I had never seen so many tall and sleek model types in my life. I watched with fascination as they rushed through Milan’s Piazza del Duomo (“Cathedral Square”) for an unknown rendezvous or appointment, dressed in the latest fashion. It was also the first time I had ever paid $16 for a café latte, but it was well worth the price …
Walking home to our apartment in Venice, we share a wave through the window with the owner of Baba, our local osteria. Leaving for a day of sightseeing, a cup of my favorite pistachio gelato awaits me despite the early hour. At the Bar Dugole, we relax after a day of sightseeing and order the regular: vodka for my husband and Amaretto for me. And we sit and watch everyone else in Venice try to figure out where the hell they are!
In Robert Flaherty's brilliant 1934 documentary film, Man of Aran, we see an Irish man smashing limestone rocks to bits, while his wife gathers seaweed from the shore below the island's steep windswept cliffs. Meanwhile, their young son scavenges for animal manure and precious particles of dirt that have collected between the rocks, blown from the mainland.
The Palladian Traveler hops aboard a fully restored heritage train and rides part of the original rail line across the magical Mary Valley of Queensland.
In the Hotel Rotary Geneva, a tattered Alexandre Dumas looks down on the lobby. Random threads, torn and frayed, hang down like old hairs on a corpse. The faded gold lettering of Le Comte de Monte Cristo is barely visible beneath a library decal peeling off the spine, but Dumas commands attention, perched like royalty next to Aldous Huxley, Blaise Pascal and Thaïs the holy courtesan.
Johann Chrysostom Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 - 1791) could read and compose music, plus play the violin and piano, when he was five years old. Born into a musical family in Salzburg, Austria (then the Holy Roman Empire), he had a unique ability for imitating music, which first became evident when he recited a musical piece by simply observing his father conducting a lesson to his older sister.
The Palladian Traveler winds his way along one of the most scenic drives of the Sunshine Coast as he ventures up into the Blackall Range of Queensland’s Hinterland, where the air is cooler and the grass greener.
I have now been in Peru for more than a year and a half and find myself coasting along in Phase 4 of this roller coaster ride: “Acceptance.” This past February was a perfect example.
The low lying banana boat picks up a passenger arriving from the airport and departs the small dock with the caution not to dangle a hand in the water. The reason soon becomes apparent, the eyes and rough hide of a ten foot crocodile surfaces several feet off the boat, then disappears in murky waters of the mighty, 3,540 km long Zambezi.
The Palladian Traveler dons a pair of khaki shorts as he channels his inner Steve Irwin and gets face to face with a ‘roo and a ring-tailed lemur. Crickey!
