Destination: Italy
James Joyce’s Trieste
by Jim Benning | 03.14.06 | 12:12 PM ET
There’s more out there in the travel world than a trip to Dublin for serious James Joyce fans. The peripatetic writer spent 11 years drinking and writing in Trieste, the port city in northeast Italy. The Boston Globe featured a travel story Sunday about Joyce sites there. It turns out, from a writing standpoint, that Trieste was good to Joyce. He wrote “A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man” there, most of “Dubliners,” and he even began “Ulysses” in the city.
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Yahoo! BuzzElizabeth Gilbert: ‘Eat, Pray, Love’
by Frank Bures | 02.20.06 | 11:23 PM ET
In "Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia," Elizabeth Gilbert turns to travel in an effort to find, well, everything. Frank Bures writes that her journey will leave you smiling in your liver.
Turin, Italy
by Ben Keene | 02.10.06 | 6:49 AM ET
Population: 867,857 (2004 est.)
Coordinates: 45 3 N 7 40 E
As host city for the 2006 Olympic Winter Games, Turin, Italy is now in the news, but as it happens, this riverine city in the Piedmont region has held positions of even greater importance in the past. During the 18th and early 19th centuries, it was the capital of the kingdom of Sardinia, which then included the island of the same name in the Mediterranean. Then in 1861, after several decades of warfare and diplomacy among powerful European empires and dynasties, Turin became the first capital of a unified Italian state. The seat of government was moved to Florence four years later where it remained until Rome ultimately became the capital of the modern republic.
The World’s Most Seductive Road Trip Routes
by Michael Yessis | 01.30.06 | 4:31 AM ET
The Sydney Morning Herald’s Paul Edwards lists 10, including Italy’s Amalfi Coast, Spain’s Las Alpujarras, South Africa’s Cape Peninsula Scenic Route and New Zealand’s Pacific Coast Highway.
Italy Ranked Number One “Country Brand”
by Michael Yessis | 12.02.05 | 11:56 AM ET
Australia took the runner-up spot, and the United States rounded out the top three in a recent global survey conducted by FutureBrand and its sister company, public relations firm Weber Shandwick. It also named China as the “most improved” country brand.
Travel-Themed Theater: It’s a Trend
by Michael Yessis | 11.28.05 | 5:29 AM ET
Earlier this year we wrote about Plane Crazy and Baby Taj, and now a third travel-themed play has come to our attention: The Light in the Piazza. According to that flimsy journalism maxim that two examples is a coincidence but three makes a trend, we’ve got ourselves a winner.
Half Italian
by Cara O'Flynn | 10.11.05 | 11:08 PM ET
Somewhere between the bucatini all'Amatriciana and the McRoyals with cheese, Cara O'Flynn made a true connection
Rick Steves on Radio and iTunes
by Jim Benning | 10.07.05 | 10:12 AM ET
I didn’t know Rick Steves had a new weekly radio show until I clicked onto iTunes. There, on the podcast page, complete podcasts of Steves’ hour-long shows are available for free downloading—26 in all. Topics range from the expected—travel in France, Italy and Ireland—to discussions about Argentina, Cuba and Ecuador. I listened to most of the show about Cuba, which featured an interview with author Christopher Baker, and was impressed.
The World’s Best Driving Roads
by Michael Yessis | 09.20.05 | 4:05 AM ET
When Tourists Attack
by Jim Benning | 08.11.05 | 12:00 PM ET
One fall night a couple of years ago, I found myself on a tiny island in the middle of Lake Patzcuaro in the Mexican state of Michaoacan. I’d come to see the traditional Day of the Dead celebration, when families hold vigils at the graves of their ancestors, decorating them with flickering candles and bright orange marigolds to welcome the ancestors’ souls back for a visit. It’s a beautiful tradition I’d witnessed in other areas. There was just one problem on this night: The island’s small cemetery was being overrun by so many visitors that one couldn’t begin to appreciate the occasion. People were shuffling through the cemetery cheek by jowl, elbowing one another, tripping over tombstones. There was little room to walk or even breathe.
Andy and Alex in Italy
by Jim Benning | 08.02.05 | 12:16 PM ET
Ever since I interviewed Rick Steves’ 18-year-old son, Andy, before he left on his first parent-free trip to Europe, I’ve been reading the travel weblog he keeps with his buddy, Alex. It’s a good weblog, and reading it reminds me of the giddy sense of discovery I felt on my first solo trip to Europe. It’s a nostalgic, vicarious thrill. Yesterday, Alex broached a subject they hadn’t addressed much: girls. You have to appreciate his honesty.
Reflections From a Globetrotting 9-Year-Old
by Jim Benning | 09.20.04 | 11:22 PM ET
Alice DuBois recently discovered the hardback journal she kept as a 9-year-old touring Italy with her parents. In an eloquent travel essay in Sunday’s New York Times, she reflects on the entries she made during that early trip. One highlight from her visit to the Uffizi: “Italy’s greatest art collection seems to have merited about eight minutes of my attention. The rest of the day’s entry consists of an elaborate and self-satisfied explanation of how I managed to eat a chocolate bar inside the museum without getting caught by the security guard. Every time I read this portion of the journal, I wince with embarrassment. Did I have to be so smug about my lack of interest?”
Happy Birthday, David
by Jim Benning | 09.08.04 | 11:35 PM ET
Five hundred years ago today, 23-year-old sculptor Michelangelo unveiled his masterpiece, David, in Florence, Italy. The BBC is one of many news organizations reporting on the celebrations. The first time I walked into the museum hall where David stands, I had just finished Irving Stone’s historical novel “The Agony and the Ecstasy,” which I read dutifully to ensure I would appreciate the significance of my visit. I looked up at the statue but was immediately distracted by a British tour guide in a black dress suit gesturing toward David like a game show hostess showing off a new car. Her voice dripping with pride and urgency, her arms flapping, she proclaimed to the onlookers, “I now present to you all, Michelangelo’s David.” Ten years later, I can’t think of the statue without hearing her words. I wasn’t even on her dumb tour.
Out: Provence. In: Tuscany.
by Jim Benning | 03.05.04 | 8:56 PM ET
Visit 180 Countries in One Afternoon and Get Free Drinks
by Michael Yessis | 11.24.03 | 9:48 PM ET
It’s possible at the World Travel Mart, the annual gathering of representatives from nations, airlines, car rental companies, cruise lines, hotels, railways, regional tourist boards and just about every other travel-related business you can think of. They put the best spin on their “product” for thousands of tour operators, travel agents and, of course, travel writers in search of stories, freebies and potent cocktails—not necessarily in that order. Cleo Paskal of Canada’s National Post traveled to this year’s Mart in Birmingham, England, and found it to be “a surreal event.”