Have I Mentioned I Hate Rome, II?

18

“Every solution to every problem is simple. It's the distance between the two where the mystery lies.”  ― Derek Landy When last I left you, I was unsure of the fate of my group's landing place for the rest of this week. As I mentioned, the hotel I'd found had two rooms last night, but today was not a certainty, and the rest of the week wasn't looking good. "I don't understand this whole thing," the apartment owner texted me late last night.  "There must be something else to the story.  No

Sep

Have I Mentioned I Hate Rome?

17

“Like a driver who has lost control of his vehicle, I was bracing for the impending crash." ~ Zack Love In case you don't know me very well, I pretty much have a Type-A personality. While I can, at times, seem laid back and calm,  I have many of the A characteristics.  I can be  competitive, outgoing, ambitious, organized (sometimes), and impatient (a lot).  When I organize something, I have all bits in place, and my impatience surfaces when any wrench shows up in my plans. You know where I'm

Sep

Scattered Thoughts

12

“You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one.”  ― John Lennon I am sitting in one of what the "experts" (of what, I don't know) consider the top 5 most beautiful cities in the world—Firenze. Florence. I took my group to the Cinque Terre today, another place on a list of breathtaking locations. Everything was and is so idyllic, yet I had a chink in my sense of calm because I consider what has happened in the United States and in other places around the globe—places that may never make,

Sep

Stuck in the Middle

10

"Cops to the left of me... Demonstrators to the right... Here I am, stuck in the middle with you...." With apologies to Joe Egan & Gerald Rafferty Around noon, I walked back to the apartment after dropping the group off to do a little retail therapy.  Two blocks from my apartment—and right in front of the restaurant where we had eaten the night before—stood dozens (and I do mean dozens) of police and carabinieri and some high-powered vehicles.  I passed a group of five or so on my side of the

Sep

Good People

07

“It is good people who make good places.”  ― Anna Sewell "Why," my new friend Trish asked me last week, "do you like Bologna so much?"  It's not an unusual question as a lot of people ask me why I prefer Bologna and Sulmona/Abruzzo to the Italian Triumvirate (Rome, Florence, Venice).  For the most part, my answers are the same—history, art and culture, food, and people, and I add the train line to the Bologna column.  Allow me to explain. History. There is no place on earth like Rome,

Sep

The Shorthand of Old Friends

04

“They talked in the shorthand of old friends...”  ― Dee Henderson Facebook is a wonderful thing.  If you rolled your eyes just now, stop it. Eye-rolling is not an appropriate response to that statement because you all know that, deep down, Facebook has served us well over the past 10 years or so.  Think about how many old friends you've reconnected with because of that one program.  Think about your old friends who went to school with you for six, eight, twelve years and about whom you knew the

Sep