Super secret picture of the top tier of the Colosseum!
New website, guests, tours, and crazy-busy-ness.
I still love you, I’m just busy creating experiences to blog about – oh, and a new website, too!
Lucky happenstance: Coro Soldanella in Venice
Walking through the narrow streets of Venice, we were stopped by a crowd of men – who burst into song!
![[insert funny alt text here] ...sorry, too knackered!](https://tourabsurd.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/IMG_3147-crop-tweak-copyright.jpg)
Breaking equipment creates zombies
Rome, Italy After returning from the lovely and waistline-expanding trip to Catalonia, things went a bit loco. First computer problems abounded. Then, just as that was getting sorted, it was time to head to Naples for a few days to visit friends and family, and to meet Sherry Ott for a tour of Pompeii. Then …
Scenes of Venice
Venice, Italy Like the saying, "You are what you eat" goes, we are often influenced by the people around us. Having now spent time with Sherry Ott in three different and iconic Italian cities, I felt challenged (in a good way) to get off my hiney and step up my photo game a bit. This …
Murano Glassblowing in Venice
Venice, Italy On my first visit to Venice I was with a tour group for part of the time. One of the things they organized was a glassblowing demonstration, since nearby Murano is so famous for glassworks. I can’t swear to it, but I think anyone can walk into Dogi’s Murano Art and see the …
Rantypants: working overseas
Outside of the US Dear Universe, Sometimes I need to know that the door which just closed did so because another, much better one, is opening. You have my number. Thanks. Sincerely, Rantypants Every bed of roses has its thorn. That smells. Or something. Usually my blog is my happy place. Aside from …
Quote: To get to know a country…
To get to know a country, you must have direct contact with the earth. It’s futile to gaze at the world through a car window. – Albert Einstein Looks like good stew ingredients – the soup souq? Photos of lusciously arranged market wares are almost cheating, blog-wise. I mean the layouts are …
Sweet, frosted Colosseum!
Rome, Italy I generally prefer chocolate frosting, though an occasional cream cheese-based confection will really get me. And while I have been slowly introducing Dario's family to some of my favorite American foods – stuffed chicken, pancakes, creamy salad dressing – we still haven't mastered frosting. Part of the problem is that zucchero a velo …
Face-stuffing in Barcelona
Barcelona, Spain Diving headlong into local dining experiences is one of the preferred activities of many travelers. The same is true for me and Dario. However, we don't limit ourselves to local cuisine, as we have several favorites in which we cannot always indulge depending on our living and travel situation. We may have gone …
Whining and dining in Besalú, Spain
Besalú, Catalonia, Spain Hola from Besalú! Dario and I, and several other travel bloggers, are here in Catalonia, Spain, exploring the area, eating the food, drinking the wine, and staying at amazing luxury villas (srsly, they are suh-weet!). Grab yourself an eyeful of the view we had this morning! To infinity and beyond! …
Meanwhile, in Spain…
Rome, Italy Dario and I decided to spend some time with the family back in Italy, both for the pleasure of being together for the holidays and to skip out on some of the cold, dark, Irish winter. Unfortunately, we seem to have brought the weather with us! (Click to enlarge.) On a clear …
Herculaneum: Pompeii’s mud-covered sister city
Naples, Italy You've probably heard of Pompeii, home of ash-covered treasures and the famous plaster casts of the bodies of unfortunate victims from Vesuvio's eruption in 79 A.D. New excavation techniques using were formulated, amazing art was discovered, and insight into a period of time nearly two millennia past was revealed. Fascinating stuff! Pompeii is …
Quote: To get away from one’s working environment…
To get away from one’s working environment is, in a sense, to get away from one’s self; and this is often the chief advantage of travel and change. ~ Charles Horton Cooley Watching the sunset from atop a dune in the Moroccan Sahara. My friend, Rachid, took this photo when we were …
Rose colored glasses don’t keep out the smell
Rome, Italy I love it when things go swimmingly! It's great when everything is exactly as relaxing, luxurious, delicious, and romantic as you'd hoped. On the other hand, it can also be oddly perfect when things take a hilariously strange or utterly wrong turn. When Dario and I had the opportunity to stay in a …
Beach Flashbacks
Today's post is written by Dario! He's been promising me a guest post for some time, so when Silvia from Trippando told me about a contest she and Travel – Moments in Time were having for writing about beaches, I thought this would be the perfect moment to nudge him into action. Having nearly …
Quote: Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness…
Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime. ~ Mark Twain Flowerbed constellation in India. I am posting this …
Natale: la tavola (the table)
Rome, Italy When people think of Italy, inevitably one of the first subjects to come up is the food. It's a year 'round event here, to be sure, but holidays bring an extra level of showmanship to the table. Natale (Christmas) is one of the biggest eating holidays of all – it lasts 2 or …