My first experience with the wine from the Frascati region outside Rome was way back in the 1980s introduced by a work colleague in upstate New York. I remember it as crisp and clean; the colder it was, the cleaner it tasted. Forty years later, Carol and I were in a van being driven to […]

   Photo credit: Carol Madigan Once in awhile, the Travel God (I call mine Claude) inserts themselves (yes, he is a trannie) to point out the narrow mindedness of my travel philosophy. This time it was to show me that all of Rome was not suffocatingly overrun by tourists dutifully checking off their “things to […]

Photo credit: Carol Madigan The 10:26 Frecciarossa to Rome     All roads lead to Rome, and all roads in Rome lead to the Colosseo. There’s little sense in going to Rome and not putting this, the Forum and Circus Maximus on your itinerary. The problem is every American in Bermuda shorts and legs like golf tees […]

Photo credit: Carol Madigan    The abrupt passing of my birthday having exhausted my supply of get-out-of-sightseeing-free cards, the remainder of our stay in Venice would be focused on seeing things. I was fine with this setback for two reasons. One, I could see the joy rise in Carol’s face as she saw the things she […]

The 11:45 Frecciarossa to Venice     I’m not big on birthdays, especially my own. In fact I’d wish they all just go away. Being non-social I just don’t like being the center of attention. And that pasted smile I feel compelled to maintain throughout the singing of Happy Birthday hurts my face. But the way this […]

  Photo credit: Carol Madigan  The remaining two days in Milan were to be framed by sightseeing, namely the Duomo de Milano, or the Milan cathedral, a castle and a basilica, neither of whose names I’m not bothering to look up. I’m not whining, mind you. I am quite happy to sightsee with Carol, because I […]

   As nicely located as our apartment was, there was no discernible couch, as had been pictured, and the programmable thermostat was set too low. It was cold. Carol theorized the bed was convertible and maintained that theory even after the manager assured her it was not. As we unfolded the bed and the couch began […]

The 9:20 to Ventimiglia The 11:03 to Milan     Our second the-train-is-the-destination experience would not alleviate my mounting fear that European rail travel had caught Covid. Worse, it had come out of it the way American rail travel had come out of its own golden years. Meaning, Europe was becoming Amtrak – or worse? (Spoiler alert: there’s nothing worse than […]

   A renovation architect once explained to me that the heavy aching in your legs when traipsing through a museum is a real physical ailment known as “museum fatigue.” “It’s a physical reaction to not knowing where the end of the museum is.”  I have a particularly acute case in that my legs will grow heavy […]

   As a general rule on the road, Carol and I don’t engage strangers in conversation. I studiously avoid it; Carol merely doesn’t seek it out. In this, it is more or less the position we maintain at home. In the going on five years we’ve lived in our mobile home community, I still don’t know […]