Blog
Shopping in Naples: The Grand Galleria Umberto I
This city kid has never been a fan of traditional shopping malls. I like open streets lined with stores where I enter a different environment as I step through a shop’s door. A mall’s artificial atmosphere is a fake experience.
Mount Vesuvius: Italy’s Sleeping God of Fire
After an eye-opening visit to the incredibly preserved ruins of Pompeii in southern Italy’s Campania region, we decide to climb that city’s destroyer five miles away, Mount Vesuvius. A popular activity for tourists and locals alike, hundreds of climbers make the trek daily to peer into the volcano’s caldera.
An Italian Coastal Town Commands Sweeping Views
Every year I make a calendar with my favorite photos from a recent trip, and 2022’s subject is Southern Italy–the Amalfi Coast, City of Naples, Pompeii and Mt. Vesuvius. January features the church dome and spire of the town of Vico Equense’s Chiesa dei Santi Ciro e Giovanni.
The Brothels of Pompeii: “May I See a Menu, Please?”
Standing in the narrow hallway of Lupanar Grande, Pompeii’s once “official” brothel, I feel as if I’m witnessing a 2000-year-old conversation.
Traveling from Here to There:
March of the Sikhs
November 2021 “Down with Air India! Down with Air India!” The crowd of forty outraged, frustrated, turbaned men chant loudly as they march up and
The Statue of Milyo: A Bulgarian Statue Celebrates Eccentricity
“Why does he have his hand jammed into his pocket,” I ask our guide Georgi. I stare at the bronze statue of Milyo, perched on a low wall in the center of Plovdiv, Bulgaria. Behind him, large, blocky, metal letters in primary colors announce “TOGETHER––Plovdiv 2019 European Capital of Culture.” Every year, the European Union selects a city that will serve this role five years in the future. Plovdiv is preparing to show off its best to visitors in two years.
Varmints Are the Unwanted Garden Perennials
January 2021 Gardeners are patient people. We can’t really hurry nature, so we learn to orchestrate the selection and placement of plants to best suit
These Showstoppers Dazzle and Sway
Ahh! Crocosmias. A stand of crocosmias in full bloom can stop cars. Bicyclists make U-turns, and pedestrians cross streets to get a closer look. Admirers
Is That a UFO on top of a Bulgarian Mountain? No, It’s Buzludzha!
An unknowing traveler might momentarily imagine an alien space ship as the flying saucer-shaped structure appears at the crest of a barren hill.
Named for the mountain on which it “landed,” Buzludzha (buzz-lud’-ja) served as a grand and lavishly appointed ceremonial headquarters for communist leaders from throughout Bulgaria and the Soviet Union for a brief period of time. Of the six core Eastern European countries comprising the USSR’s “satellite countries” (politically independent, but closely aligned), Bulgaria was considered the closest to the Soviet regime in Moscow.
We Sail India’s Ganges River in Search of the Bengal Tiger
India. The name evokes a range of reactions and emotions, from wondrous and magical to crowded, noisy, and poor. From my seven trips to the subcontinent, I can confirm that India exhibits both extremes. I’ve made my own peace with this dichotomy, allowing myself to experience the rich aspects of this 5000-year-old civilization and culture that fall in between the extremes. The sum of these experiences has greatly impacted my life and opened my eyes to a broader way of being in life.
I Fractured my Leg Traveling Central Asia’s Silk Road
“CRACK!!”—The sound stunned me as the left side of my body slammed into the boulder. I knew immediately that something had broken. I screamed. Our guide, Alex, tried to help me stand, but sharp pain shot through my leg. “I can’t walk!” I cried. He gently lowered me to the ground. “I’m going for help,” he said in a soothing voice, trying to calm me. Then he turned and disappeared down the gravelly path around a bend in the trail.
The Netherlands’ Keukenhof Gardens Dazzles with Acres of Spring Blooms
Amsterdam Central Station is a ten-minute walk from Dam Square, the city’s center plaza. Built in 1889, the stately Gothic and Renaissance Revival structure suggests a medieval cathedral, according to civic architects. About 180,000 passengers daily rush through its doors and off to other destinations in the Netherlands and to cities throughout Europe.
Travel Recommendations for Discovering Central Asia’s Spectacular Treasures
Our nineteen-day itinerary to visit Central Asia’s Stans countries proved to be the trip of a lifetime. Every day revealed new cultural experiences that amazed, thrilled, challenged and opened my eyes to an unknown world to me. Excuse the borrowed locational reference, but I felt I was living One Thousand and One Arabian Nights, and every day Scheherazade revealed a fresh magical story.
The Silk Road’s History Conjures Exotic Daydreams
We scheduled our nineteen-day journey to the far-off lands of the fabled Silk Road countries in Central Asia six months before our departure with Bestway Tours and Safaris. But I always begin planning way before that, and this journey required more thoughtfulness about the possible destinations. Part of embarking on any exotic expedition involves researching the internet; reading fiction books, non-fiction articles and guide books; and studying maps to set priorities for sight-seeing. Of course, I learn so much more once I’m on the ground submersed in the local culture. Yet understanding the history of a place and the dynamic influences that shaped it gives context for the real time experiences. Let’s look at what happened there over the centuries.
Kyrgyzstan’s Eagle Hunters Preserve an Ancient Cultural Practice
With four-inch razor-sharp talons, she grasps the leather glove that covers the trainer’s hand and forearm. Her large, protruding eyes peer fiercely, as she swivels her head to survey the surrounding landscape in search of movement along the ground. Her prominent curved black beak ends in a sharp hook, useful for piercing, tearing, and shredding fur, flesh, and bones. Golden brown feathers circle her neck, crown and shoulders, while dark chocolate brown plumage covers the rest of this huge raptor. The majestic golden eagle flaps and spreads her wings, showing off her six-and-a-half-foot span.
All Hell Breaks Loose at Turkmenistan’s Darvaza Gas Crater
You’ll find it on lists of “The Oddest Places in the World to Visit.” The gigantic hole in the desert floor is on fire, and it’s been burning continuously since 1971. Measuring 200-230 feet in diameter and about 100 feet deep, the “Gates of Hell” presents a spectacular, supernatural scene at night, an eerily glowing, gaping maw against the surrounding pitch black Karakum Desert in Turkmenistan.
Tracing the Fabled Silk Road through Central Asia
“You’re going where?!” the familiar question asked by friends and family about out planned nineteen-day trip to Central Asia. “The Stans. The Silk Road countries. You know, the land of Genghis Khan and Marco Polo,” we responded, followed by an attempt to paint a colorful image of this remote, fabled region largely unvisited by Westerners. Central Asia’s vast territory, larger than the 48 contiguous U.S. states, sits south of Russia, north of Iran and Afghanistan, and west of China, with the Caspian Sea roughly forming its western boundary.
Chesapeake Bay’s Tangier and Smith Islands Are Disappearing Slices of Americana
“Island life.” What comes to mind when you hear those words? Warm climes, palm trees, sandy beaches, piña coladas, tropical sunsets? Two inhabited islands in the middle of the Chesapeake Bay in U.S.’s temperate Mid-Atlantic coastal region turn those images upside down. Tangier Island, Virginia and Smith Island, Maryland sit about 12 miles off Maryland’s eastern shore, eight miles apart from each other. Inhabited since the mid-1700s, residents of these communities depend on crabbing, fishing, and oystering for their livelihoods. Successive generations of the first settlers still call those islands their home. And rising sea levels and erosion threaten the future of each community.