A Pleasant Spot Yesterday we arrived in Rome and suddenly went from another large airport (Leonardo Da Vinci Airport at Fiumicino), where, in typical fashion these days, we had to talk about 1.5 miles from the arrival gate to the baggage return. It took so long to walk that distance that our bags beat us to baggage claim area. I think of it as forced exercise, which requires you to broken-field dash through countless glittery…
Dining at Termini It’s Monday morning in central Rome and I have a mission. We are here for a little more than a week with our friends Gary and Oswaldo. We have stayed the last two nights at a nice boutique hotel called Capo d’Africa, which is in between the Coliseum and St. John Lateran. So far we have spent a day walking five+ miles around town to go see some sights like the Boca…
7,700 Steps Through Heaven Today we are in Rome with just a loose agenda of activities. We drove in yesterday from Amalfi and I dropped off the rental car at Stazione Termini while the gang found their way with the luggage to the AirBnB we had secured. The place is called The Spanish Penthouse in honor of the fact that it is at the base of Piazza de Spagna and is, indeed on the top…
Positano Yesterday we “did” the Amalfi Coast. Kim arranged a tour guide who drove over from Naples to drive us (technically, a guy named Renato did the driving) around the winding roads of the coast. After five minutes of the drive I realized that I was the real beneficiary of this choice, since driving and looking simultaneously is a high-risk maneuver, which i could thankfully forego. We start by heading to Ravello to the south,…
The Agony and the Ecstasy of Amalfi Today we awake to the brilliant Mediterranean Sea laid out before our eyes from the terrace of our AirBnB high up on a cliff overlooking the coastline. We have found and rented a very reasonable and very pleasant two-bedroom, two-bath apartment with a large terracotta terrace that looks like the perfect summertime place to while away the warm afternoons to the setting sun. Yesterday we spent the day…
Entering the Eternal City We are transiting through Munich at the moment, on our way to Rome, Fumicino Airport that sits between Rome and Ostia Antica. I have very specific memories of the Rome airport for a number of reasons. Back in high school we would fly in and out of Rome on TWA mostly, heading back to New York. It was around 1970 that Boeing introduced its new monster of the sky, the 747.…
The Glorious Mid-Century If you spend any time watching House Hunter shows on HGTV or DIY Network (aka Magnolia Network), you have watched people rave about mid-century this or mid-century that. It is not atypical that we look back at the past with rose-colored glasses. Every generation does it to some degree. The past always looks rosier, probably because we remember the good and forget the bad. There is also the reality that looking back…
Natasha When I was a kid watching cartoons as often as I could, one of my favorites was the Rocky and Bullwinkle Show. As you may recall, there was an entire ensemble of characters that comprised the Show. Some of the characters had their own schtick, while others were part of the Rocket J. Squirrel and Bullwinkle drama. That drama, narrated like a tongue-in-cheek documentary with an Edward R. Murrow type of voice, seemed often…
Cut and Paste The expression of cut and paste has taken on a derogatory connotation. It implies a degree of laziness or casual composition. You cut and paste when you don’t want or need original thought. I think that is actually a very unfair characterization of what can be a true creative process. I write a lot. I write every day…usually several times a day. Sometimes I write stories for this blog. Sometimes I write…
Winstons I Have Known I don’t know nor have I known too many Winstons in my life. The name first came into recorded existence in 1880 and since then there have been over 27,000 males recorded with that name. In the most recent year on record, 2018, there were 787 male newborns named Winston in the United States. To put that into perspective, my name, Richard, during that same span of 1880-2018 had 2,574,832 male…