Posts Tagged ‘Europe’
Reason #5381 to love Rome: Snow in August
Snow is pretty rare in Rome. And even rarer in August. But every August, since Ancient Roman times, snow falls over at least one part of the city to reenact the Madonna della neve (Madonna of the snow) tradition. Each August – to be precise, the 5 August – the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore…
Read MoreAlpine Tuscany: Monte Amiata
I’ve already written about my ‘find’ this summer when my son, an aspiring Usain Bolt, went to a track and field camp in the pretty Tuscan town of Abbadia di San Salvatore. The town is on the foothills of Monte Amiata, a volcanic cone that is 1730 meters from sea level. Luckily, this volcano has been dormant for…
Read MoreReason #5381 to love Rome: San Teodoro church
This beautiful church gives its name to a Roman neighborhood – San Teodoro, the neighbohood bordering the edge of the Circus Maximus and the Campidoglio. The San Teodoro church can be found on the street by the same name. It’s a Greek Orthodox church, nestled at the foot of the Palatine Hill. The church was…
Read MoreAmongst the dinosaurs at the Brussels Museum of Natural Sciences
A work conference brought me to Brussels, a city I’ve visited many times. But the location on the conference was somewhere I hadn’t yet been – the Brussels Museum of Natural Sciences. Since my kids weren’t in tow, I felt slightly guilty taking in the exhibition without them. In actuality, I didn’t have much time to…
Read MoreBasking in the sun and scenery on Lake Geneva
Last summer I spent a lot of time in Geneva ferrying my son to camp and back. It was great fun being there with my family for summer weekends, when Geneva is at its best. One of the things I enjoyed doing with my children was taking the scenic ferry boat on Lake Geneva. Geneva…
Read MoreI want to ride my bicycle, I want to ride my bike … in Vienna
Last month I was on a weekend trip with my two sons for a family event in Vienna. Long ago, I briefly lived in this city, and I’m always happy to return. One thing that many visitors may not realize is that Vienna is a great city to see by bike. The city boasts over…
Read MoreMedieval Tuscany: Abbadia di San Salvatore
I discovered this medieval gem in Tuscany when my younger son went to a track and field camp in this little town this summer. Abbadia San Salvatore is a small town in the Valdorcia, nestled at the foot of Monte Amiata (Amiata Mountain), off of the Via Cassia between Orvieto and Sienna. It’s a beautiful spot,…
Read MoreAmsterdam seen from the canals
Last week I wrote about taking a boat tour around Hamburg boat tours. With all due respect to Hamburg, if there’s ever a city that truly merits a boat tour to understand the lay of the land, it’s Amsterdam. I love this Dutch city of canals, and I highly recommend that you enjoy wandering along…
Read MoreAdmiring Hamburg on a boat tour
Hamburg is an international port city, so no visit is complete without seeing the city from the vantage point of the water that surrounds it. When we were in this northern German city, we enjoyed going on a boat trip around the city center waterways and canals. We also traveled through locks, admired the Hafenstadt with…
Read MoreMonumental Skopje, Macedonia
I was in Skopje, the capital of the Former Yugolslav Republic of Macedonia last spring. I’ve already written about many things to see there, including the Kale fortress, the historic and picturesque neighborhood of Čaršija and the impressive Ottoman Bridge. But this is old Skopje. The modern city is – well, er – constructed on an…
Read More