Sicily is a place you can’t really escape after visiting. I was putty in Sicily’s hands, returning after just a year of being away. I found myself back where I started, but not. I was looking for a “slow travel” day. Alone on an island, I felt somewhat useless. If I have a day here and there when I travel where I don’t get out and see the world, I feel like I have let myself and the place down. As a result, one gray day, I boarded a train to Ragusa to go see, as they say. Not really knowing much about the city, I sat in the Siracusa station as construction workers kept trying to make eye Continue Reading
The Solo Travel Fraud
With a heavy southern accent, an older man approaches me at the airport. “I’m going to follow you little lady because I don’t know where I’m going. I can’t hear the announcements.” I laugh and say I will alert him when the plane starts to board. My flight on the eve of New Year’s Eve is set to go out in Denver’s first blizzard of the winter. The airline employees keep doing a song and dance of “let’s board, then let’s not.” I can see why the man was confused. Once boarding is called, I motion my friend traveling solo it’s time to get on the plane. He shuffles behind me like some child that Continue Reading
Redheaded Travel Mishaps of 2010
In travel, moments of pure serenity, unending calm and satisfaction occur. Those moments when you realize why you travel are what help most part with home. I am no different, but I tend to find the mishaps of travel all the more rewarding. A travel mishap, in theory, may sound like something you avoid. Being scammed on the streets of Mumbai isn’t really high on a traveler’s list. However in those failures, when the travel world shows it true colors, I learn the most about myself and even more about why I travel. Throughout 2010, I have had my fair share of travel mishaps, things Continue Reading
Lois and Her Suitcase
I have two old suitcases in my apartment. I have stacked one on top of the other, making for a side table of sorts. I love luggage. Being able to incorporate that love into my everyday life when I am not traveling, even if it is a side table, helps keep travel close to me. Found at a second hand store, one of the old suitcases that acts as a table is perfectly peach. It still has the former owner’s luggage tag attached to the handle. “Lois” I imagine had some adventures with this bag. Maybe she didn’t, but my imagination can’t think otherwise. A woman who was able to pull off a peach Continue Reading
Under Travel Pressure
A giant book bearing the title Italy sits on my coffee table. Truth always be told, I never really looked at the book until the other day. I had flipped through it when I received the Modern Language Award at my college, appropriately deemed "The Dante Award”. Two women, Costanza and Maria Grazia, my Italian professors who inspired much of my love for Italy, gave the book to me as a gift for winning the award. After spending three months in Italy this summer, a country I have spent years living in, I was somewhat sick of Italy. Reading other travel blogs and articles almost convinced me I Continue Reading
Remembering Places and Having Places Remember You
I walked into my favorite lazy day café in Sicily, part bookstore, part chocolate paradise. I was nervous to enter for it had been over a year since I came here every Sunday, especially when the weather turned bitingly cold. I thought I would glance at the Italian books, maybe get ambitious on my plane ride home and read an Italian novel. Then I heard the sweetest of sounds come from the hot chocolate bar. “Sei ritornata!” Those words translate as you might imagine, “you have returned”. Behind those words was the woman who ran the café, a glasses on the tip of her nose, frizzy haired Continue Reading
Singing The Travel Blues of Guidebook and Recommendation Let Down
Abandoned ghost towns begin to appear in the distance. Hoping it is just a mirage, the more miles I cover, the more unappealing these next two days could be. Prior to viewing the ghost towns in the distance, my excitement to see a new aspect to Italy, Promontorio di Gargano could hardly contain itself in the confines of the mini rental. Just like seeing Sardinia and Sicily for the first time, I had hopes Il Gargano would instill the same wonder, the same feeling of expectations being met. The Promontorio di Gargano sticks out like a sore thumb on Italy’s Adriatic coast in the Puglia region. Continue Reading