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Category Archives: Travel
To Genova, to Geneva
When it finally comes time to leave Napoli, it’s by train at seven thirty in the morning. By this time I’m so nocturnal that it’s easier to just stay up until then, and around six in the morning I say … Continue reading
City of the Dead
My last week in Napoli feels like summer, balmy and dry. I’ve found that if I give myself a month or more in a city, I feel like I have all the time in the world, and spend my … Continue reading
Grit, Grime, and the Best Pizza on Earth
The train from Rome Termini speeds south under blue skies. As we leave the city, a two-thousand-year-old aqueduct parallels the track for a kilometer or two, towering over freshly plowed fields before diverging and receding into the distance. Whatever else … Continue reading
When it Snows in Rome
All good things must end, and on a Tuesday toward the end of February I pack my bags, say goodbye to my friends in Barcelona, and head for the ferry port. I came into the city by ship, and I … Continue reading
The Heart of Morocco
It’s almost dark by the time my train pulls out of the Tangiers station and heads south into the interior of Morocco. Tangiers rises sharply as we approach its edge, house-lights in terraces along steep hills, and then we’re in … Continue reading
Into Africa
I leave Granada on a sunny afternoon, bound for Algeciras, on the southern tip of Spain. I change buses in Malaga, and end up sitting next to a pair of travelers, Hamish and Lilu, from Canada and Russia, respectively. Hamish … Continue reading
Music and the Moors
Initially, my plan after Madrid is to head down to Córdoba, the historic capital of the Caliphate of Córdoba, which ruled the Islamic state of Al-Andalus for just over a hundred years in the tenth and eleventh centuries. But despite … Continue reading
From the Poor House to the Party Hostel
We’re turned out at seven in the morning from the Cruz Roja auberge in Catalayud, but I’m well rested, having gone to sleep at ten the night before. There’s frost on the ground and an icy mist in the air … Continue reading
