I arrived in Florence early morning on the train after leisurely working my way up via Rome, Capri, Pompeii, Siena, Assisi, Umbria and Tuscany. On my first visit to Europe, I’d now traveled through several …
January 24, 2011
History
Intoxicating Florence, Italy
Mexico City’s Templo Mayor: The Heart of Tenochtitlan
To one side of Mexico City’s enormous central plaza, the Zócalo, stands one of the most astonishing archaeological digs of the last 35 years. It was originally believed that the huge cathedral in the Zócalo …
January 13, 2011
The Bob Marley Mausoleum in Nine Mile, Jamaica
Stashed high above the brilliant turquoise waters of the Caribbean lies the small village of Nine Mile. Protected from the majority of rum-swilling tourists by a seemly impossible narrow curving road, the hamlet is home …
January 7, 2011
Ghent, Belgium
Ghent, a small Belgian city (pop. 240,000) in the Flemish part of Belgium, may not be first on your Belgium list – but it should at least be in the top 5. My friend who …
November 18, 2010
Salzburg, Austria
My sleepy eyes drank in the Austrian countryside as the overnight train from Venice moved closer to Salzburg. The glorious green hills were a refreshing change from the equally stunning but distinct Italian scenery. I …
Tombstone, Arizona
October 26, 1881, gunshots rang out, men lay dead and the O.K. Corral was forever known as the famous Old West shootout. Today, gunslinging characters slowly swagger down the boot-worn wooden sidewalks of Tombstone, Arizona. …
November 4, 2010
Wrigley Field, Chicago
Built in 1914, just two years after Boston’s Fenway Park, Wrigley Field is America’s second-oldest ballpark. But the Wrigley family (as in the gum) didn’t own the venue until 1920, when it was known as …
October 23, 2010
Skansen: Old Sweden in Stockholm
When visiting Stockholm, a must-see stop is the historical district known as Skansen. A trip to Skansen is like stepping into a time machine and being transported to a Sweden of centuries past. The world’s …
September 21, 2010
Atlanta: A Day in Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Backyard
My civil rights movement information hunt started with an arresting experience at the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute in Alabama. As the “I Have a Dream” speech beamed on TV, I knew where the next location …
Guanajuato, Mexico: Museum of Mummies (and More)
The Mexican poet Octavio Paz once said, “In the United States the word death burns the lips, but the Mexican is familiar with death, jokes about it, caresses it, sleeps with it, and celebrates it. …
September 4, 2010
In the Heart of Civil Rights Land: Birmingham, Alabama
I was in my second grade history class, here in Southern California, when I first remember seeing the video images of men and women shotgun-hosed ruthlessly, police dogs trained to bite the nearest dark-skinned person, …