A friend and former colleague recently told us that a significant fraction of his ancestors lived in the famous Sicilian resort town of Taormina … before they left for America a century or so ago.
He wondered what we would think of the town, because we are so close to it — we can see it […]

[Read more →]

Alas, the end of the week arrived. Time to leave our “home” overlooking the sea at Massa Lubrense … and venture into the great unknown.
Well, we know the broad outline of the great unknown: Sicily. A long drive and ferry ride south.
So, we each took a last, longing look out over the sea, glistening under […]

[Read more →]

After traveling all day down the mountain-spackled length of Italy — and no, you can’t find a dozen places flat enough to plow 40 acres anywhere south of Rome — finally some time to do my tiny bit on UCLA basketball coach John Wooden, the most important sports figure in Southern California over the last […]

[Read more →]

Does it get any better than this? I mean, really.
Italian seafood lunch al fresco, perfect weather, best table, overlooking the sea and the beach at a little town that feels as if it ought to be overrun with tourists … but no one this year has yet gotten around to visiting.
Three-plus hours, four courses, two […]

[Read more →]

It’s vacation! Not a change of laptop viewing venues!
The three of us clearly didn’t get the memo.
We had just had a very nice dinner of pesce spada (swordfish) for me, risotto con scampi for Leah and spaghetti vongale (pasta and clams) for Liz at one of the nicer restaurants in our little town of Massa […]

[Read more →]

More photos. I hear it often. Post more photos! We live in a visual age. Words are so 20th century. Images!
We hear you! And now we have about 40 photos of, mostly,  Italy.
Here is the link to them.  Of if you want to cut-and-paste, here is the url in old-fashioned letters and punctuation: www.flickr.com/photos/beijingleah
And however […]

[Read more →]

* Subtitled: How almost to ruin your perfect vacation by attempting to make it perfect-er.
In a previous post we have stipulated that we have landed in paradise. To recap, for those just tuning in, we are ensconced in a tastefully decorated, well-appointed, four-bedroom house with an enormous terrace that gives us about a 180-degree view […]

[Read more →]

This was so lame, we even heard about it in Italy. Well, thanks to espn.com … but if it hadn’t been so spectacularly lame, it wouldn’t have gotten enough exposure for me to see it and read about it. When you’re spending your days walking on the beach in Italy and napping and trying to […]

[Read more →]

You’ve heard of the food taunt? Even people who aren’t really foodies talk about this. You take your camera to a restaurant, you take a photo of the tastiest aspects of your meal, you post them on the internet or message them to your follow food-taunters and hope to inspire jealousy. I know of two […]

[Read more →]

Just did the math. Twenty-four hours ago I was in the middle of a copy-editing shift in the office of The National in Abu Dhabi.
Now, I am sitting on the patio of L’Oasi Hotel, watching the gentle sun angling slowly below the horizon … just outside the city of Rome. As in Italy.
The sun has […]

[Read more →]