The annual appointment of tourism professionals in Italy, the BIT in Milan, is revving up this week, and Voyager will be making its modest first appearance at it. Armed with flyers, brochures, business cards, proposals, and good cheer, we’re going to be spreading the word about a new way to […]
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A few weeks ago, after spending an afternoon getting scratched up by brambles and cursing heavily at baling wire getting wrapped around my brush-cutter, my wife and I stood back and looked with no little satisfaction at the small plot of land that we had rescued from under the encroachment […]
The land that we bought 5 years ago on a ridge high up between Monterosso and Levanto was once carefully cultivated by a kind old man whom I had the opportunity to meet twice. Ernesto had worked this land since before the war, clearly remembering the time that he and […]
There are innumerable things about living in a small town that can inspire or infuriate. Because I happen to love my small town (nb: Levanto, Italy), I usually tend to find myself on the inspirational side. Today, after schlepping up four flights of stairs to the offices where I hold […]
On October 11th, I promised that I’d be writing an update on my reading habits as soon as I finished the mammoth Bleak House by Charles Dickens. On that day, I hypothesized that I probably wouldn’t be finishing it anytime before the summer, given my slow-poke reading pace and the […]
A few years ago, while visiting Ireland, we stopped at the home of my wife’s close friend Dave. He’s got an amazing place near the coast in County Sligo, where he lives with his twin daughters. Among his activities, he fishes for food, has started participating in old-fashioned bartering fairs, […]
The beauty of the sea oftentimes lies above the water-line. The salty air that sticks to your skin and clears your lungs. The colors that the sun takes on as it finishes its daily journey toward the horizon. And on the clear days when the wind has whisked away all […]
2011 has ended much differently than it began for me. A year ago, I had not planned to resign from my comfortable job in a European School because of the inability of its administration to handle a call for jobs with transparency and dignity. A year ago, I had not […]
Much consternation has been expressed by our friends and family members about our black cat Bagheera in her new home in Levanto. Whereas in Parma she was a pampered indoor-outdoor cat, coming and going as she pleased, at all hours of the day or night, often returning for nothing more […]
It is rather popular in Italy to describe any city as being a jewel unto itself … if it just weren’t for its pesky inhabitants. “Ahh Naples,” they will purr. “Simply paradise! And the food – to die for. Too bad about the Neapolitans.” Or, “Genoa! A pearl on the […]