more. I mean, I always want more, that's just how I am wired. I have never left a place and thought to myself "Yeah, I've had about enough of this". There is always more to see but Sicily brings it to a whole other level.  On our first day, we flew into Catania, Sicily's second largest city, joined by my friend, Kevin, who was as keen as I was to hit the ground running. We checked into the perfectly situated Ostello degli Elefanti  and discussed hopping on the first bus to Siracusa for a walk free walking tour.  The woman at the hostel, who could easily make a living as the top Sicilian Celin...

Whenever I go to local art fairs, I always pay special attention to the travel photographers. I count on them to provide me with inspiration in choosing my next destination and with ideas I can "borrow" when photographing said locales. Over the years, the main thing I have learned is that if you want to take art festival level pics, you need to go to Venice, meet a yogi in India and get yourself on the water somewhere in the vicinity of Cinque Terre. Either that or just apply a black and white filter to a photograph of a barren tree and presto chango, you can now call yourself Yansel Yadams. I have been to Venice numerous times. Although I can not vouch for their authenticity, I have photographed a number of men dressed as yogis in India. Yet no Cinque Terre. Two weeks ago, that changed. I had four days off in Europe and no set plan so I let chance (and Euros) be my guide. I looked for the cheapest fares from Amsterdam and hit upon Pisa. You can never go wrong with a count...

Dear nice people who happened to share a Lake Como ferry with us, I realize it is highly unlikely that any of you are reading this right now, but on the very off chance that you have somehow inadvertently ended up here, I believe I owe you an apology.  Please believe that when I asked the crew if we had already passed George Clooney's house, I did so only so that we could stop guessing in vain.  Also, please take it on faith, that when I asked them to point it out when we did  pass by, I was at best hoping for an announcement.  I had to way of anticipating that we would end up doing aquatic donuts in front of the man's house.  Trust me that it was not my intention to divert the express ferry so that we could have additional gawking time.  Likewise, I did not foresee that my friend would take upon herself to dramatically and repeatedly pantomime flashing her breasts in the direction of said home (although her declaration on the train ride from ...

Up until last month, the extent of my knowledge of Milan was that it's that place you have to go through, no matter your final destination, if are unfortunate enough to fly on Alitalia.  As I loathe both that horrid airline and its chaotic, every-man-for-himself hub airport, I never really gave any thought to the city burdened with these twin albatrosses (albatri?). Therefore,when I found out that I would be visiting for a couple of days, I wasn't exactly disappointed- it is Italy, after all- but I was not exactly thrilled, either.  Granted, I was going via a different carrier and therefore was not going to be subjected to their national airline's DMV level of service, but the lingering resentment over my past Milan experiences, brief as they were, prevented me from doing my usual level of pre-trip planning.  I figured I would just show up and do what normal people refer to as "winging it."

Just thought that I would take a short break from all the Peru postings to add some photos from my latest outing. Earlier this week, I had a chance to spend a day in Venice, a city that even in the middle of a thunderstorm manages to be indescribably beautiful (not that I actually have any photos from the thunderstorm as I was too busy sipping red wine and rhapsodizing about Venice's beauty in the rain to actually, you know, capture it). Now, back to Peru...

Thanks so much to everyone who has commented or e-mailed me words of encouragement for this blog project. If I had realized how fun this would be, I think I would have started it earlier. This week, work has brought me to Rome for a short 20 hour stay. Since I've previously hit all the Roman must-sees, I opted to use this time to visit Tivoli, which is about one hour to the east and is known for its ruins and Villas (and yes, I do know you could say that about every single Italian village). The most visited attraction is Villa Adriana, the ruins of Emperor Hadrian's preferred summer getaway. Yet, somehow this did not translate to a clear, visible sign at the designated bus stop (something along the lines of "Yes, you dumb tourist, this is your stop! Ring that bell! Now!! You are going to pass it..." would have sufficed) , so I ended up visiting Villa d'Este instead. Villa d'Este is the 16th century palace of Cardinal Ippolito d'Este and is known f...