Bonjour! My boyfriend and I indulged in a seven-night cruise of the western Mediterranean. On day two, the vessel docked at Villefranche, France. We decided to explore France on our own instead of booking an …
Europe
Villefranche-sur-Mer, France
Kuşadası, Turkey
I didn’t know what to expect when our cruise ship ported in Kuşadası, Turkey. I was expecting something completely foreign, but instead found a charming place. In Kuşadası they accepted almost any kind of currency, …
June 4, 2009
Not So Swedish
A man can stand a lot as long as he can stand himself. He can live without hope, without friends, without books, even without music, as long as he can listen to his own thoughts. …
May 6, 2009
Rebel to Vintner
I can't tell you how it came to pass that the Italian winemakers Mario Schiopetto, Giacomo Bologna, and Maurizio Zanella joined Italian gastronomic giant Luigi Veronelli on a trip to America in 1981, a trip …
Portuguese Hospitality
I like to see a man proud of the place in which he lives. I like to see a man live so that his place will be proud of him. — Abraham Lincoln Before finalizing …
November 5, 2008
French Cowboy
The dollar is weak and the euro is strong, and the streets of American cities are humming with the sound of European tourists — often with their arms full of shopping bags from the Apple …
Spanish slang expert grew up near Avenida Revolucion
Spanish slang connoisseur Roxana Fitch grew up in Tijuana, birthplace of some of the most distinctive slang words — or jergas — in the entire Spanish-speaking world. The proximity of Tijuana, and of Mexico's entire …
August 6, 2008
It's Hard to Leave
I scanned the line of buses that had just arrived at the stop through my too-big designer rip-off sunglasses that let me pass for Italian when I wear them. The 14C pulled up, probably late, …
May 28, 2008
Tempo Italiano
Italians run late; they just do. In my nine months here, I have been trying to figure out if this is due to a relaxed nature — not living by appointments and PalmPilots and the …
May 21, 2008
Leica Spirit
During off hours while working as a clerk at the Budapest stock exchange before the outbreak of the Great War, the young André Kertész took photographs and began to nurse ambitions about making it his …
February 6, 2008
Plain and Simple
And now for something completely different. Persepolis, from France and in French, is a cartoon recap of the comic-strip memoir by Marjane Satrapi, covering her childhood in Iran under (and then out from under) the …
January 16, 2008
Swede Life
There is no such thing as a weird human being; it's just that some people require more understanding than others.-- Tom Robbins I gazed out the rain-streaked window and watched a colorful collection of birds …
November 1, 2007
Lamerica, Sacred Silence, Hands Over the City
Pasquale VerdicchioProfessor, UCSD department of literature and board member, Cinema Sud Italian Film Festival The South of Italy figures prominently as a setting in Italian cinema. The Cinema Sud Festival is particularly important because it …
October 18, 2007