Because not many of us can travel much this summer, I have decided to return to my favorite Mediterranean islands in my blog. I have a ba...

I try not to write about food too much on this site, because among expats here in Italy one can’t heave a virtual brick without it landin...

Not being able to leave the house is getting a bit wearing. Life seems to be made up of trips to the kitchen and the terrace, Zoom classe...

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...

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

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

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...

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...

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

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 ...

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 ...

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 magnet...

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 fam...

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...

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