When you go on vacation to a new locale, it s stimulating and exciting. There are new places to explore, things to do and see and that s part of what makes it fun for many people, myself included. Going back to a place you are intimately familiar with is different, though. We left Padova nine years
One of the things I love about life in Italy is the cycling, and today the Giro d Italia goes over the nearby hills where I regularly ride my bike. There are many famous climbs that have featured in the Giro s history, such as the Stelvio, the Gavia, Pordoi, Abetone, and many more. Today s Giro d Italia stage is going
Italy has so many wonderful, beautiful amazing places and things, and all if it in an area about the size of California. And yet, it s got a lot of problems too. What drives me crazy in particular is that you can t copy most of what s good about Italy, but the bad things are fixable, even if
One of the things that initially drew me to Italy was my love of bicycle racing. The area where I grew up in Oregon is actually a pretty good place for bicycles, with lots of nice roads and hills, but the Veneto here in Italy is the heartland of cycling; or one of them, at
This past year, I discovered something of a hidden gem in the Venetian lagoon. I m going to admit up front that I m generally not that wild about Venice it s beautiful and very much worth seeing, but between hordes of tourists, an economy based on gouging them, and my own preferences for hills, mountains, forests
It s always interesting to see where you re from through someone else s eyes: you learn both about yourself and your home, but also about the person doing the observing, as their own experiences and point of view will be put on display. There are plenty of people who make comparisons that are a little bit superficial, although
One of those funny moments: It was a hot day at the end of the summer, and I was riding my scooter back from work. At that time of evening, traffic gets very bottled up in the Piazzale Stanga here in Padova, a major, 6 way intersection that is every bit as bad as you
When you read do you have change? , are you picturing a beggar asking for some spare coins? Italy has more than its fair share of those, but think again the person most likely to ask you for change in Italy is the person working the cash register at a supermarket. I don t know for
Or, translated from the Italian metalmeccanico more accurately, machinist . When I hear that word, I picture someone working with high-end precision tools to make machine parts, or something like that. Little did I know, however, that I, a computer programmer with little to no knowledge of power tools or metal working of any kind, am
Disgusting, gross, repellent, icky, revolting are how the dictionary translates schifoso or something that fa schifo! (literally it makes disgust! ), but it s such a delightful word to use because it sounds so right. You pronounce it SKI-fo , but you can really draw it out depending on how repugnant the object in question is. Che SSSSCHIIIIIIFO! ,