Self-consciousness kills communication.
As a traveler, I've often found that the more a culture differs from my own, the more I am struck by its essential humanity.
Juan Bautista de Toledo,
Be fanatically positive and militantly optimistic. If something is not to your liking, change your liking.
I would like travelers, especially American travelers, to travel in a way that broadens their perspective, because I think Americans tend to be some of the most ethnocentric people on the planet. It's...
Churchill War Rooms: £18, daily 9:30-18:00, last entry one hour before closing.
Firenze Card when you arrive in Florence
Europe knows what a war is. It ripped itself to shreds twice within my grandparents’ lifetime. Consider France’s losses in World War I. France (with one-quarter as many people as we have) lost as many...
Travelers need only focus on four areas: the Old City, the harbor/Barceloneta, the Eixample, and Montjuïc.
The French (and Europeans in general) place a high value on speaking quietly in restaurants and on trains.
Siena’s claim to caloric fame is its panforte, a rich, chewy concoction of nuts, honey, and candied fruits that impresses even fruitcake haters. There are a few varieties: Margherita, dusted in powder...
Look through the unfinished entrance facade, note blue sky where the stained-glass windows would have been, and ponder the struggles, triumphs, and failures of the human spirit.
If I had to choose one spot to enjoy the small-town charm of traditional Ireland, it would be Dingle and its history-laden scenic peninsula. But the Ring of Kerry—a much bigger, more famous, and more...
Feed the hungry and you're a saint, ask why they are hungry and you're a communist.
Regardless of your journey, you can put a little pilgrim in your travels and find your own personal jubilation.
Reservations
While the traffic is enough to make you scream, people are incredibly good-humored on the road. I never heard angry horns honking. One time, while stalled in a Tehran jam, people in a neighboring car...
Via Banchi di Sopra and Via Banchi di Sotto These main drags in town are named upper row of banks and lower row of banks. They were once lined with market tables (banchi), and rents were paid to the c...
Ideally, travel broadens our perspectives personally, culturally, and politically. Suddenly, the palette with which we paint the story of our lives has more colors.
I believe if you’re going to bomb someone you should know them first. It should hurt when you kill someone.