Commemorating WWI soldiers in Abruzzo

On my recent ski escape, I was in Ovindoli, in Italy’s Apennine mountains of the Abruzzo region. Like most little mountain towns, Ovindoli has a memorial to the soldiers who died both in WWI and WWII. For those who know the region well, most of these towns have much longer lists for the First World…

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Book review: Wake

Oddly, I’d had this book on my shelf for some time. I remembered it only after picking it up in French in a French bookstore and being drawn in by the story and the excellent blurbs – before realizing I shouldn’t buy it because I had the original version back home. : ) This novel…

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Book Review: Fall of Poppies

This series of short stories set during World War I, Fall of Poppies: Stories of Love and the Great War was bound to be right up my alley. I love short stories and I love historical fiction, and I have a particular weakness for stories set during this time period, an era of marked upheaval as…

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A sleepy Austrian spa town where WWI began: Bad Ischl

On a trip last summer through Austria, while driving through Upper Austria (Oberösterreich) when we passed near Bad Ischl and decided to stop and stretch our legs. Bad Ischl was well-known among court society in the past centuries. the saltwater springs located here were discovered back in the 16th century, but it only became a…

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