I was staying in a castle in Tuscany. The week’s lodging also included a tiny Fiat so I could explore all the backroads and ancient villages of Tuscany and Umbria. Pietro, the faithful security guard at the castle, saw me …
Category: Europe
Spinalonga-Venetian Fortress and Former Leper Colony Island Now a Tourist Attraction by Nancy S. Tardy
Spinalonga, a small island off the northeast coast of Crete near the resort area of Elounda, has evolved over thousands of years from a hiding place for Christians fleeing Roman soldiers, followed by Cretans fleeing invading Turks, to a massive …
Postcard Perfect? by Kregg P.J. Jorgenson
The postcard was of the Spanish Steps in Rome and it showed a brightly colored tranquil and pleasant scene. Five or six seemingly happy or contented people were sitting or lounging around the famed broad steps in the mid-day gold, …
Bella Italia by Wilbert Bonné
The Giro d’Italia started Saturday May 10th with a time trial of 28,5 kilometres in and around Palermo. One day later another group of cyclists left Palermo for their own Giro, called “La Bella Italia”. Cyclists from France, Denmark, Switzerland, …
Russia-Wrassling While a War Rages by Marion D.S. Dreyfus
The moment I arrived from Paris to Russia, war broke out in Georgia and Ossetia, as a few close friends hastened to tell me on my Blackberry the millisecond I set foot in St. Petersburg. It made for interesting travel …
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Inspired By the Diary of Anne Frank by Tara Downey
Courage… strength… inspiration… heartbreak… These are the words that come straight into my mind when I think about Anne Frank and her diary. I first read the diary when I was in primary school, and again when I was in …
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Corsica: Strange and Lovely by Nancy S. Tardy
Indigo ink washed over the black sky each morning awakening the Mediterranean island of Corsica. My last memory of the previous night was the barking of the three-legged dog protecting her stoop across the narrow alley-street in the old town …
An Englishman’s Home is His Castle by Amanda van Mulligen
Set in over five hundred acres, Leeds Castle lies in Kent, and not as the name suggests in the town of the same name in Northern England. It started life as a Saxon royal manor back in AD 857. In …
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Amsterdam and Budapest: A Quick Guide by Howard Hian
The historic rivers of Europe, starting with the Rhine in the north and ending with the Danube in the south, form centuries-old trade routes connecting many great cities. Two of my favorites, Amsterdam and Budapest, are joined by these waterways. …
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Lions of Keswick Open Footpaths by Michele Hawkins
People began congregating in the neighborhood of the Queen’s Hotel on the afternoon of October 1, 1887. Armed with crowbars, pickaxes and spades- the protesters began marching toward Latrigg, a favorite fell. They chanted “The lions of Keswick will break …
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