A Balanced Rock by Any Other Name An old postcard from 1906 refers to North Salem, N.Y.’s Balanced Rock, a geological anomaly of sorts as it is a boulder balancing on a few smaller rocks, as ‘Large Boulder.’ It is interesting that postcards of North Salem were available more than a century ago, and one…
Is Pisa Worth the Effort to Get There?
More than 15 Minutes and a Selfie in the Land of Pisans A good way through planning my latest trip to Italy, I wonder, is the Leaning Tower of Pisa really worth the effort, or should I just skip it? On the adventure, there will only be time for, at most, a day trip from…
Meeting Hemingway at Harry’s Bar
Literary tourism lives as the Bashful Adventurer ventures into Harry’s Bar in Venice looking for Ernest Hemingway. Will she find him?
Where to Stay When Flying Out of San José: Costa Rica Marriott San José
A Hotel with a Familiar Name—Marriott—Proves Perfect With So Many Hotels to Choose from, Why the Costa Rica Marriott San José? Planning a visit to Costa Rica, I begin to understand how confused visitors must be when they come to New York: It is both a city and a state, and the major airports are…
An Armchair Adventurer Goes to Concord, Mass.
Via Sarah Payne Stuart’s Perfectly Miserable If much of the joy of traveling is the anticipation simply about going somewhere, so, too, is reading up on the place to which you are about to go, not just to figure out which sites to visit but to understand what it would actually be like to live…
Over the Overwhelm: Avoiding Sensory Overload in Italy to Savor the Art
How to Get Youthful or Just Impatient Adventurers through Art Museums without Tripping Alarms The first few days of any trip to Italy might be just fine for a visitor, what with the jetlag and the joy of being in a different place and the marveling at all that is there. Visits to ancient ruins…
Staying in Rome near the Spanish Steps
Could You Get Any Closer than the Scalinata di Spagna? With less than 24 hours to spend in Rome, the Brawny Sherpa and I would need to be strategic in selecting a hotel so that we could see those last few sights we had missed on the first leg of our trip to Italy. We…
A Double and the Duomo
A View on a Budget in Florence Our quick stay at the Soggiorno Battistero in Florence is just long enough to appreciate anew the place across from the Duomo referred to as the Baptistry. So thrilled with our view right on the piazza we keep the windows open long into the night. Yes, the voices…
Venice in Winter
I love Venice in the springtime; I love Venice in the fall. But will Venice in winter meet expectations? The Bashful Adventurer gives it a try.
The Unexpected at the New York Historical Society
From Toy Trains to Le Tricorne to the Batmobile I have officially lived long enough to become a museum piece. Artifacts from my childhood are now showing up on display. A recent visit to the New York Historical Society brings back Space Invader, Batman, typewriters, and more. Laugh now, millennials, but your iPhones will be…