by Jillian Coleman Wheeler | Sep 26, 2021 | Italy
All my life I’ve dreamed of Venice. It exceeded my imagination. In recent years friends who’ve been have cautioned me it’s been degraded by too many tourists and cruise ships, but we found it nearly perfect. The streets and the water were clean, and it smelled like a...
by Jillian Coleman Wheeler | Sep 26, 2021 | Italy
Venice is everything I dreamed it would be, but ironically, it was the site of the low point of our grand adventure, set in a hospital emergency room… Every few years I get bronchitis, the legacy of pneumonia I had when I was 29. When I do, I have to act quickly to...
by Jillian Coleman Wheeler | Sep 25, 2021 | Italy
The English Cemetery, where mostly Protestants from England and other countries are interred. Elizabeth Barrett Browning is buried here. The amazing Cathedral of St. Mary of the Flower, the Duomo, was completed in the 1400s. Different shades of marble give the...
by Jillian Coleman Wheeler | Sep 24, 2021 | Italy, Rome
Then it was time to hug my friend, bid her a teary goodbye, say Arrivederci, Roma, and take the short train ride to Florence. With a population of 360,000, Florence, or Firenze, is a tenth the size of Rome, and it feels very accessible. While it is old (founded as a...
by Jillian Coleman Wheeler | Sep 23, 2021 | Italy
One more from Rome. I needed a bathing suit, and a young woman at the front desk of the pensione gave me directions to a shopping area a few blocks away. Her directions were, turn right at the front door, walk past the ruins, turn left… Wait? What ruins? Oh, just some...
Recent Comments