Destinations

  • Exploring Pienza Italy; Restaurants and Sightseeing

    The first four days of our trip were spent in Tuscany, where we stayed in the tiny hilltop town of Pienza. Our hotel, La Bandita Townhouse, was right in the center of things and we loved every minute there. It gave…

  • La Bandita Townhouse and Restaurant, Pienza Italy

    The first stop of our 20th-anniversary trip was the tiny hilltop town of Pienza, in Tuscany.  We arrived, jet-lagged and sweaty in the 100-degree heat, after getting directly off the plane in Rome and into a rental car at the airport. The…

  • Shanghai Street Scenes

    Wandering around Shanghai, I could not help but be fascinated by the colorful and varied scenes from everyday life in the city. As in many cosmopolitan cities, there are places which are still more “developing” than others. In those neighborhoods, as you…

  • Baiyun Guan Temple

    Old City Shanghai

    In among all the skyscrapers and apartment buildings, a tiny part of “Old Shanghai” remains. In it there are remnants of the old city wall dating back to the Ming Dynasty (1553) as well as pavilions, temples, and markets. On…

  • Renmin Park, People's Square Shanghai

    People’s Square, the Marriage Market, and Museums in Shanghai

    Our hotel, the Le Royal Meridian Shanghai, overlooked the Shanghai People’s square, a large area containing several museums, a theater, a major metro hub and a huge park. We found ourselves walking through or around it several times a day. Every…

  • Street life in Shanghai's French Concession neighborhood

    Walking the French Concession in Shanghai

      During our days in Shanghai, we visited the neighborhood known as the French Concession twice. It’s a lovely neighborhood which has a few streets that still retain some of the “old Shanghai” charm which is rapidly being replaced with high…

  • Qibao water village near Shanghai

    Qibao Water Town, Near Shanghai

    Question: What’s the Disney version of a Chinese water town? Answer: Qibao We’d wanted to do a day trip from Shanghai, either to one of the Duplitecture towns (towns created to look like Paris, or Venice, or Holland, down to…