"They Call Me 'The Ghost'." "What if it turns out that life isn't defined by who you belong to or where you came from, by what you wished for or whom you've lost, but instead by the moments you spend getting from each of these places to the next?" - Jodi Picoult Rome, I love you but I'm tired. My knees are sore from your sloping stone streets, my skin is losing patience with your motor fumes and my wallet with your cover charges and tourist traps. Your crowds a...

"The Physics of the Quest" "Rome is the city of echoes, the city of illusions, and the city of yearning." - Giotto di Bondone I've thought a lot about God lately. Maybe it's the forests of gilded cathedrals everywhere, or the miracle of the Sistine Chapel or the devotion so prevalent here that every waitress seems to have a Virgin Mary medallion slung around her neck. I think more likely though it is the way that, no matter what I do, things keep transpiring to...

Read, Eat, Dream For Tom and Cynthia. "Methinks I will not die quite happy without having seen something of that Rome of which I have read so much." - Sir Walter Scott I'm getting really sick of having my mind blown. It seems all one has to do to see something unimaginably beautiful in Rome is take a stroll around the block. There is a right way and a wrong way to introduce yourself to a city. The number one rule is go slow. Take your time. Open yourself to a...

"Don't...how you say in Canada...'freak out'." "The forecast kept saying it was going to rain. It never did." - Me I e-mailed my next host back to let him know I'd received a response from aribnb.com advising me not to give cash, as this was not the way their site worked and any transactions outside of it were not secure. I said that my credit card had already been charged, that I could show him the receipt, and that any further payment disputes would have to b...

Something Rich and Strange "Much I have travelled in the realms of gold." -John Keats Mondays in Italy are the best thing ever. "Un altro bella giornata," I remarked to Filomenia when I entered the kitchen for breakfast. The forecast kept saying it was going to rain. It never did. Everyday the sun rose faster and brighter and warmer than the day before, the sky bluer than anything has a right to be. It was a beautiful day for a pilgrimage, which was precisely w...