There is, arguably, not a more instantly recognizeable image of the Greek Isles than the silhouette of an azure blue church dome against steep cliffs and the sapphire Aegean Sea below. This image is from the stunning volcanic island of Santorini, where even the small, scenic town of Oia (pronounced “Ee’-ya”), with only a population…
Continue reading →Mythology was at the heart of everyday life in Ancient Greece and even today, modern Greeks continue the tradition of recounting their oral history in the form of vivid stories of gods, heroes, and monsters. Greek mythology, that body of wildly imagined, fantastical oral and artistic teachings created by the ancient Greeks, is an integral…
Continue reading →The Maltese Falcon. The Dashiell Hammett story of crime, intrigue, murder, and mystery made into the noir classic movie with Humphrey Bogart as detective Sam Spade, was not even filmed in Malta, but it has been my only real association with this small country of three islands…until now. Malta is anything but “noir”. It has…
Continue reading →Because of its vulnerable geographic exposure, Sicily was much dominated during its history, by Phoenicians, Greeks, Romans, Normans, Germans, Arabs, French, Spanish, Bourbons, and Italians, each leaving their architectural and cultural footprints, but never conquering the fiercely proud and independent spirit of its people. While Sicily has only been part of Italy since 1861, the…
Continue reading →We hardly had a chance to get acquainted, but I think I’m in love…with Sorrento, Italy. The city plays hard to get, perched high atop the cliffs above the Tyrrhenian Sea, accessible only by winding, steep roads, and ancient carved out switchback stone stairways. But the reward at the top is worth it. I saw…
Continue reading →I don’t need to say exactly how many years ago I was last in Italy, but there were still remnants of scaffolding in Florence then, from the long reconstruction effort after the great flood of that beautiful city. When I arrived this time, at Leonardo Da Vinci-Fiumicino Airport outside of Rome, I was glad to…
Continue reading →Raw beauty, extreme seasons, luminous summer night skies, dancing northern lights, and snow-capped mountains has, for centuries, drawn explorers, adventurers, royalty, and the curious to the northernmost tip of Europe. Standing atop the mysterious North Cape, the gusty winds, lingering fog and rain, and icy water are all that lie between this 1,000 foot-high steep…
Continue reading →In 1584, access to the Baltic Sea was mostly controlled by Sweden, so the Russian Czar, Ivan the Terrible, founded Archangel (or Arkangelsk) as Moscow’a almost sole link to the sea, even though the navigation season was limited to just seven ice-free months during spring and summer. When Peter the Great arrived a hundred years…
Continue reading →Russia is a land of contrasts. In the Solovetsky Islands, six islands in the forbidding waters of the White Sea, just 100 miles from the Arctic Circle, the Solovetsky Monastery was founded in the 15th century as one of Russia’s most famous and holy monasteries and became a major pilgrimage destination. Conversely, in the 20th…
Continue reading →Our dear friend, a retired U.S. Air Force colonel, told us about her time stationed in Iceland, when they were occasionally on alert for Russian military planes flying out of Murmansk, Russia. The largest city north of the Arctic Circle, this port remains ice free year-round due to the warm North Atlantic drift ocean current…
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