Wonder Down a Side Street (Italy #11)
The TripAdvisor post maintains that Venezia is a very walkable city, "but you are bound to get lost, even with a map." The advice - surrender to it. Enjoy the maze of side streets and alleys. Lif...
Baby and Bathwater Work Ahead (Italy #10)
The temperature is hot. Not quite the marks of 30 degrees Celsius recorded in August but warm. Patrons drink their orange-coloured Spritz in the cafes by the canals. At times I even abandon my Co...
Who Will Carry the Load? (Italy #9)
Upon disembarking the train at Venezia Santa Lucia station, a gaggle of porters, portabagagli, identifiable by their hand carts, greet us. The initial offer centers around luggage transportation ...
Venetian Beauty (Italy #8)
Gaye, my wife, emerges from the Venezia Santa Lucia train station and is in love. Barely two steps out of the station, wonder appears: the Grand Canal, the Vaporetto stations, the bridges across ...
Get Off! (Italy #7)
The day following our rail strike adventure, we arrive at Florence’s Santa Maria Novella train station 30 minutes before our rescheduled departure. We are learning. Find the departures boar...
Let Her In! (Italy #6)
The lineup to snag a taxi outside Santa Maria Novella train station stretches from the regular cab stalls beyond the station's main doors. Just one of many scenes of chaos generated by the one-day tra...
Dislocation Trumps Disturbance (Italy #5)
A train strike was announced the day before our scheduled trip on a fast train from Rome to Venezia. Wanting official advice, if not reassurance, we walked to Roma Termini and waited in a long li...
Beauty and Grace on a Roman Sidestreet (Italy #4)
I have a particular fondness for those who take the ordinary tools of life and turn them into art. Implements like knives, belt buckles, boots, paper, and pencils make the list. Fountain pens, in...
A Snip of La dolce vita (Italy #3)
James cut my hair for over 30 years. He recently dared to retire without considering the disruption this might inflict on my life. When talking about his retirement, he did not seem to exhibit any of ...
Let’s Just Stay Here (Italy #2)
The man in the leather jacket sitting across from me in the Montreal airport boarding lounge bends over as if to lessen the pain in his stomach. His wife remains ramrod upright, stoically holding a ph...