February 25, 2024
Roman Treasures
Rome is slightly over an hour away from us by fast train, but it always feels like an exotic vacation, even on the briefest trips....
ROAM
July 4, 2023
Discovering Lake Maggiore
Italy is sinking under the weight of tourists right now, and it's not even high-season. I am not too affected by crowds living in such...
April 30, 2023
Just go: Brescia
An unexpected visit to Brescia revealed a delightful town often overshadowed by its neighbors—Venice, Verona, Padua, and Milan—but packed with beauty, history, and great food. We...
December 11, 2022
A new favorite place: Fife, Scotland
So what were we to do? We had paid for tickets for all of us to convene in Edinburgh to drop Sebastian off at the...
December 4, 2022
“Vacationing” on a barge in France
Mistakes were made–our first was assuming that there would be a grocery store open in the town where we set sail, on a Sunday, late...
October 30, 2022
The devil at the beer garden
My mother was an artist, but her pallet for rebellion was limited. When I was growing up and she was really, really fed up—a fight...
September 30, 2022
Road trip, part II: where did the good times go?
When I left you last on our European road trip we'd headed out of the tunnel from France to England with hearts full of anticipated...
July 31, 2022
Road trip in Europe
One graduating kid, one car, one dog, four countries, four languages, three seemingly endless tunnels, eleven different places to stay, three positive Covid tests, one...
December 29, 2021
Little treasures of 2021
Here are some of my favorite adventures and discoveries of the year. If you've stuck with me this long you know that as much as...
October 3, 2021
On the road again
The Second Annual French Road Trip—also known as The Paris Haircut Trip—concluded recently. This time John was with me and I wanted to share with...
September 5, 2021
Are some places cursed?
We had to ask ourselves this question about a bucolic, beautiful, tiny island in the Stockholm archipelago, Rödlöga, four hours by ferry from the capital....
July 11, 2021
Venice discoveries
I love Venice but I've always hated the area around the Rialto Bridge. It's too crowded, usually hot, and lined with the kind of restaurants...