We should have known this wasn’t going to be a normal night at the opera when the crowd at the Arena at Verona started doing the Mexican wave. I’d only seen the Mexican wave at the football, so it was quite a shock – at the opera no less, but at Verona’s Arena? But maybe … Read more about A night at the opera in Verona, or, When is opera not opera? When it’s pure spectacle
Before I tell you about our travels in Calabria, I must share something about our recent visit to Rome (post-Istanbul) where we spent a week gathering content for several travel stories, experiencing walking tours, hotels, restaurants, and museums, doing interviews with fascinating locals, and for my husband and co-writer Terence, shooting photos. Despite the fact … Read more about It’s good to be a tourist in… Rome!
Here are some more ideas as to how to make the most of your ambles about archaeological sites:4. Use your imagination. I mean, really use it. Don’t just look at those old stones and see a building, but try to visualize the form and function of the place, the shape and feel of the neighbourhood, … Read more about The Cool Travel Guide to: getting the most out of archaeological sites (part 2)
Do all but the most impressively striking of archaeological ruins look like piles of rubble to you? You can’t be blamed. So many guidebooks give such glowing reviews of ancient sites and write so evocatively about them that, regardless of the condition they’re in, or how important or interesting they may be, the completists among … Read more about The Cool Travel Guide to: getting the most out of archaeological sites (part 1)
What is it about cute smiling kids in traditional costumes in foreign countries that we find so disarmingly charming? Flick through the back pages of a travel magazine to the ads for tours to South America and Thailand hill tribe treks and there’ll be a couple of rosy-cheeked little kids in colourful clothes leading some … Read more about Touristic experiences #2: staged tourism and the charm of cute children