While visiting Italy twelve years ago, I learned that using my time wisely in a new place didn’t necessarily mean getting a lot accomplished each day. There was much to see and do in each city my husband and I visited, however, it was not the amount of popular sights we trekked to that made … Continued
As we traveled around Italy on our honeymoon, one of the places my husband and I planned to visit was Cinque Terre, a collection of five tiny villages along Italy’s west coast. We heard about Cinque Terre from my sister who studied in Italy during college. She loved her visit there and told us we … Continued
I have always believed that I was born in the wrong era. The fast placed lifestyle; the hustle and bustle and the quantity over quality thing just never resonated with me. Although, now that I lived in Orvieto, Italy, I have come to realize that maybe I wasn’t born in the wrong era at all. … Continued
I was born in the city in Vietnam and have lived in the fast-paced city life all of my life here in the United States. Although I love the diversity of cultures, exchanges in ideas, and the excitement of city life, time simply flies by so quickly that I often find myself wondering if I … Continued
For three months I lived in Milan, Italy, so broke I couldn’t even take the metro across town, let alone spend the afternoons in museums, soaking up the art and freedom of expression. There wasn’t much about my life in Milan that felt very free, I was feeling as if in some sort of personal … Continued
The air flavored my lips with the slightest hint of the sea as I watched the violence below. It had been building, I noticed, each of the three times I looked at Manarola Bay throughout the day. But the chaotic fervor was exponentially greater tonight. Gone was the calm swimming area of tourism photos and … Continued
“Santa Maria, piena di grazia, il Signore è con te. Tu sei benedetta fra le donnee benedetto è il frutto del tuo seno, Gesú. Santa Maria, Madre di Dio, prega per noi peccatori, adesso e nell’ora della nostra morte. Amen.” Nights here were always like this. Lazy, hot and languid. She looked out onto a … Continued
In the heart of Trastevere, I heard a heavy Roman accent bounce off the bright colorful walls of the near-empty Via dei Salumi. I could now clearly distinguish the circular sound of the plastic ventilator as it moved the summer warmth inside the cozy apartment that had once belonged to June, my dear grandmother. After … Continued
High above the swirling mosaics of the Sistine Chapel’s floor are Michelangelo’s famous frescoes. The genius of a man ahead of his time calls tourists’ heads irresistibly upwards, drawn by the intricacy and vibrancy of paint that has had centuries to dry, but remains indisputably flooded with life. Amidst this overwhelming beauty is a single … Continued
Located 40 minutes south of Milan, the capital of the Lombardy region, is the town of Pavia, home to one of the oldest universities in Europe (1361). And, just across the river from Pavia sits the region of Oltrepò Pavese, which means just that. It is “on the other side of the Po River from … Continued