Random fact per Bruce Katz of The Brookings Institute:
Only 28 percent of the US population has a passport.
Wait. . . the B52s weren’t giving implicit instructions and life advice? Continue reading “Fly The Great Big Sky, See The Great Big Sea”
Tag: Travel
Firenze
Say you find yourself in Florence for about 36 hours. Art, architecture, gardens, libraries and specialty shopping abound in what National Geographic calls a “city-size shrine to the Renaissance.” A city with Roman origins that flourished during the Middle Ages, Florence, “the Athens of the Middle Ages” has been ruled by Medici, served as the capital of the Kingdom of Italy and continues to serve as the capital of Tuscany and the providence of Florence. It is a majestic city lying in the basin of the Arno and three other rivers between seven hills – Rome has nothing on this place. Continue reading “Firenze”
Sign That You’re in A Good Restaurant?
A table full of priests in Noto, Sicily.
In Islam, it is haram to take pictures of people without their permission. Ideologically, it is tied to frivolous or indulgent pursuits and should not be displayed. So you could take a picture of a significant event to preserve the memory, but it should not be displayed on the wall for others to see. I had to shoot this over the shoulder of another person, because of the people I was with, we were split as to whether or not it was taboo to take a picture of a priest. (Hijab to Wimple to Clerical Collar?) But we could find no reference to anything saying a priest should not have his photo taken, nor a nun for that matter. As a side note, I learned a solid life lesson – don’t google taboo and nun, it’s really disturbing.
Not all those who wander are lost
Eight states, over 800 miles and all covered in only two days. The journey had me thinking about both the “Not All Who Wander Are Lost” line and also Nowhere Mag’s entomology of the word Wanderlust. The quote, not just from pillows, posters and inspirational prints, is actually from a J R R Tolkien poem in The Lord of The Rings, a book about logging some serious mileage. Continue reading “Not all those who wander are lost”
Higher Than the Sky
The drive between Riposto and Mt Etna is roughly 43 kilometers (~27 miles) – not really as big as or as tall as the earth, but don’t tell Emmett (video above). This distance is ‘as the crow flies’ only if the crow has been dipping into the local wine. The road doubles back on itself in z’s going up the mountain. For most of the drive, once you are on park land, you are driving “higher than the sky” above the cloud line. The temperature, in early April, goes from a balmy 70 F at sea level to in the 20s and snowy at the top of the mountain. Continue reading “Higher Than the Sky”
azimuths compass 