Heathrow Terminal 5! Pull Yourself Together!

OMG Heathrow Terminal 5, you are a mess. Get it together, mate. Come on.
First there was the fact that the architects, engineers and designers seemed to have overlooked including one passenger-accessible electrical outlet. Hello! It’s the 21st century calling, permission to plug in, please.
Then there was the crazy biometrics - all [...]

Paris Flea Markets: Best Description Ever

Stuff White People Like is a funny, scathing look at the things people of a certain kind hold dear. Their newest feature, White Spots, talks about places around the world that White People Like. The newest features the best description of the flea market in Paris - LE MARCHÉ AUX PUCES for you [...]

Finalmente: Free Wifi in Rome!

It’s true! It’s just in Trastevere for now - a lovely area, to be sure, but nowhere near where I ever am when I am in Rome.
FON has decided to make the entire neighborhood a wifi hot spot, which is great news for Rome. The Internet obviously has caught on in Italy - which might [...]

Hangovers Around the World

In honor of my hungover friends today, a reposting of a piece I did for another site. Enjoy!
“Holy…where am I?”
If you’ve ever woken up and said that, most likely your next thought is the realization that you’ve got a hangover.
Now, usually the best way to cure a hangover is to avoid it - [...]

Non-Italian Food in Florence

Ben and Martha are American expats living in Italy.
Now, normally that wouldn’t send me into fits of camaraderie, but there’s a twist: Martha’s from my hometown, a small enough place for it to be quite a coincidence. But wait, it gets better! Not only does her family own my favorite cheesesteak shop in [...]

Mistral Sunday: Pictures

I had to do some thinking before I quoted an Italian translation job today, so I grabbed the camera and took some pictures around the house. The sky color has not been adjusted, by the way. Anyway, here’s a look at what I see every day:

I love the way the light hits [...]

Never on Sunday: The Mysteries of the Mistral

It’s been such a strange day so far. Already, a lot of things have happened that never happen:
1. I played video poker on my cell phone before getting out of bed this morning. I have never done this before, and in fact was the first time I had ever played a game on [...]

Too Good Not To Post

 From Gridskipper, the travel site I love to hate (and most recently, hate to love):
Two Italian oldsters were stopped by airport police in Munich holding a suitcase stuffed with an eleven year-old dead body. The women carrying the corpse, who are both in their sixties, were en route from Sao Paolo to Naples. One of [...]

London Ad For Cyclists

This ad is extremely clever, and makes its point: Look out for cyclists.
http://www.dothetest.co.uk/
I don’t drive, but as a pedestrian I’ve learned to look both ways for cyclists before crossing a street. This was taught to me the hard way by various unnamed bicycle messengers in New York.

Palermo, Sicily: “What if they ask us for the pizzo?”

You’ve heard of duty-free airport stores and sweatshop-free clothing. How about Mafia-free shopping?
That’s the idea behind Addiopizzo - a group that believes “an entire people that pays the pizzo is a people without dignity”:

There’s now a store in Palermo in which “all products and staff are 100 percent guaranteed Mafia-free, supplied only by shops and [...]