Tranquil Beauty of Tuscany

After spending two weeks hiking in Cinque Terre and hopping ferries on Lake Como, I was ready to relax with friends on a secluded agritourism farm in Tuscany. From the sleepy Sinalunga train station, I traveled in a sleek Italian sports car along narrow country roads that dipped and curved abruptly around tiny hamlets, walled estates, olive groves and vineyards. Porcelain-white Chianina cattle grazed contentedly along the road sides. Red poppies and mustard-colored rapeseed covered the rolling hills as far as I could see, interrupted...

São Paulo Entices With Art And Energy

Sao Paulo – Brazil’s biggest city was not on my bucket list. Rio de Janeiro, yes; Manaus in the Amazon rainforest, definitely. But I was pleasantly surprised by the sprawling business capital of the largest country in South America during a visit in early October 2018. This city of some 20 million is packed with eclectic museums, edgy architecture, and vibrant graffiti art. Designer shops, award-winning restaurants, elegant accommodations, and high-energy night clubs abound throughout the city’s multi-ethnic neighborhoods. And the gregarious Paulistanos, as locals...

A Wedding in India and Much More

The writer and her friends at a wedding

My trip to India began with a festive Hindu wedding in Kolkata. It ended after a mesmerizing sitar performance in a musician’s home in Varanasi, a visit with elephants rescued by a conservation center in Mathura and a walk through a Delhi slum with a young man who grew up there and now hopes to be an actor. Oh, I also saw the Taj Mahal in Agra, the Amer Fort in Jaipur and the Mahatma Gandhi museum in Delhi. The must-see sites of India are indeed captivating. But I...

Cuba: An Island Lost in Time

A fast-moving Caribbean storm chased us off the idyllic, mostly empty Cuban beach. The wind almost whipped the towel out of my hand as I pushed the key card into the door of our third floor hotel room. Nothing happened. Tried again. Nothing. By the time my companion returned with a new card — and news of a power outage — rain was coming down in sheets. Though we escaped the tropical deluge, our neighbor’s room flooded in the all-inclusive, government-owned resort near Trinidad. When...

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