“Italy offers one the most priceless of one’s possessions – One’s own soul”
Barbara Grizzuti Harrison (1934-2002) – American Journalist and memoirist
Europe
Finland is a rich country. What have they got? They got Nokia phones and plywood. How’d they get so rich? Because they’re free.
P. J. O’Rourke
For some of us, driving a car is either an annoying or a harrowing experience. And this mild terror could exist even if we're "pretty good" drivers. But there are so many factors that come into play when we step in behind the wheel. Your editor drives, but only when required. (…
It is not Omsk’s fault that many of us know it only because Dostoevsky spent the darkest four years of his life here.
Let's hope not! To those of you who have visited Pompei in the past, (as we have done several times ourselves) have you ever been rushed, or crushed by the crowds and, in the end, felt disappointed in the experience? Pompeii is one one of those places where you want to . .…
. . . . by train. No, this is not one of those "shock horror!" Instagram posts. We're too old for that. It's also not yet another expose of sleazy clubs and venues that are scattered around the Motherland. Leave that stuff to the Generation Alpha publishers. There are no selfies in…
While there are some notable skyscrapers in European cities like London, Frankfurt, and Paris, Europe generally has a much lower concentration of skyscrapers compared to North America or Asia. Why is that? Part of it is purely historical, as you might guess. Europe has a long history of urban development, with many cities…
Every time that we visit the big Italian cities, we often walk away scratching our heads. As we understand it, the The Room of the Last Supper on Mount Zion, just outside the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem, but all of the paintings appear to be somewhere else, with Milan suspiciously appearing…
“When life seems hard, the courageous do not lie down and accept defeat; instead, they are all the more determined to struggle for a better future.” Including cruises. Chin up.