travel

When the moon hits your eye…

/ Greg / Leave a comment

Rome, then Naples, then onto Sorrento, and then back to Rome for the flight home.  For the better part of two weeks, this stretch of Italy dazzled me.  My wife and I saw so much on this trip that it will take a while to process it all.   The Roman Forum, Pompeii, St. Peter’s Basilica, the isle of Capri, the Colosseum, the Amalfi Coast… there was almost too much natural beauty and history to comprehend in two short weeks.

This trip had more than its share of pleasant surprises and great moments, and it didn’t hurt that not a drop of rain fell the entire time we were in Italy.  We enjoyed a Sunday afternoon at a Lazio soccer match with the home team emerging victorious.  We drank wine overlooking the Bay of Naples as the sun set.  We hiked up Mount Vesuvius to look in its crater and to soak in the views from its peak.  We sailed around Capri and along the Amalfi Coast.   This was a trip of postcard views everywhere we looked:

Capri

In addition to the natural beauty, the eating on this trip was outstanding.  A simple pasta dish in a small restaurant in the Monti neighbourhood of Rome was the best thing I’ve had on any trip this year.  Pizza in Naples has spoiled me for what we call by the same name in Canada.  I had the softest, most perfect gnocchi in Positano, spaghetti and clams in Sorrento, Trippa alla Romana in Rome, and the flaky, creamy concoction called sfogliatella in Naples which I will crave until my next visit.

More to come over the weeks and months ahead as I sort through thousands of photos and put words to what was a remarkable exploration of a beautiful slice of Italy.

Where once a highway stood

/ Greg / 1 Comment

When Boston went through their “Big Dig” project to bury highways cutting through the core of the city, they had a great idea for some of the above ground land that would be freed up.   Instead of building up an already densely populated area, the city converted the reclaimed space to a varied and beautiful park, the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway, that snakes along the path of the former John F Fitzgerald Expressway.

On what can only be described as a perfect Sunday morning back in July, my wife and I took the subway to South Station and started exploring the Greenway from its southern tip.   I’m a city dweller, an unabashed fan of big cities and I’m particularly fond of the beauty in the interplay of an urban cityscape and parkland.  There’s no shortage of this along the Greenway:

Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway

Continue reading →

A summer night at Fenway

/ Greg / 3 Comments

This has been a great baseball year for me.  At the time of visiting Boston in July, I had already been to a Cubs game, White Sox game, and three Blue Jays games.  All of those were incredibly fun, but I think I saved the best for last for my first visit to Fenway to see a Red Sox game.  I’m a baseball fan and will always go to a game if I’m visiting a city during its team’s home stand, but seeing a game at Fenway is something particularly special that I had wanted to do for a long, long time.

On a very humid July evening, my wife and I arrived at Fenway to get inside as early as possible.  Lots of others had the same idea:

Waiting outside Fenway Park

Continue reading →

Getting into Harvard

/ Greg / Leave a comment

Maybe it’s the lifelong student within me, but I’ve always had an affinity for college campuses and feel that the new year starts in September rather than in January.   So there was little doubt that a visit to Harvard was going to be on the itinerary on my recent visit to Boston.

A short ride from the centre of Boston via the subway and you’re in Cambridge, a world that feels far different than the fifteen minute trip it took to get there.   Here I am standing just outside one of the majestic sets of gates allowing entrance to Harvard Yard:

Entering Harvard at Holworthy Gate

Continue reading →

Looking ahead to Italy

/ Greg / Leave a comment

My wife and I each keep  a “top 10” list of the places we most want to visit.  It’s a list of destinations that is the answer to the question, “If you could only make ten more trips in your life, where would they be?”  Once or twice a year, usually fueled by a bottle of red wine, we pull out scraps of paper, recreate our lists, then compare them.   Where they intersect is usually where we focus some planning for an upcoming travel adventure.  A couple of years ago, it’s how we ended up touring Scandinavia for two weeks.  It’s here I have to make a confession – although our big trip this fall is to Italy, that country or any of its charms has never made any of my previous top ten lists.

