Oslo’s Nobel Peace Prize Museum

I was recently in Oslo, Norway for work. I’ve already written about starting my days off right with my morning jogs around Norway’s capital. Although I didn’t have much free time, I did manage to squeeze in a few tourist visits on my stay. One was the Nobel Peace Prize Museum. I was passing this…

Read More

Beautiful sunsets in Ariccia, Italy

I was out in the Castelli Romani region, the hillside towns located to the south of Rome, on a  recent Sunday. My younger son was – once again – out there for a track and field meet in the town of Velletri on a  beautiful spring day. On the drive back to Rome, both my…

Read More

The Polish Cemetery at Montecassino

Today is a holiday in Italy – Liberation Day. It seems fitting to remember today all those who sacrificed their lives during fierce fighting on the Italian peninsula during World War II. I recently posted about my visit to the 6th century abbey at Montecassino that was destroyed during the war and rebuilt from the rubble.…

Read More

Early morning jogging … in Oslo

I’ve written a few times how much I enjoy jogging mornings when I’m travelling. I’ve already written about early morning  jogging in New York, Durres, Albania, Agadir, Morocco, Vitorchiano, Italy and the Bahamas. I had the nice chance to enjoy it again on a recent visit – to Oslo, Norway. I was (extremely) lucky with…

Read More

Sella ronda – a 42 km ski loop in the Dolomites

Ever since I returned from my ski holiday I’ve been waxing poetic about these beautiful mountains in northern Italy. I’ve already written about skiing in the Dolomites and the base we loved in Selva di Val Gardena. This week I’m going to write about a trail – the Sella ronda, that will get you to many…

Read More

A skier’s paradise: Selva di Val Gardena, Italy

I already wrote about skiing in the spectacular Dolomite Mountains (Dolomiti) in last week’s post. This week, I’d like to concentrate on the little town of Selva di Val Gardena, which we used as our home base during our week-long skiing holiday. Selva – or its German name of Wolkenstein or the slightly tweaked Sëlva…

Read More

Skiing in a winter wonderland: Italy’s Dolomites

My week skiing in northern Italy last month was a hard thing to leave. After all, we enjoyed seven days of sunshine and snow on the 1200 kilometers of trails that took us all over Italy’s Dolomite Mountains, exploring new valleys and slopes each day. The Dolomiti, the Dolomites, are a mountain range of the…

Read More

Reason #5385 to love Rome: The Turtle Fountain

Rome’s Fontana delle tartarughe – the Turtle Fountain – is a beloved landmark in central Rome. Located on Piazza Mattei, in the neighborhood known as the Ghetto (for those of you wondering, this is where the name came from), it was built 1580-1588, during the Renaissance, by the architect/sculptor team of Giacomo della Porta and Taddeo…

Read More