blogs about Italy

Italy summer 2006 blog

Børge — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 06:48:13 -0800

Go to:

http://www.vgb.no/12058

(in norwegian)

Book review: Shinya tokkyu (Midnight Express) by Kotaro Sawaki

jani — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 23:44:39 -0700

Suddenly I thought: wasn't coming to this place the reason I had continued on my journey for so long? I was brought here by a countless series of coincidences. Those coincidences did not need a word like "god" to explain them; no, it was just the wind, the water, the light, and yes, the buses. Thanks to public buses I was brought here...

Bill versus the volcano: Reviews

Bill-on-the-Hill — Sun, 29 Jul 2007 11:27:40 -0700

So with the trip done, here are a few capsule reviews of some of the outfits we dealt with. The meaning of the letter grades is:

Bill versus the volcano (XII)

Bill-on-the-Hill — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 20:11:03 -0700

The final two days of this trip can be summarized as "roam Rome, go home." After close to two weeks of decidedly unconventional tourist activity, this was the time to do some more mainstream things in the Eternal City -- with an emphasis on "stream," as in "streams of water," as in you wouldn't believe how much it rained.

Bill versus the volcano (XI)

Bill-on-the-Hill — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 20:44:28 -0700

This one will be short, and the basic theme of the day, I'm sorry to say, is frustration.

Bill versus the volcano (X)

Bill-on-the-Hill — Sun, 22 Jul 2007 18:08:54 -0700

The last full day of our Volcano Discovery outing, and we've saved the best for last. This was the day for descending the Valle del Bove, a massive collapse structure on the side of Mount Etna. I've been in a lot of mountain valleys in my life, but it's fair to say I'd never been in one quite like this before, and with a fantastic going-away banquet afterward in Nicolosi town to boot.

Bill versus the volcano (IX)

Bill-on-the-Hill — Sat, 21 Jul 2007 08:22:27 -0700

The big thing about this day was that it stank. Well, actually, that was the whole idea, because our destination was the active crater of Mount Etna, one of the world's most active volcanoes and its second largest source of malodorous sulfur dioxide and other evil gases. Why, you say, would anyone want to go to such a place? Read on ...

Bill versus the volcano (VIII)

Bill-on-the-Hill — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 18:42:47 -0700

This was a comparatively quiet day, most of it spent getting from point to point in preparation for the real fun stuff that would follow over the next two days. It did, however, involve a stop at a real Acme of Amphorae, a Paragon of Pottery, an Excelsior of Earthenware, an Ultra of Urns. This foray into archaeology wasn't really what we had made this trip for, but even complete whackos like us need to do some conventional tourism some of the time.

Bill versus the volcano (VII)

Bill-on-the-Hill — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 20:43:31 -0700

This was the day when, by way of our choice of excursions, we surely convinced our British traveling companions, D and Z, that Americans, or at least the ones from small towns in the Southwest, are a little ... odd. Well, we probably are, but there's a reason for what we did. Read on ...

Bill versus the volcano (VI)

Bill-on-the-Hill — Sun, 15 Jul 2007 12:15:22 -0700

Well, if you can't climb the mountain, circumnavigate it. That was the plan for today, and it produced a considerably more laid-back day that included the kind of feast that most tourists come to Italy for -- most who are a little more sane than we are, anyway. But what's a cactus plantation doing there?...