I have been meaning to update my blog for a while, but the last few months were filled with heartache and a kind of “drowsy numbness that pains my sense” and...

This semester I am teaching a survey course in British literature, and right about the time we were reading Shelley, a friend rang up looking for a couple of...

The French regions of Armagnac and Cognac are beautiful, but the Périgord is place that conjures up fairy tales. With its small villages, large chateaux, and...

This was a summer of traveling, so now I must catch up on my writing. I have been on sabbatical from The American University of Rome, and because my next boo...

My compagno, which is the word you use in Italian when you are too old to use the word boyfriend, has a small plane. Much of my traveling around Europe is th...

Drawing a wobbly line from the travel writing of Robert Byron and D.H. Lawrence to the Sitwells (that remarkable trinity of Sacheverell, Osbert, and Edith, w...

There is nothing like Commissario Montalbano to chase away the late-winter blues, and here in Italy we have been lucky enough to see two brand new episodes o...

When it comes to a winter break in Europe, it isn’t easy to decide where to go. Though Grand Tourists made it seem like Italy was always sunny and warm—“a be...

Il Palio di Siena is not only the most important civic event in Siena, it is also a complex blend of history, elegance, and animal magnetism. Dating back to ...

1969 was a year of tumult and change. The Apollo 11 space mission successfully landed the first man on the moon, and Neil Armstrong’s famous phrase, “That’s ...

Piazza Venezia is not only the very heart of Rome, it is also the very centre of Italy. Literally, all roads in Italy do lead to Rome and are marked by their...

When it comes to trying to understand the issues surrounding “Brexit,”—migration, sovereignty, taxes, competitiveness—it seems that no one ever mentions the ...