Do you know where Malta is? Let’s take a quiz.
All posts filed under: Europe

The Rose Scam
It is straight out of every girl’s Italian fantasy. She is at an iconic landmark like the Spanish Steps, the Rialto Bridge or the Piazza Navone, and she is approached by a handsome, charming Latin Lover with a bad boy look but a soft heart. […]

The Venetian Blue Hour
Photographers call the time after sunset before it gets totally dark the “blue hour.” It is a great time to take photos, especially cityscapes, as the intermingling of natural and artificial light creates dramatic effects and the world is imbued with blue. For non-photographers like […]

Venice: Half Fairy Tale, Half Tourist Trap
“There is no way a gondola ride costs $100 per hour,” I declared. My coworker was trying to tell me how expensive it was to visit Venice, and I wasn’t having it.

Greece: 10 Travel Tips
The first tip I’d have for anyone pondering a trip to Greece is this: GO TO GREECE!

The Isle of Crete – A Photo Tour
If you could only visit one island in Greece, Crete would be the obvious choice. Heck, if you could only visit one island in the world, Crete would have to be at the top of the list.

Colorful Symi in Black and White
Symi, Greece, is one of the most colorful, most photogenic places I’ve ever been. It is a small town of orange, yellow and white buildings accented with dark blue shudders and doors. The polychromatic, neoclassical buildings climb up steep, tawny hills. During our visit, we […]

Expectations of Turkey, Greece and Italy Revisited
Before we took off for Europe in September, I posted my nine pre-trip expectations. Let’s check in to see how those expectations worked out.

Cinque Terra in the Off-Season, or Maddie Jacobs to the Rescue
Riamaggiore was quiet as a morgue. We arrived in mid-November to find no life on the streets and most of the shops had closed for the winter; the only travelers we met in our first hours in town were completely annoying. Traveling through Italy in […]

Pompeii – the Antidote for Art, City and Penis Fatigue
After two and a half weeks in Rome, Venice, Florence, and Naples, we were a little burned out. It is possible to see too much exquisite art; cities can wear you out. And you can only look at so many penises.

Mt. Etna Erupts, or I Don’t Get to Climb Mt. Etna
We were at the train station in Naples buying train tickets for Taormina. Unbeknownst to us, Mt. Etna was at that moment erupting, coating Taormina in a layer of volcanic ash, sand and rock.

Returning to Rome: Part II
This time, Rome blew my mind. Somehow when I visited 12 years ago, I didn’t appreciate it enough, it didn’t make such a huge impression on me.