Flying in and out of Rome, this trip will combine the Eternal City, a quick stop in Naples, and a stretch of time based in Sorrento to explore the Amalfi Coast as well as Mount Vesuvius, the ruins of Pompeii and the island of Capri.  As I’ve been planning this trip, I’ve come to realize the error of my earlier thinking.  I’m giddy at the thought of visits to the Roman Forum, Colosseum and Vatican as much as I am for simply exploring Rome’s neighbourhoods and piazzas.  I have starting creating what seems like a never ending list of food and wine to sample and am wondering how much pizza a man can eat in 24 hours in Naples (I can almost assure you it will be one too many).    I’m practically trembling with anticipation for the Lazio football match on the Sunday afternoon we arrive as a novel way to work through the effects of a red eye flight.  In my mind, I am imagining sitting on patios high up above the Amalfi Coast and Gulf of Naples sipping limoncello and local wines while looking out to sea without a care in the world.

So Italy, I’m sorry you hadn’t made my previous top ten lists.   But I’m coming to visit you anyway and couldn’t be more excited for the experiences I’m about to have.  Here’s to seeing you in October and to a couple of weeks of la dolce vita!

Boston from above

/ Greg / Leave a comment

If there’s one thing that struck me about Boston, it was how beautifully green the city was.  For the five days there, I was almost never in a place where my eyes couldn’t fall on a significant splash of green – and that made it feel so much more livable, approachable and downright pleasant.

On the last day of the trip, I wanted to get a panoramic view of Boston so I made my way to the observatory in the Prudential Center.  From 50 floors up, you get an even better appreciation for how green the city truly is.   Luckily, it was a beautiful clear day so the views off in all directions were spectacular.  Here is a quick panoramic tour of Boston:

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

 

Touring public art in Nashville

/ Greg / 1 Comment

The last word on Nashville goes to a couple of hours of exploring I did on my last day there back in June.  As a way to weave my way through the city’s sights, I planned a walking tour of public art via the ever helpful Downtown Nashville Partnership website.   Given my limited time, I didn’t get to see everything I had hoped to but did end up with a nice selection of some interesting art.

The largest piece I saw on my tour was “Ghost Ballet for the East Bank Machineworks” by Alice Aycock.  Located just outside LP Field, it is meant to evoke the evolution that side of the river has seen from an industrial past to a current and future that is more focused on recreation.

Ghost Ballet for the East Bank Machineworks

Continue reading →

Weekend at the lake

/ Greg / 2 Comments

An annual tradition got a new twist this year.  Each August or September, my wife and I make a six hour drive into isolated western New Brunswick for an extended long weekend at her family’s cottage.   This year, we had an additional family member along for the trip – our dog, Chewy, who we adopted back in October last year.   He’s pushing eleven years old and we hadn’t yet done a long road trip with him, so we were curious as to how he’d make out.  Generally, he’s a pretty laid back fellow who likes to get about twenty two hours of sleep a day so we were hoping for the best.   Two minutes into the road trip we stopped for some Starbucks and he was looking pretty relaxed in the back seat:

Chewy in the car

Continue reading →

Quickly wandering through Nashville

/ Greg / Leave a comment

With only four days in Nashville, and most of those tied up in a work-related conference, my usual wandering around time was at a premium.   Subtract from that the time I spent in restaurants sampling all sorts of southern dishes and the time on my arrival day taking in some country music and there was precious little time remaining.   Here’s what I managed to squeeze in.

Near the conference hotel was the lush Centennial Park.  It was a wonderful place for an early morning walk before the work day would get underway.  I went primarily to see Nashville’s Parthenon.  It’s a full scale replica of its namesake in Greece and houses an art museum.  Very impressive.

Nashville Parthenon

Continue reading →