I haven’t been back to Margate since I was a kid. Mum and dad would diligently save all their money so that we could have a 2-week holiday every year. Nothing fancy. A train journey of about 4 hours to the Thanet Coast and a small room in Margate at a guesthouse. We had to […]
I listened to a fabulous segment on the radio the other day. It was on a favorite show of mine called A Celtic Sojourn. It’s hosted by Brian O’Donovan every Saturday, on station WGBH in Boston. Brian is a Celtic music aficionado, among many things. The other day, long after the show had finished, I […]
The uniqueness of London Theater is renowned worldwide. The quality of the performances, the affordability of the seats, the sheer madness of quantity of theater within inner London. Modern auditoriums like the Bridge Theatre, the National and the Barbican in addition to the intensity of theatres on St. Martins Lane and Shaftesbury Avenue makes London the […]
I guess, for me it all started with a visit to the Carnival in Venice. February 2020. I remember the spectacle. I had never really seen anything like it. A piazza that looked more like a show, colors and masks and people parading around, posing and becoming photo opportunities for the tourists and the casual travelers. Centuries condensed into […]
Over the past few months, I have been back and forth across the country, across the Atlantic and crossed a few borders during the Covid restrictive era. Now, we are seeing the windows opening, the snow melting, and the restrictions being rolled back. Covid rates are dropping, vaccine (percentages are at an all-time high), and what didn’t seem […]
There is a very cool hotel in the delightful neighborhood of the 6th arrondissement. It’s called La Belle Juliette. I have stayed there several times and always recommend it to friends. It’s reasonable and one of those places that immediately immerse you into the feel and touch of a Parisian neighborhood. It’s on the Rue […]
Sometimes a city just has it. Paris is one of those places. Our office is in a small and quaint space nestled inside a residential building along the Rue de Babylon. It’s a stone‘s throw from the swish Conran’s store and the Belle Époque style Bon Marche, Paris’ super chic department store. It’s also the […]
Arrived very early at St. Pancras station. It was organized but you need more time than I recalled. More time for vaccine card. Proof of a negative Covid test. And everything takes three times longer. But, at some point you get through. They give you a tiny card at French customs on the UK side […]
Corfu is an island well known by ferry travelers enroute to Athens. In the summer, ferries push straight on from Brindisi in Italy to Athens but off peak, Corfu is a stopover. It has one off the most charming towns in all of Greece. Corfu Town. The influence of Venetians is everywhere. Four centuries of […]
I confess I have never taken Ryan Air before. It’s something I have avoided up till now. But with the collapse of Alitalia, Italy’s national carrier, the shorter flights in and around Italy that were once covered by the National carrier have disappeared. And so, in came Ryan Air. We were flying into Corfu, Greece […]
I have a walk I always used to take in Rome in the evening. My first evening back for a year and a half prompts me to walk that route once more as an introduction to Rome. Start at the Pantheon. At the Piazza della Rotonda. Take an aperitive and say hi to the waiters […]
It’s the sunset that so attracted me to Rome all those years ago. I usually start at the Temple of Cats and make my way to the Campidoglio via the Piazza Venezia. The colors of a Roman evening are quite extraordinary. There is the Vittorio Manuel monument. Awkward and towering with its white marble uncomfortable […]
My Roman friend has a system for crossing the road. I thought of this while trying to cross along the busy road opposite the Campidoglio. There is no zebra crossing. No traffic lights. Just a steady stream of unrelenting traffic both ways. There is no gap. No opportunity to cross. So, I did what he […]
There is a name in Roman for the guy who stands in the middle of the traffic intersection at the Piazza Venezia. I had not seen him for a while but this time, as if to greet us all back, there he was. The Pizzardone. It’s an art. He is a conductor. His white gloves […]
Travel life between countries is a series of Covid tests and passenger locator forms. The rapid types. Antigen. Results in 15 minutes. The journey from Mallorca to Rome was fairly smooth. Two flights, masked up, and the usual endless wait at Fiumicino for the bags to land on the carousel. I have a theory about […]