Travel

This post contains descriptions of gladiators, so you may wish to read through before sharing it with the kids. “Are you afraid of lions?” That’s what our tour guide, Marti, asked the children in our group more than once. We spent Monday afternoon at the Colosseum, the Roman Forum, the Roman Senate, and the Arch…

The Vatican is an extraordinary site to see and experience, but it is probably best left to adults who can appreciate its history, beauty, and culture. Only the most gifted and sensitive child would beg to go back after weaving through the stuffy halls and standing amidst the crowds in the religious spaces. There really…

So, our errant little sherpas have made it to Italy. I think I’ve pieced together why they didn’t make it here along with us. Judging by the condition of the contents, they must have undergone some heavy-duty screening, and since our layover was rather short in Philadelphia, a gloved hand was probably still grasping my…

So if you want to be comfy and cozy, then it makes sense to stay home. Traveling definitely takes you out of your comfort zone. For months, we planned this Italy trip. We invested in Rosetta Stone to learn the language, researched what to wear and what to bring on the trip, arranged for a…

For the next two weeks, Jim and I will be on an adventure to Italy. It should be quite an interesting trip, since we won’t be on a tour, and we’ll be driving a rental car in a country known for its crazy driving conditions–narrow streets, mountainous terrain, speed limits like we never see in…

Since we had actually gotten on the plane and flew to New York City, I figured this grand-prize thing wasn’t a hoax, but still, I wasn’t sure what to expect on Tuesday. Jim pointed out to me that this wasn’t going to be a concert from noon to one and an interview during the following…

Observations from Monday, June 6, 2011 Soon after Jim and I boarded our plane to Philadelphia, at a little after 11:00 a.m., I tweeted that the plane had propellors. It was a Dash 8-100/200. Propellors scare me. They look like if something went wrong, they could whip into the plane and take out a bunch…

Since we had to leave for this trip to meet Lady Gaga with very little notice, we concentrated on actually getting out of town rather than on what we would do when we got to New York City. So, we had Monday evening to do something fun before the Lady Gaga interview the next day…

This week, I entered a SiriusXM Gayle King Welcomes Lady Gaga contest and had a funny feeling that I would win. The concert is on Tuesday, June 7 in front of an intimate audience at the SiriusXM New York City studios. Things were stable at my office, so I was sure I could get away. Today, the…

Posted to Suite 101 (defunct) on April 10, 2011 Italy sits at the southern end of Europe and is a peninsula, shaped like a boot. In size, it is 116,320 square miles, and it extends from the Alps to the Mediterranean Sea. The largest city, and the capital of Italy, is Rome. The country also…