Moses Project to save the streets of Venice, Italy
Recent heavy rain in Venice has led to some of the worst flooding the city has seen in almost 20 years. I have been in Venice in the past when the rain has caused flooding, it is an almost unique phenomenon the way that the central area floods so quickly as, quite simply, the level Read more…
5 Stages of Creating a Fresco
The fresco (from the Italian word for fresh) is often closely linked with Renaissance painting, however, the technique is ancient and widespread with some of the earliest examples (from 1750–1400 BC) being found in Knossos, Crete (now preserved in the Archaeological Museum in Heraklion). This technique, of painting on freshly spread moist lime plaster with Read more…
5 Gift Ideas for Travelers
With the holiday shopping season right around the corner, people are beginning to prepare their Christmas wish lists and also looking to get a head start on buying gifts. We all know how difficult it can be to come up with gifts that people will surely like or even use. Sometimes it just makes sense Read more…
Top 5 Travel Guide Apps
We all know that when in Paris, you go to the Eiffel Tower, when in Rome, you go to the Colosseum, and when in London, you go see Big Ben. But what about those other interesting attractions and museums that are less mainstream? Paris, for example, has the Catacombs underneath its streets where human bones Read more…
Favorite Tube Station in London
I am heading for London soon to begin a tour (the quite wonderful European Quartet) and that means another bout of training people in tube etiquette. There is a certain skill in getting 40 people onto the same underground train, making sure they stand on the correct side of the escalator and the different way Read more…
Top 10 Travel Snacks
In 2011, I flew to Washington, D.C., in late January to make a presentation on behalf of the National History Day program at a Congressional briefing. I landed at Dulles International Airport right before a snowstorm shut down the city. I spent several harrowing hours riding in a shuttle van and watching the cars spin Read more…
Costa Rica 2013 – Apply Now! EF Global Citizen Scholarship
**DEADLINE HAS BEEN EXTENDED UNTIL NOVEMBER 15TH!** Do your students want to join us in Costa Rica this April? The 2013 EF Global Citizen Scholarship Contest is off and running, and that’s big news for your students. Suddenly, an eight-day Costa Rican adventure needs to be filled with environmentally minded high school students. Pretty exciting, Read more…
Theft of The Mona Lisa
I was watching Sherlock Holmes ‘The Final Problem’ the other day, a classic tale which ends with the famed struggle at the Reichenbach falls. Anyway, the episode begins with Holmes securing the return of the Mona Lisa from the grasping Fagin-like hands of Moriarty. Although the story originally appeared in the Strand magazine in 1893 Read more…
Greek Islands – Nibbling Fish, Donkeys and the Traveling Pants
After visiting Mykonos, Turkey and Patmos on my Greek cruise this past summer, the next port of call was the Island of Rhodes. Here, I took a bus tour to the town of Lindos. Lindos dates back to the 4th century BC. The town itself is built around an acropolis, upon which stand the ruins Read more…
Top 5 Communication Apps – Messaging, Video, Voice
For my next selection of recommended apps I wanted to continue with communication apps (did you miss my Top 5 Language Translation Apps post?). Living so far from home can get very lonely. Sometimes I feel like I miss out on everything – my little sister’s Middle School graduation, my Dad’s birthday, and those Sunday Read more…
